A Head Chef Who Lost His Way

In this restaurant, something is amiss. The atmosphere feels stale and uninspired, with customers seeming to tolerate it more out of habit than genuine enthusiasm. It's clear that this place has lost its way, and it's a shame because the potential was once great. A head chef with Michelin-star aspirations, they had the talent and drive to excel, but something went awry.

The kitchen is a disaster zone. The air is thick with the smell of stale oil, a reminder that the cooking standards have dropped significantly. Every dish seems to be deep-fried, and the menu reads like a laundry list of uninspired choices. Where's the creativity? The passion? It's like they've given up on food altogether. Even the presentation looks lackluster, with no attention paid to garnishes or plating. It's a sad state of affairs when a restaurant can't even be bothered to try.

I watched as the waiter struggled to present three dishes that were supposed to represent the chef's culinary skills under the Michelin star. The first dish was a take on pasta, but it was clear that this was just an afterthought. A quick stir-fry with what looked like frozen vegetables and a few limp noodles. Next up was fish Che, which seemed to be little more than a self-contained stew with some decent-looking ingredients but completely overcooked. And then there was the main event: a classic Italian fish stew that promised much but delivered nothing but disappointment.

The chef's name is Mark, and it's clear that he's out of his depth. He trained as a chef, then gave up to pursue an IT degree and business background. What happened to the passion for food? The drive to innovate and improve? It's clear that he's lost sight of what makes great cooking truly special.

I asked Mark about his vision for the restaurant, but it seemed like he'd given up on trying to explain it. He spoke in vague terms about "evolving" the menu and "searching for new flavors," but when I asked him to describe the style of food they serve here, he struggled. It's like he's unsure what they're doing or where they're going.

The real question is how Mark got away with serving such subpar food in a restaurant that was once supposed to be a Michelin-starred gem. The answer lies in complacency and a lack of care for the customers. This kitchen seems to have lost its way, and it's only a matter of time before something catastrophic happens.

The staff seems disinterested, with no passion or enthusiasm for their work. It's like they're just going through the motions, waiting for the next paycheck. The service is slow and inattentive, with long wait times between courses. When I asked one of the waiters if he was happy working here, he shrugged and said "it's okay, I guess." That's not a answer anyone wants to hear.

I left the restaurant feeling disappointed and disillusioned. It's clear that this place has lost its way, and it's up to Mark to get his act together or risk losing everything. Until then, customers will continue to suffer through subpar food and service.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit's 5 to 6 I want you to get out on the street go knock on a few doors and invite some locals to dinner Get your coats on and off for some customers if the customers won't come in off their own free will these two young chefs are going to have to go and drag them in excuse me we'd like to invite you for fine dining requires the ultimate in presentation suround ings and service just had one youve just had one but most of all it requires faultless food you just need the people coming in now s it's like a big cake you've got all the ingredients and you can mix it you're just got to find the right consistency make it rise you go okay I'll see you there cheers the reputation of this place can't be that great even with free food from the fine dining menu on offer they've only managed to pull in 11 guests for any head chef this would be a walk in the park first order two pigeon mles one venison one BR okay where do the tickets go um well I just put them there cuz we never really get enough to worry about it oh me that's nice who's doing what who's doing the fish I'll do the fish and what would you like do tonight uh I'll do benen what I'm trying to say is how the do you organize your kitchen oh Le take care of the hot starters I'll do the cold starters you do the fish I'll do the meat we jump on theing then Le will stand here and I'll do this one and just when when I'm not doing anything and I'll just jump on and help him out you know how to organize within reason within reason okay here we go where did you put red board Le with the first orders in now I can really see what's going on in the kitchen what was that I just trashed a load of balls better send the bread first don't you yeah never mind fine dining they can't even get the bread right it's Frozen it back in the oven are the pigeons ready yes we're about to put them in the bin because the bread's Frozen pigeons are cooped and the Bread's not even out there and if you toss that cabbage once more I'm going to ram it up your ass okay you everything you turn around yeah let's go come even when the kitchen's busy you should be looking to