In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visit's Bazzini in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
Bazzini is owned by Paul Bazzini and Leslie Bazzini and has been open for five years.
Paul had worked up in the restaurant to becoming an Executive chef.
Since becoming a restaurant owner he has become overwhelmed with running the business.
According to Leslie, Paul has been recognized many times throughout his career.
He has featured in several magazines with very positive reviews.
When they opened she really believed the restaurant was going to be a success.
The pressure of owning a restaurant has definitely beaten Paul down.
His passion for food is not burning as brightly as it once was.
The staff say that Paul isn’t good at dealing with criticism.
He gets frustrated a lot and yells at the chefs and waiters.
They also say that Paul believes what he is doing is right and doesn’t need to be changed.
The restaurant is supported financially by Paul's wife Leslie and it is only open for limited hours in the evening.
Leslie says that there are no college funds for their children and she is scared daily that they won’t be able to pay their bills.
Gordon arrives and walks around the area, noting there are many other restaurants close to the restaurant.
He arrives and finds that the doors are locked and the restaurant is closed.
Gordon sees a sign at the side of the door stating that the restaurant only opens at evening.
Paul arrives at the restaurant and invited Gordon in.
Gordon tells Paul to cook him something special instead of him ordering from the menu.
The restaurant is cramped, very narrow and Gordon thinks the decor in the small dining room is depressing.
The food is brought to him by head waiter Alex and Gordon is not impressed with the food.
The fettuccini is cold and bland and the chicken is hard and dry.
Alex tells Gordon that Paul doesn’t like when his food is criticized.
He reacted the same way he reacts to a lot of the guests criticisms, like they’re not necessarily important as he is right.
Gordon meets with Leslie, who came in and gave him a hug for the help he came to do.
Gordon is served the mushroom Risotto, which was stuck onto the plate.
Gordon actually twirls the plate and the rice was still stuck to the plate.
He comments that it is disgusting and tasted mushy.
Finally, Gordon is served an almond crusted Tilapia dish with rice and this is bland, greasy and is a mush.
Gordon asks if there is dessert and is served a slice of cheesecake and carrot cake, which he loved.
He comments that the cake is delicious and was made with passion by Sharyn, the pastry chef.
Gordon meets with Paul and Leslie after the meal and praises the desert but was not impressed with the rest of the food.
Paul claims the mushiness and blandness is due to most customers being of old age.
After the disappointing lunch he was served, Gordon decides to observe the evening’s dinner service, where Sharyn flirts with Gordon.
Gordon finds out the Crab Cakes are precooked after being prepared the day before and a customer sends one back as burnt.
Gordon reports the crab cake situation to Leslie, who claims she wasn’t aware of it as she thought everything was fresh and homemade.
The food is slow, taking over an hour to reach the customers.
Gordon times the amount of time that foods sit on the pass.
Paul orders the food to be taken out after 11 minutes of it sitting on the pass, getting cold.
After the long wait, the frustrated customers aren’t satisfied as the dishes were either cold or overcooked.
During the service, an argument breaks out between Paul and Sharyn over a chicken dish and the staff are frustrated.
With the intense frustration in the dining room, Gordon is forced to stop the service to avoid further damage to the restaurant’s reputation.
Leslie breaks into tears as she has never experienced a worse dinner service than that.
Paul continues making excuses as to why the service was a disaster.
Gordon meets with Paul after service and Leslie is frustrated that Paul can't see the problems in the restaurant.
Gordon realizes he has no fire and tries to reignite his passion.
He tells Paul that he has noticed Paul’s passion for food has gone and that he has given up.
Paul confesses that he isn’t happy with the way things are and is ashamed of the restaurant.
The next morning, in a bid to reignite Paul’s passion, Gordon gives Paul a challenge of cooking a pasta dish with homemade pasta in 15 minutes.
Gordon likes it and the positive comment he gave lifted Paul as he passionately talked about pasta.
Gordon decides to try a small experiment.
He takes advantage of the foot traffic in the neighborhood to test Paul’s speed in the kitchen.
He then reveals that they will open the restaurant for a simple 2 course lunch.
Sharyn and Leslie will work the front and Gordon and Paul will cook in the kitchen.
Sharyn and Leslie have no experience in the dining room.
They make a lot of mistakes including forgetting to give a customer a spoon for soup.
With Gordon and Paul working together, beautiful fresh pasta was flying out of the kitchen.
The lunch is a success and the customers are pleased with the food.
With many saying that the pasta was the best they had ever tasted and Paul is beaming.
Gordon and his team worked overnight to renovate the restaurant to a modern contemporary theme.
The makeover is dramatic and when it is revealed Paul beams with joy and Leslie cries tears of joy.
The menu has been significantly reduced and features fresh pasta dishes and desserts by Sharon.
For relaunch night, Paul falls apart again and does not communicate leading to long waits for food.
Sous Chef Al does a runner and everyone steps up to help in the kitchen with Sharyn stepping up as his sous chef.
Although the food is delayed, the customers are happy with the dishes when they receive them and the relaunch is success.
Gordon tells Paul he hasn't convinced him that he can turn the restaurant around but he wants him to prove him wrong.
What Happened Next at Bazinni?
Paul hired another Sous chef to replace Al.
There was a boost in business and Sharyn left to focus on her dessert business, Simply Homemade Desserts .
Gordon returns in a Kitchen Nightmares revisited episode.
He arrives to a dark and abandoned restaurant and assumes that Bazzini is closed for lunch.
After phoning the Pastry chef Sharyn he discovers they are actually closed permanently.
Gordon goes to visit Sharyn in her kitchen where she is baking cakes and she is doing well.
The single Yelp review after Gordon visited is negative after the episode was filmed and complains of poor service from the hostess.
A review on Patch rates the service as acceptable and the atmosphere as not welcoming.
Paul and Leslie were critical of the show.
They told a local news site that they were naive of the process, did not see much of Gordon except for filming and there were attempts to stir up tension.
Bazzini closed in June 2010 and Paul became chef at Jersey Boys Grill.
He is currently chef at Hearth and Tap Co. with his son Andrew, who is also a chef.
Sharyn runs a successful bakery business, The Cake Lady.
Bazzini aired on February 05 2010, the episode was filmed in July 2009 and is Kitchen Nightmares season 3 episode 3.
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This post was last updated in March 2023.