It is very unlikely that the mouse that Gordon Ramsay found at Blackberry’s was planted and James even withdrew his accusation that it was.
Gordon Ramsay often finds unexpected things in the kitchens of the struggling restaurants that he visits on Kitchen Nightmares.
This includes the dead rat that he found at Blackberry’s. Although some of the staff originally alleged that Ramsay may have planted the rat, they later withdrew their statements. Ramsay has also refuted these claims ever since.
The real Kitchen Nightmares
If you have ever watched an episode of Kitchen Nightmares, you will know that Gordon Ramsay’s trademark quips and brash personality is just the beginning of the drama on the show.
While most viewers who tune in to the reality series usually expect to find at least a little push-back from the restaurant owners on the show, they are often greeted with scenes of surprisingly filthy kitchens.
Through the years, Ramsay has found just about everything in these failing restaurants, including real nightmare-finds. This includes contaminated and rotting food, dust, and one or two thieving employees.
Kitchen Nightmares: Was the mouse planted?
One of the most memorable things that Ramsay has found on one of his visits to a featured restaurant is the dead mouse that he found in the “Blackberry’s” episode of the series.
This episode was the very first episode of the fifth season of the show which aired on 23 September 2011.
During this episode, Ramsay made his way to Plainfield, New Jersey to try and help the failing soul food restaurant and its owner, Shelly.
After Ramsay tried a few dishes from the menu, he challenged Shelly to prove that she was a worthy head chef at that evening’s dinner service.
Unfortunately, when Ramsay returned just before the dinner service was set to begin, he found a dead mouse at the entrance of the restaurant.
Mary, Shelly’s mother, was quick to defend the restaurant, by claiming that they had just had an exterminator out to prevent mice from sneaking in.
James took a different approach entirely and insisted that Ramsay must have brought the mouse in himself to create more drama for his television series, and Shelly agreed.
After a quick back and forth later on in the episode, James backed down from his claim that the mouse was planted by Ramsay.
However, this is not where the story ends. Although Ramsay can clearly be seen walking up to Blackberry’s front door and stepping over the mouse, some people still suspect that the mouse was planted.
This has caused quite a stir on social media over the years, but Ramsay has always insisted that they do not fake anything for the series.
Blackberry’s mouse problem
One of the main reasons why it seems so unlikely that any person on the Kitchen Nightmares team planted the mouse that Ramsay found at the Blackberry’s front door is that the restaurant did seem to have a mouse problem.
In fact, later on in the episode, Dwayne, one of the waiters, even mumbles that he did see a mouse under the steam table “a few months back”, after previously telling Ramsay that he had never seen a mouse in the restaurant before.
Tyrone even tells Shelly that there are mice “all over” the restaurant, which means that it is much more likely that the mouse was real.
What has Gordon Ramsay said about this controversy?
Since the “Blackberry’s episode of Kitchen Nightmares first aired, this possibly-planted mouse has been the cause of various debates on social media platforms.
There is even a Reddit thread dedicated to figuring out whether the mouse was planted or not.
However, Ramsay seemingly put an end to the debate when he responded to a fan on Twitter in 2015 and jokingly called it his “stunt mouse.”
What happened to Blackberry’s after this episode?
Finding a dead rat at an already-failing restaurant would have caused most celebrity chefs to run for the hills.
However, Ramsay stuck around and completely transformed the interior and menu of Blackberry’s in order to give Shelly a chance at getting the restaurant out of debt.
Unfortunately, these changes were not entirely enough to save Blackberry’s and the restaurant permanently shut its doors just a few years later in March 2013.
Shelly later explained that the restaurant just did not have any further room for growth, and it could not withstand the economic downturn, and this is why they decided to close it down.
Blackberry’s was replaced by a bakery called “Un Nuevo Renacer Bakery.” Several of the original Blackberry’s staff members, including Shelly and Mateen, stayed in the food industry after the restaurant closed.
