The Secret Garden

**The Secret Garden** was originally aired as the tenth episode of the first season of Kitchen Nightmares, but is featured as the first episode of the first season on YouTube. The restaurant closed in 2010 after the owner sold the place; the restaurant lasted for three years after Kitchen Nightmares.

This episode took place in California in 2007.

## Episode Recap

### Prologue

French chef Michel opened the restaurant in 2000. He claimed that business was low since they opened, but prior to Gordon's arrival, he was $300000 in debt. One of the chefs, Devon, remarked that he had an ego the size of France. Another worker, Jane, revealed that she found him difficult to work with.

### Day 1

Gordon arrives in the morning but has trouble finding the front door. He later meets Michel and Jane, and is seated. Gordon found the decor and furniture very unimpressive. Jane offers Gordon a bread roll, but he disregards it and finds it pathetic. He orders a garlic shrimp, and finds them cold and undercooked. He also finds the rest of the food he is served bad. Gordon finishes by stating that overall, the dishes were tasteless, bizarre, long-winded, and boring. Michel doesn't take his criticisms well and Gordon leaves disappointed.

### Day 2

The next day, Gordon inspects the kitchen. He finds out the fridge is filled with moldy food and maggots. This causes him to throw up in the bathroom. Michel arrives at the restaurant and gets defensive again. He also claims that he has worked with famous chef Thomas Keller. The argument ends with Michel telling Gordon that he wants his help, but doesn't want him to insult everything in the restaurant. Gordon later tells the staff to deep clean the kitchen. He later returns to observe a dinner service. It becomes apparent that the complexity of the dishes is why people are kept waiting for their food for so long. Gordon also notices that all of the dishes are either stuffed or crusted, but Michel claims the customers love it. At one point, Michel goes out to the dining room to speak with the customers, allowing Devon to take over. This allows the kitchen to speed up and food is finally being sent out.

### Day 3

On the third day, Gordon tries a new tactic; shock therapy. Before Michel arrives, he places foreclosure signs in front of the restaurant. When he gets to the restaurant, Michel is angered, telling Gordon that his customers that go regularly may have seen the signs and assumed he was closed for good. However, Michel realizes that it will be devastating for The Secret Garden to close. Later, Gordon introduces simpler recipes that can be made more efficiently and rapidly. The lunch service starts off to a strong start, but it becomes apparent that when Michel leaves the kitchen, sous chef Devon starts fulfilling orders faster than when Michel was leading the kitchen. He gets jealous and starts restricting Devon, which slows down the kitchen. After the service, Gordon starts revising the restaurant for relaunch. He revamps and modernizes the decor, but Michel gets worried that the new decor might turn off long-time customers.

## After Kitchen Nightmares

Michel quickly reverted back to the old menu as he claimed that customers complained about the new dishes. When the restaurant was still open, reviews on Yelp were mixed, and Michel was accused of submitting false reviews. Two years after his restaurant's appearance on Kitchen Nightmares, he sold the restaurant. One year after that, in 2010, the restaurant closed. In 2012, he began working at Custom Pie in Moorpark. He later brought the restaurant and is the current owner of the place.

## List of Workers

* Michel - Owner
* Devon - Cook
* Jane - Server // Manager
* Sammy - Server
* Terry - Hostess