get the startles out within 10 minutes of receiving the order thank you very much these poor souls have waited half an hour for the pigeon breast with mushroom ravioli and that's not the only problem Tim you made a r video yes it's burnt you not taste that there no smell it then you honestly can't taste that burn but now now you point it out yeah go in the bin this is really worrying a head chef who can't even taste his own Foods burnt he's not going to win any prizes for his control of a kitchen either and there's only two of them in here one I need an egg okay can you hear that can you hear hold on hold on come here they buzzing they're buzzing in the background that's the veg of the microwave that should have gone with the main cause four minutes ago come on Tim get the things out for some an our's weight is just too much desperate to keep her staff cost down se's got a hands full running the bar upstairs and seems blissfully unaware of the F that's taking place in the basement kitchen was a disaster I desas to be on belief the blind leading the blind and the left arm not knowing what the right arm's doing and you want 50 60 seats filled down there and they've got 11 customers in for dinner and up to eyeballs in I mean real everything's going in these Cutters for some bizarre reason they think that Rings is the sort of alterate fine dining experience but super I don't understand what the hell's going on there I don't know all I know is I'm not making money time to test Richard's cooking I thought what would be nice thing to do um just for today for to go upstairs and have a quick bite to eat for yourself to just in your hands you're going to you're going to you're going to cook for me you choose your favorites your specialities I want three duck cake putting in he's not having those he's having four fresh ones of which he's going to eat two Richard's proud of his duck cakes with chili jam exotic no pretentious crap Scotch eggs C BS and someone's been very lazy in the kitchen cuz I've got a bloody bone so I'll save that one for later another of his favorite combos bra lamb shank with pnip crisps it's very clumsy clumsy cooking and lazy El the oil on these stink but it has been changed for about 3 or 4 weeks the whole meal would set you back nearly 30 quid way too much okay guys the food was disappointing sadly I did choke obviously s law but that was um stuck at the back of my throat but however you know I'm glad it was me not a pain customer it's one of the busiest nights of the Year Saturday at half term so it's a perfect test what is that there are 106 customers buil if they're happy they'll spend an average of 30 quid each plus wine and The Glass House will take over four grand but their biggest problem is coping with lots of orders D upstairs up their asses second call away from non-existent table tell me when the pressure is intense the kitchen collapses into chaos and you know what it's true someone answer me someone have a look in the oven he ends up giving meals away things soon go from bad to very ugly no it's not all right do our hotel yeah whated for the fat was horrible it hasn't been trimmed f f yeah that's exactly what it is yeah take it to Richard Jay get on the phone now find out where this fish was going it going the whole thing's gone pear shap everyone's running around like headless chickens um IE off the ball and um just a massive breakdown in communication Partridge you I need a bigger piece of SE bass do a side door that's gone up needs to come back and that needs to be cooked some more you want this Partridge cooking more sake I need another Partridge CL yeah Rand have you just been reading the right check it's Grim my apologies Chef 36 have had their status we've had the order in 40 minutes yes GL I'll say that's not good enough where is that big check where's the big check you break your balls and you really do for it yeah you know what why Restaurant Rescue I'll tell you how you can rescue me restaurant off me buy it off me mate and you'll do me the biggest favor you could I think someone's about to piss his pants just gone there every kitchen just has to have a head chef running it since Franchesco lost his he's been trying to do the job himself one of those I'll take this are you going to serve it yes because Jesus cook serve cook serve cook serve it's a big mistake AK Franchesco is not a train chef and he shouldn't even be in the kitchen keep on going he should be out in the dining room Charming his customers know how you all right after all there are more staff in the bloody kitchen than there are customers in the dining room and not one of them seems to be doing anything so you're just cooking potatoes here yeah this huge section and all you're cooking is spuds you're out of order yes Franchesco doesn't trust anyone to do anything bill on 11 and 12 right now octopus another three said all the best thank you very much after you talk about a headless chicken no wonder he's lost weight and customers you you're working like a donkey I mean you're here everywhere and and trying to run it overall you're the most amazing host you can charm the pants off anyone um and you can sell good wine and the short period of time I've