Amy’s Baking Company Made Famous On Kitchen Nightmares Is Closing


The controversial Scottsdale, Arizona, restaurant made famous on Chef Gordon Ramsay’s reality show Kitchen Nightmares, Amy’s Baking Company, is closing it doors soon, the Phoenix New Times is reporting today. Owners Samy and Amy Bouzaglo will sell the restaurant but will retain ownership of the their name for the place.

The restaurant became known to many after it was featured in the reality show Kitchen Nightmares, hosted by Chef Gordon Ramsay. In most instances, a restaurant is featured on the show, and after Ramsay diagnoses the problems with the featured restaurant, he works with the owners and staff on a plan to revitalize the establishment. All episodes of the program, except one, have shown that Ramsay was able to help the restaurants make major improvements. That one except was Amy’s Baking Company.

That restaurant is closing and will be sold, Fox 10 News in Phoenix is reporting today. The owners are negotiating the sale of the restaurant. Fox 10 News reports the Bouzaglos will keep the name, Amy’s Baking Company, and will be baking desserts for a Phoenix-area restaurant group, and they will also do instructional cooking videos. Reportedly, Samy Bouzaglo claims the sale is not related to the bad publicity after the restaurant’s appearance on Kitchen Nightmares.

As a result of that publicity after appearing on Kitchen Nightmares, Amy’s Baking Company hired a PR firm to help prepare for their re-opening, the Inquisitr reported.

“On the season finale of Kitchen Nightmares, chef Gordon Ramsey walked out on the poorly behaved owners of Amy’s Baking Company. The company then came under fire via Facebook and Reddit, leading to what seemed to be an epic meltdown from owners Samy and Amy Bouzaglo,” the Inquisitr reported.

Amy’s Baking Company was featured in the last episode of the sixth season of Kitchen Nightmares. Chef Gordon Ramsay first experienced the restaurant as a customer would, ordering food and taste-testing. He was unhappy with the quality of just about everything he ordered. He ordered the “Blue Ribbon Burger” and found it to be dripping with excessive grease. He ordered a pizza that was undercooked, and the crust below the toppings was “doughy” and undercooked. He sent the dishes back only to find out that Samy Bouzaglo failed to inform his wife, Amy, who does all the cooking, that Chef Ramsay found the dishes to be of poor quality. Samy insisted his wife’s cooking was great and would not bring it to her attention that any customer was unhappy with the food served there.

Many other problems were highlighted, including wait staff that was not paid their tips to customers being served frozen ravioli that the restaurant claimed were fresh. At one point, Ramsay informed the customers they were being served frozen ravioli that were supposedly fresh. At one point in the show, the ravioli was sent back by a customer, and Amy protested, “the ravioli aren’t disgusting, they’re delicious.”

Ramsay met with the Bouzaglos the next day and attempted to explain to them the problems in their restaurant, but the owners of Amy’s Baking Company were entirely in denial of any of the problems and would not listen to Ramsay. After repeated attempts to get them to list, Ramsay was so fed up with the Bouzaglo’s not listening that he left the restaurant without helping them making any improvement. They simply would not listen and accept responsibility for the way their restaurant was run. This was the only instance in sixth seasons of the reality show that Chef Ramsay was unable to help a restaurant featured on the program.

Amy’s Baking Company has been open nearly a decade. Seeing it profiled on Kitchen Nightmares made one wonder how the place stayed open. Now that is finally answered. Amy’s Baking Company will soon be closing its doors.

[Photo of the storefront of Amy’s Baking Company from Yelp.com.]

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