Karl Smallman
A JAPANESE restaurant in Ronda has featured in the first in the series of Spain’s version of the UK’s Kitchen Nightmares.
Pesadilla en la Cocina features Madrid chef Alberto Chicote entering failing eateries and making radical changes to the way they are run in an attempt to save them from bankruptcy.
Osaka, in Ronda, was struggling due to family problems, with owner Angel unsure how to recreate the success his father had achieved with a Chinese restaurant he ran for years.
Amazingly, the programme shown on La Sexta discovered, Angel learnt how to make sushi on YouTube and often did not have enough cash to pay his staff.
Chicote soon injected some professionalism into the joint, then changed the restaurant’s name to To-Toro and revamped the menu which now offers Japanese-Spanish fusion cuisine.
Comparison
Chicote has however refused to compare himself to his British counterpart Gordon Ramsay, who hosts the UK version.
“I’m not trying to copy Gordon Ramsay The programme is the same, but Gordon is Gordon and I am Chicote,” he said.
Ah, so ! Sushi. Sticky rice wrapped in seaweed with a bit of horseradish, and sold for around a hundred times the cost of the ingredients.
Is the Chef in the picture doing a version of Gangnam Style?