Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares/Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack

Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack
Season 2, Episode 3
Airdate	June 7, 2005
← 2x02 D PLACE	2x04 → La Riviera
Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares — Season Two

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Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack is the third episode of the second season of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, and the seventh episode overall.

With: Gordon Ramsay (Himself)

Episode Overview

This episode's focus is a soul food restaurant in Brighton called "Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack," owned by Sherita Jones. Jones has raised 33 foster children and has spent the past three and a half years trying to get her first restaurant on its feet. She's £65,000 in debt despite working 7 days a week and will be forced to shut down in three to six months. But, there is good news. When Ramsay sits down for a meal at the Soul Food Shack, he discovers that the food is quite good. He comments that it may be the first time that he returns to the kitchen with an empty plate.

The next day, Ramsay finds Sherita doing most of the food preparation, which is less "home cooked" and more "reheated from the freezer." Head Chef Brian doesn't even come in until much later and doesn't do any real cooking. At dinner service, the staff proves to be unprofessional and too laid-back to consider the job to be real work. Sherita treats them all like her children and she kills herself doing everything in the kitchen. Ramsay challenges Brian to cook for 2 hours without laughing or smiling, but he can't do it. The next day, he comes in 30 minutes late and Ramsay tells her to not be afraid of sacking staff members if they're not pulling their own weight. However, Ramsay can sympathize with him because being sidelined for money reasons means he's lost his motivation.

Ramsay sets to work on making the restaurant profitable. First he suggests that she get out of the bad habit of freezing everything she cooks. He also recommends restructuring the menu to get three courses out of each customer and, finally, works with Sherita to get the word out about the restaurant. They set up a grill by the seaside and give out free samples. Though Ramsay complained about how Sherita was always on, she puts her magnetism to use on the crowd and impresses him by street hustling herself into having a fully booked restaurant. He realizes that she's wasted in the kitchen and brings her down to the floor, leaving Brian to cook on his own. The dinner starts out nicely with Brian cutting the frozen buffalo wings from the menu and replacing them with wings cooked to order, but the machine slows down due to Brian's ineffective leadership and Sherita's constant interruptions. He shows promise, but Ramsay sees that he needs to be snapped out of his culinary coma.

In the morning, Ramsay and Brian work on food preparation in his home kitchen because his hours have been cut to save money. He also works on rebuilding Brian's confidence by having him make a new variant on the meatloaf that he had such a hard time with making when he was first hired. At the restaurant, he shows Sherita that she's running the business with too much overhead using a cake metaphor. He proposes that they start selling fixed buffet "soul in a bowl" tables instead of utilizing a menu during the week and using the leaner menu on the weekends for big crowds. Sherita signs off on the idea and she goes into full-on marketing mode. She and Gordon hit the streets, do interviews with local radio stations and generally spread word of mouth. Her efforts cause the place to be booked up solid for a Wednesday night.

That night, Sherita lays down the law on her staff to try and get them to work like professionals. Brian and A.D. struggle at first under the pressure of a new hook, but they quickly pull it together and the first seating goes very well. Ramsay comments that it's not perfect, but it's working well enough that they're finally turning a profit.

Two months later, Ramsay revisits the restaurant and sees that the restaurant has actually improved in his absence due to Brian's enhanced feeling of responsibility. Even though he's working on his own during the weekdays, he's getting the trays out in 10 minutes or less. The restaurant is now closed on Mondays, but they typically book full diners on weekdays.