A former restaurant owner whose business appeared on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares has shared what the chef is actually like when the cameras aren’t the focus.
Ramsay’s reputation for blunt, explosive commentary has long been part of his public image, built over years on shows such as Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen.
He’s become famous for barbed one-liners and over-the-top critiques, mixing razor-sharp humour with frustration when dishes and standards fall short.
More recently, viewers saw a softer, more domestic side of him on Netflix’s Being Gordon Ramsay, which follows his family life and the build-up to one of his biggest ventures yet at 22 Bishopsgate in London.
On that series, he often comes across as far calmer around friends and family—but a former participant from Kitchen Nightmares has explained what it was like dealing with him during filming.
Kitchen Nightmares ran across multiple series and versions in both the UK and the US, shining a light on struggling venues and the people trying to keep them afloat. One of the UK restaurants featured in 2005 was Momma Cherri’s Soul Food Shack in Brighton.
More than two decades after her appearance, owner Charita Jones has spoken about the experience, including how her restaurant ended up on the programme and what her interactions with Ramsay were like.
“We opened in 2001 and three years later I got this note through the door at the restaurant one day.
“It said, Channel Four Kitchen Nightmares are looking for new restaurants who have not been open for more than five years to come on board this new project with Gordon Ramsay. I was interested, so I gave them a call.”
Jones also described how Ramsay behaved away from the edited final cut, and said there was an early moment where she drew a firm line about how she wanted her staff to be spoken to.
“He was very nice,” she said. “At the very beginning, when we were upstairs in the kitchen, and I think the first time he dropped the F-bomb word to one of my chefs, I looked at him and I said, ‘Gordon, do you talk like that to your mama?’ And he said, ‘No, Mama.’ I said, ‘There you go. I don’t expect to hear that language.'”
Charita went on: “I don’t mind it when it’s talking around someone’s actions, but swearing directly at someone I didn’t like. I then treated him like my little brother. We’re equal.
“There was banter between the chefs. When it came to my waitresses and my staff, I wasn’t having it because my thing is, and I did say to Gordon, ‘I have so much respect for you. I expect the same.’ And that was it.”
She also recalled the immediate impact after the episode aired on Channel 4, saying demand exploded almost instantly.
“We were fully, fully booked for six months within 20 minutes,” she recalled. “I had to turn a lot of people away, I think a minimum of 80 people for a couple of weeks.”
Momma Cherri’s Soul Food Shack later closed in 2009, with Jones attributing the shutdown to the effects of the stock market crash. She has since moved into online content creation and now runs a YouTube channel with more than 200,000 subscribers.