I don't know how much of Kitchen Nightmares is legit, but the ABC Bistro definitely seemed to be, and he revamped a restaurant I used to go to all the time when I worked in my hometown. My sister wanted to have her rehearsal dinner there, but when she went to set it up it was after the Kitchen Nightmares episode so everything was changed. The menu items she wanted no longer existed and we went elsewhere.
Anyways, when we were talking to the woman she was telling us all about Ramsay being there, and what they did and how they changed things. Chick was legit almost crying about how they changed her family business. It seemed like she was grateful but at the same time the price to keeping her business afloat was to change her family restaurant completely. So it seems that the show is probably for real, but they definitely probably coach the people they get in there the night he is evaluating, as well as up the drama in the kitchen etc. For example, this place was nothing amazing - was just a simple italian place. We liked their lasagna and manicotti; it was fairly cheap for a lunch deal and for us, lasagna tends to be like pizza. Even a bad one is still pretty good.
So, I'd have to say the average person would probably think the food was average, but being these restaurants aren't doing well they probably had a bad episode of under cooked/over cooked food, or bad food etc, stopping them from returning.
Example from the ABC Bistro episode is this:
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bel...son_on_yel.php
That's from two years ago and was a pasted version of a review some guy named Joel gives her (Amy actually mentions him in the episode to Ramsay) and it was saved because she went apeshit on this guy, plus yelp. Chick is batty.
The Ramsay show I like the best tended to be master chef, though I have a hard time with it. I love all three chefs, and I know it's an elimination thing, but the season where Jennifer won fucking drove me nuts. Of everyone else, she had the most inconsistent food. She had the most bad food of anyone; they legitimately spit her food out several times - though I think on the other side she also won many challenges? Can't quite remember. Some of the things she made were fucking gross, and even knowing how the show works I was just really irritated that she was squeaking by because she would only lose the "advantage" challenges and not the elimination, or if she sucked at the latter she would just barely be better than the worst. The chefs I consider "good" tend to wow sometimes, and have good dishes most other times; she was awful most of the time, and if she didn't outright bomb a challenge she was still relatively low. It made me really want them to do some kind of point thing, though that would obviously change the show.
Hell's Kitchen also tends to be a little annoying; I still watch it, but as a chef myself who has worked in a restaurant (albeit nothing like this) I find it hard to believe trained chefs are just absolutely going to pieces like this. It's entirely possible, mind you, because there's so much pressure but they make some serious rookie mistakes that I have to think they are being coached to do it.
Anyways, I love Ramsay because he knows his shit. He also can be very caring and compassionate when the specific show is not marketed as him yelling at people.
I really need to look into Boiling Point though.
I've only been to a few big name restaurants; I'd love to go to Graham Elliot's. The only downside is that despite training as a chef I am not much of a foodie. I can make very delicious foods and I can mix things up, but there are some foods that I really dislike and I feel like as a real foodie chef I'd have to like them, especially if I want to go to the big name restaurants. For instance, I can't stand things like lobster, bleu cheese, nori in sushi etc. I also hate herbs like tarragon and cilantro. For whatever reason a lot of fancy foods like to add fucking tarragon and I cannot eat it.
I have a hard time watching these shows without wanting to just go and make a ribeye steak though.
