Lido restaurant on nightmare TV show
Lido di Manhattan Ristorante owner Lisa Hemmat with world-renowned Chef Gordon Ramsay during the filming of tonight’s episode of Kitchen Nightmares. Photo courtesy of Lido di Manhattan Ristorante
by Andrea Ruse
When celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay of Fox Television’s “Kitchen Nightmares” visited Lido di Manhattan Ristorante last June, he did the thing he does next best to cooking.
He made owner Lisa Hemmat cry.
While filming an upcoming episode entitled “Young Girl Breaks Down,” airing tonight at 9 p.m. on Fox network, Hemmat said Ramsay steadily picked on her until she cracked.
“It was my worst moment at the lowest level of my whole life,” Hemmat, 29, said. “It was embarrassing. They kind of set you up for failure.”
Ramsay is a tough, no-nonsense, British chef best known for his food reality shows “Kitchen Nightmares,” “Hell’s Kitchen,” and “The F Word.” His brutal honesty with guests on his shows has made him the Simon Cowell of cooking reality TV.
In “Kitchen Nightmares,” Ramsay spends each a week with a different struggling restaurant in an attempt to improve it.
Hemmat’s idea to sign up for the show came from a friend who suggested she make over the restaurant she purchased in 2004.
“I bought an existing, but tired restaurant,” Hemmat said of the Manhattan Beach restaurant. “It came with a lot of good customers, but it didn’t reflect my personality. When my friend in the restaurant business told me to do a makeover, I told him I had no money. So unless he wanted to fund it, it wasn’t going to happen. He came back with casting sheets for the show.”
Hemmat had never seen the program, but after watching an episode decided she had nothing to lose.
“At first I thought it might be bad to be seen on a show like this,” Hemmat said. “But they spend a lot of money and make the restaurants look really good in the end.”
The show’s producers contacted Hemmat the day after she submitted her paperwork and set up a casting shoot that weekend. In June, Ramsay was brought in and filming began.
“They were definitely creating drama with everything,” Hemmat said. “We’re a mellow, cozy, easy-going place. But with all the cutting and splicing they do, they can almost make it seem like anything they want.”
Miscommunication with the kitchen, unsatisfactory dishes getting sent back and Ramsay treating her like she’s too young to run a business provide the fodder leading to Hemmat’s breakdown.
The first day, Ramsay panics customers over dust he finds in the servers’ station, asking them if they want food from a dusty kitchen, and he shuts the restaurant down.
“After the first day, I didn’t want to talk to him,” Hemmat said. “Then we had an hour-long conversation that actually felt like a real conversation. I realized he had some good points and wanted to really help the restaurant. He worked for the next three days making changes.”
Ramsay may have put Hemmat and her kitchen through hell, but the restaurant owner said she is pleased with the changes the chef made, including everything from a menu redo to revamping the decor.
“Now it reflects a young, hip vibe,” Hemmat said. Contemporary paintings of wine corks and abstract light fixtures replace the out-dated design scheme Hemmat inherited when she took over.
“It’s very wine-centric now,” Hemmat said. “He put in these lights made out of umbrellas with grape clusters on them. People love them or hate them. But everybody talks about them.”
Customers dine at the new and improved Lido di Manhattan Ristorante and Bar. Photo courtesy of Lido di Manhattan
Hemmat said customers have responded well to the changes and business has improved for the Italian-California style restaurant since Ramsay’s visit.
Ramsay also helped Hemmat improve relations with her kitchen staff.
“I’ve always been more of a front-of-the-house person in a restaurant,” Hemmat said. “Gordon got me back in the kitchen. I was afraid and intimidated to go back there before, but now the guys respect me more.”
The show’s sous chef Scott Leibfried stayed with the restaurant for a month after filming to help with the transition — not a typical gift to the show’s guests, according to Hemmat.
“I liked Gordon and what he did,” Hemmat said. “He was really proud of me and excited for me even though he put me through hell. He really does think I have potential. In the end, I’m definitely glad I did it.”
Lido di Manhattan Ristorante will host a viewing party of the episode tonight at 9 p.m., after their regularly scheduled Thursday wine tasting from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
For more information, visit www.lidodimanhattan.com. ER