I Know Those Restaurant Rescue Shows are Fake but..

[Wolf Frankula]

I would like to see. When the cameras are set up and the Celebrity asshole, Willie Degel the credit card fraudster, Robert Irvine or that Mystery Diners asshole starts abusing the staff, they say, "We're not gonna take this to keep these fucking minimum wage jobs. We quit!" Everybody, from head chef to dishwasher walks out. The owner turns to the celebrity asshole and says, "You've ruined me, you dumb shit. I'll sue!"

Wolf

[TexasTowelie]

1. You can get the scoop on Restaurant Impossible at

http://www.foodnetworkgossip.com/ . It has info on how many of the restaurants closed or sold and comments made by the guests after the restaurants are renovated. Considering that most of the restaurants were on the brink of closing, Robert Irvine has done reasonably well compared to Gordon Ramsey.

That site also has info on Anne Burrell's "Chef Wanted" series. It turns out that most of the chefs that won that competition never took the job that they were competing for during the show. That's the problem when the prize is something that Food Network doesn't control.

BTW, the Korean-American woman that won Robert Irvine's "Restaurant Express" that was on TV earlier this year has already left her job.

[hollysmom]

2. Well, they are fake in different ways and to different degrees - all reality shows are.

But one of my favorite shows was Tabatha ones - and I have heard people say they were grateful for her help and her show and defend her even though she asks them not to clean their shop so she can find it dirty. Well one show really played Tabitha and she followed it up later - it was a scam, The girl who ran the show was running a prostitution ring from the shop and sold it immediately after the show, claimed she was modest and Amish that was why she had no business knowledge, and to her credit, Tabitha exposed all that on a review show. She also showed the shops that failed after her make over and interviewed ex workers. But for the most times she showed it was the manager failing not the workers and bugged the managers to pay them more and give the workers more credit, so I guess that is why that was one of my favorite reality shows.

[Phentex]

5. Her show did not seem fake to me...

Just more like people limping along running a business that could be better. There are so many people running businesses who have no clue about what they are doing. Often they are just getting by because they have somebody good working for them doing the hard work. Some of the salon owners were downright abusive!

I've been fascinated with the hair salon business for a long time just because of my own experiences. They seem like difficult places to run and the staff never stays. I wonder if there's any real money to be made?

[hollysmom]

6. it was fake in that they asked the owners not to clean the shop before

so she could always find hair in the sink. But the reports are she really does help a lot unlike the restaurant shows where half the restaurants go out of business after a few months. But then the restaurant shows claim they do it in a few days and there is pre and post show involvement of Tabitha and they take a week. I like when she sends people to classes.
Oh and "Tabitha" usually show only selected members of the staff, not all the people, probably easier to deal with in a hour. Most of the shops have more people involved.

restaurants supposedly have the highest failure rates, but any business can go out if you have never worked in it before. The best way to open anything is to work for someone else first and learn the business. I, personally, worked as an independent contractor, but before I did, I joined an organization of independent contractors where I got a lot of help in setting up, which kind of accountant to use, very useful when congress passed a law changing the game for all of us. The idea is never try to set up a business by yourself, get all the experienced help you can first There is money to be made if you are prepared before opening and fit the needs of the area and the know the best practices.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

3. funny. what I don't get is why any restaurant would be on here. If I saw

a show with them finding roaches and filth and dishes washed in filthy dish water - I would NEVER eat there - no matter who came and cleaned it up

[Phentex]

4. The show with Willie seems all fake to me...

The one with Irvine doesn't seem as fake and the common thread seems to be managers with no clue how to run a restaurant. I can never figure out how they have so much debt...like someone was willing to give them loans totaling $200,000 or more and they are failing!! Also, the menus are usually bloated beyond belief and Irvine almost always has them scale back.