been in here today and one thing you I've come to terms with is that got to get out of the kitchen the water tree got a missioning star after Franchesco had been here for a year that's given to a restaurant on the back of the consistency the freshness of the ingredients keeping it seasonal and the individual flare of the chef but franchesco's lost the chef who won the award if the standards have slipped inspectors will soon take away that precious mishen star time to check out the food because I um saw lunch today from the kitchen I'm going to go in the dining room now and have a a bite to eat and I'd like you not to present the menu but to show me three dishes what represents the walnut tree in with a michan star you can charge top-notch prices but only if you provide topnotch food I'm pretty confident you like it porini and paham lasagna was always a favorite here boring very boring you got to move on you got to search and you got to evolve develop and create excitement constantly when you're charging these prices main course fish Che thank you but the muscles haven't even been cleaned we serve muscles in a self-contained stew yeah they got to be clean because when you serveing in like this you can hear at the bottom there's a lot of grit sand so it's just like eating a bowl of clay seasoned with sand that is constantly grinding between your teeth 28 of main course and somewhat taking the Mickey cuz if someone served that in my R I'd go berser okay um I asked you earlier for your best the best the best of Wales the big buildup was for the classic Italian fish stew and sadly when it arrived everything in that dish was overcooked and why you piss off for a 3-hour break to style your hair and to have a kit clean the muscles so we've hit rock bottom okay yeah Welcome to the Real World sure tomorrow I'm going to pick ourselves back up and start off with a clean slate so you're a head chef somewhere else before you came here I trained as a chef and then um became very disillusioned and went off and got an IT and Business Degree gave up cooking for a business degree doesn't sound very passionate about food to me he was brought into to sort things out but all he's done is spend thousands of pounds on microwaves and friers and piss Herve off come on strawberry Frenchman good and he said he doesn't like you there are two people in the dining room let's see if their lunch is as bad as my dinner almost everything seems to be deep fried and the oil smells like it hasn't been changed for months when you walk through the restaurant the first thing you can smell is like um tainted sort of friedell fried smell almost a little bit like hospital food yes chef why is ancho F the salad he's like of s but the their how many new potatoes around uh only one one new potato yeah hell for £950 any olives no nothing's ready here no beans cooked no eggs cooked what the is going on oh we just in the cuz we got two customers for lunch this kitchen is a nightmare Mark was brought in to update the food but I can't see what he's done how can he get away with a menu like this and how would you um how would you describe the style the food um it's um the the the the alart stuff that we do it's very um it's very much here's a steak and three sources you can have with it it's not a great it's not a massive detraction for what they were serving before here and three sources of what uh Brandy and mushrooms Stilton and bacon and peppercorn Jesus those three sauces sound a little bit burish well they are I mean this is the thing it's a bit it's a bit 1976 you can say that again little nuke sauce straight out the microwave til in the mushroom it's an insult to cooking oh in a bag damn no wonder we need some many microwaves thank I'm not hungry parley hey come on we be the same without py come on get it on there there you go good old Bernie I know you love your parsley and so far they need to rock up their ass because if they continue the way they are doing now it's going to go down like a sack of and quite frankly I don't think they actually care about customers and every dining room needs to care about customers otherwise they don't come back butit's 5 to 6 I want you to get out on the street go knock on a few doors and invite some locals to dinner Get your coats on and off for some customers if the customers won't come in off their own free will these two young chefs are going to have to go and drag them in excuse me we'd like to invite you for fine dining requires the ultimate in presentation suround ings and service just had one youve just had one but most of all it requires faultless food you just need the people coming in now s it's like a big cake you've got all the ingredients and you can mix it you're just got to find the right consistency make it rise you go okay I'll see you there cheers the reputation of this place can't be that great even with free food from the fine dining menu on offer they've only managed to pull in 11 guests for any head chef this would be a walk in the park first order two pigeon mles one venison one BR okay where do the tickets go um well I just put them there cuz we never really get enough to worry about it oh me that's nice who's doing what who's doing