The Granary, which was featured all the way back in the second season of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, burned down just after the episode aired.
There is only one thing worse than facing the unrelenting sharp tongue of the celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay, on national television – and that is suffering through all of his insults and critiques just for your restaurant to burn down a few weeks later.
Sadly, this is exactly the fate that Nigel Nieddu suffered. Longtime fans of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (the UK-version of this celebrity chef’s popular business-rescue franchise) will recognize Nigel as the owner of season two’s “modern British” eatery, The Granary.
The unfortunate ending to The Granary’s story
Nieddu reached out to Ramsay for help after his upper-crust-type restaurant had started losing up to £4,000 a week. And by the end of the episode, it seemed like Ramsay had really gotten it all back on the right track.
Unfortunately, Nieddu and the rest of The Granary’s newly-reinvigorated staff never really got the chance to see whether Ramsay’s changes would benefit them in the long run, as the restaurant ended up burning down just a few weeks after Ramsay and the Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares team packed up their things and hit the road.
The Granary’s history in a nutshell
Sadly, because The Granary burned down such a short while after its big Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares episode aired, the restaurant actually has quite a short history.
In fact, when all was said and done, the restaurant was only open for about five years, as follows:
| Date | Event |
| 2003 | Nieddu opens The Granary (at this point, it was a members-only club which cost £2,000 to join) |
| September 2007 | Ramsay and his Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares team arrive to film the episode and The Granary receives its very own makeover |
| December 18, 2007 | “The Granary” Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares episode premieres |
| January 2008 | The Granary burns down, suffering a reported £800,000 in damages |
| Late 2008 | The Granary’s building is reportedly auctioned off |
What happened after the Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares episode
In the short time between Ramsay’s first visit to The Granary and when the restaurant burned down, things really seemed to have improved at the restaurant, across the board.
When Ramsay dropped by six weeks after his initial visit, Nieddu reported that their business and profits had increased substantially and Ramsay was surprised to see the variety of local produce used on the new menu.
Martin (the old The Granary executive chef) seems to have kept his personal life fairly private after he left the restaurant to start his own cookery workshop for teenagers.
Moreover, it seems like the young chef, Pete (who Martin took under his wing all those years ago), stayed in the food and beverage industry, as he was working for a catering company called Vanilla Catering as recently as 2017.
How Nigel Nieddu felt about being on the show
Longtime Kitchen Nightmares fans will likely already know that the owners and staff featured on the series often do not get to see the episodes until they are broadcast on television.
So, while Ramsay’s intervention and business advice seemed to have benefited The Granary greatly (for a little while, at least), Nigel did admit that he did not appreciate the way that he was portrayed by the show.
In 2007, this former The Granary owner told Daily Echo that “If I had my time again I would not go on the program. I have never spoken to anyone like that in my whole life. I am not happy about being humiliated.” He went on to add, “They did unquestionably treat us badly. They effectively set us up to look bad but I do agree with his changes.”
The fire at The Granary – The full story
When Nieddu had first heard about the devastating fire that destroyed his beloved restaurant in 2008, he was in the middle of an important business trip to Spain.
However, he did reveal in an interview with the Daily Echo that the hotel had actually been targeted in a previous arson attack just a few weeks prior to this incident, and that he suspected it all may be connected to the show.
He also said “The police have suggested it is probably some lunatic that has got something against Gordon Ramsay or is a big fan of Gordon Ramsay. There’s no-one we can think of who would do anything so drastic.”
However, the full truth was revealed about a decade later in 2018, when Richard Bowman was sentenced to five years in jail after he confirmed that he had been paid £2,500 by an unknown source to burn this restaurant down.