the fish I'll do the fish and what would you like do tonight uh I'll do benen what I'm trying to say is how the do you organize your kitchen oh Le take care of the hot starters I'll do the cold starters you do the fish I'll do the meat we jump on theing then Le will stand here and I'll do this one and just when when I'm not doing anything and I'll just jump on and help him out you know how to organize within reason within reason okay here we go where did you put red board Le with the first orders in now I can really see what's going on in the kitchen what was that I just trashed a load of balls better send the bread first don't you yeah never mind fine dining they can't even get the bread right it's Frozen it back in the oven are the pigeons ready yes we're about to put them in the bin because the bread's Frozen pigeons are cooped and the Bread's not even out there and if you toss that cabbage once more I'm going to ram it up your ass okay you everything you turn around yeah let's go come even when the kitchen's busy you should be looking to get the startles out within 10 minutes of receiving the order thank you very much these poor souls have waited half an hour for the pigeon breast with mushroom ravioli and that's not the only problem Tim you made a r video yes it's burnt you not taste that there no smell it then you honestly can't taste that burn but now now you point it out yeah go in the bin this is really worrying a head chef who can't even taste his own Foods burnt he's not going to win any prizes for his control of a kitchen either and there's only two of them in here one I need an egg okay can you hear that can you hear hold on hold on come here they buzzing they're buzzing in the background that's the veg of the microwave that should have gone with the main cause four minutes ago come on Tim get the things out for some an our's weight is just too much desperate to keep her staff cost down se's got a hands full running the bar upstairs and seems blissfully unaware of the F that's taking place in the basement kitchen was a disaster I desas to be on belief the blind leading the blind and the left arm not knowing what the right arm's doing and you want 50 60 seats filled down there and they've got 11 customers in for dinner and up to eyeballs in I mean real everything's going in these Cutters for some bizarre reason they think that Rings is the sort of alterate fine dining experience but super I don't understand what the hell's going on there I don't know all I know is I'm not making money time to test Richard's cooking I thought what would be nice thing to do um just for today for to go upstairs and have a quick bite to eat for yourself to just in your hands you're going to you're going to you're going to cook for me you choose your favorites your specialities I want three duck cake putting in he's not having those he's having four fresh ones of which he's going to eat two Richard's proud of his duck cakes with chili jam exotic no pretentious crap Scotch eggs C BS and someone's been very lazy in the kitchen cuz I've got a bloody bone so I'll save that one for later another of his favorite combos bra lamb shank with pnip crisps it's very clumsy clumsy cooking and lazy El the oil on these stink but it has been changed for about 3 or 4 weeks the whole meal would set you back nearly 30 quid way too much okay guys the food was disappointing sadly I did choke obviously s law but that was um stuck at the back of my throat but however you know I'm glad it was me not a pain customer it's one of the busiest nights of the Year Saturday at half term so it's a perfect test what is that there are 106 customers buil if they're happy they'll spend an average of 30 quid each plus wine and The Glass House will take over four grand but their biggest problem is coping with lots of orders D upstairs up their asses second call away from non-existent table tell me when the pressure is intense the kitchen collapses into chaos and you know what it's true someone answer me someone have a look in the oven he ends up giving meals away things soon go from bad to very ugly no it's not all right do our hotel yeah whated for the fat was horrible it hasn't been trimmed f f yeah that's exactly what it is yeah take it to Richard Jay get on the phone now find out where this fish was going it going the whole thing's gone pear shap everyone's running around like headless chickens um IE off the ball and um just a massive breakdown in communication Partridge you I need a bigger piece of SE bass do a side door that's gone up needs to come back and that needs to be cooked some more you want this Partridge cooking more sake I need another Partridge CL yeah Rand have you just been reading the right check it's Grim my apologies Chef 36 have had their status we've had the order in 40 minutes yes GL I'll say that's not good enough where is that big check where's the big check you break your balls and you really do for it yeah you know what why Restaurant Rescue I'll tell you how you can rescue me restaurant off me buy it off me mate and you'll do me the biggest favor you could I think someone's about to piss his pants just gone there every kitchen just has to have a head chef running it since Franchesco lost his he's been trying to do the job himself one of those I'll take this are you going to serve it yes because Jesus cook serve cook serve cook serve it's a big mistake AK Franchesco is not a train chef and he shouldn't even be in the kitchen keep on going he should be out in the dining room Charming his customers know how you all right after all there are more staff in the bloody kitchen than there are customers in the dining room and not one of them seems to be doing anything so you're just cooking potatoes here yeah this huge section and all you're cooking is spuds you're out of order yes Franchesco doesn't trust anyone to do anything bill on 11 and 12 right now octopus another three said all the best thank you very much after you talk about a headless chicken no wonder he's lost weight and customers you you're working like a donkey I mean you're here everywhere and and trying to run it overall you're the most amazing host you can charm the pants off anyone um and you can sell good wine and the short period of time I've been in here today and one thing you I've come to terms with is that got to get out of the kitchen the water tree got a missioning star after Franchesco had been here for a year that's given to a restaurant on the back of the consistency the freshness of the ingredients keeping it seasonal and the individual flare of the chef but franchesco's lost the chef who won the award if the standards have slipped inspectors will soon take away that precious mishen star time to check out the food because I um saw lunch today from the kitchen I'm going to go in the dining room now and have a a bite to eat and I'd like you not to present the menu but to show me three dishes what represents the walnut tree in with a michan star you can charge top-notch prices but only if you provide topnotch food I'm pretty confident you like it porini and paham lasagna was always a favorite here boring very boring you got to move on you got to search and you got to evolve develop and create excitement constantly when you're charging these prices main course fish Che thank you but the muscles haven't even been cleaned we serve muscles in a self-contained stew yeah they got to be clean because when you serveing in like this you can hear at the bottom there's a lot of grit sand so it's just like eating a bowl of clay seasoned with sand that is constantly grinding between your teeth 28 of main course and somewhat taking the Mickey cuz if someone served that in my R I'd go berser okay um I asked you earlier for your best the best the best of Wales the big buildup was for the classic Italian fish stew and sadly when it arrived everything in that dish was overcooked and why you piss off for a 3-hour break to style your hair and to have a kit clean the muscles so we've hit rock bottom okay yeah Welcome to the Real World sure tomorrow I'm going to pick ourselves back up and start off with a clean slate so you're a head chef somewhere else before you came here I trained as a chef and then um became very disillusioned and went off and got an IT and Business Degree gave up cooking for a business degree doesn't sound very passionate about food to me he was brought into to sort things out but all he's done is spend thousands of pounds on microwaves and friers and piss Herve off come on strawberry Frenchman good and he said he doesn't like you there are two people in the dining room let's see if their lunch is as bad as my dinner almost everything seems to be deep fried and the oil smells like it hasn't been changed for months when you walk through the restaurant the first thing you can smell is like um tainted sort of friedell fried smell almost a little bit like hospital food yes chef why is ancho F the salad he's like of s but the their how many new potatoes around uh only one one new potato yeah hell for £950 any olives no nothing's ready here no beans cooked no eggs cooked what the is going on oh we just in the cuz we got two customers for lunch this kitchen is a nightmare Mark was brought in to update the food but I can't see what he's done how can he get away with a menu like this and how would you um how would you describe the style the food um it's um the the the the alart stuff that we do it's very um it's very much here's a steak and three sources you can have with it it's not a great it's not a massive detraction for what they were serving before here and three sources of what uh Brandy and mushrooms Stilton and bacon and peppercorn Jesus those three sauces sound a little bit burish well they are I mean this is the thing it's a bit it's a bit 1976 you can say that again little nuke sauce straight out the microwave til in the mushroom it's an insult to cooking oh in a bag damn no wonder we need some many microwaves thank I'm not hungry parley hey come on we be the same without py come on get it on there there you go good old Bernie I know you love your parsley and so far they need to rock up their ass because if they continue the way they are doing now it's going to go down like a sack of and quite frankly I don't think they actually care about customers and every dining room needs to care about customers otherwise they don't come back but\n"