(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 4 | View All Season 4 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: April 29, 2011
La Frite Address: 15013 Ventura Blvd Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
Episode Recap
La Frite was a Los Angeles, California restaurant featured on Season 4 of Kitchen Nightmares.
Though the La Frite Kitchen Nightmares episode aired in April 2011, the actual filming and visit from Gordon Ramsay took place at the beginning of 2011.
It was Kitchen Nightmares Season 4 Episode 11.
In this episode of Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon Ramsay visits Los Angeles to save a family-owned French bistro named La Frite.
Side note – there are actually two locations for La Frite – La Frite Sherman Oaks and La Frite Woodland Hills.
The Kitchen Nightmares episode focuses on the Sherman Oaks location.
The La Frite Los Angeles restaurant has a long history in the city, as it was originally opened all the way back in 1972 by Andre Ramillon, a French immigrant.
However, Andre wants to retire after spending so long in the business.
Originally, he brought in his son Alex to manage the restaurant.
A few years after that, he also brought in his daughter Celine.
However, the two siblings don’t have a very good working relationship…to say the least.
Chef Ramsay soon realizes that he may have a very difficult job on his hands as brother and sister Alex & Celine come to blows.
To make matters worse, stubborn head chef Martine cooks Gordon’s lunch in the microwave and doesn’t take kindly to his criticism.
Basically, the La Frite Kitchen Nightmares episode is a powder keg waiting to blow.
It doesn’t take long for Gordon to work out that the main reason the restaurant is failing is the fact that there is no communication between the owners and the chef.
It seems that none of the owners care enough to make it work and big brother Alex admits that he can’t stand his sister Celine working in the restaurant.
After a disastrous lunch meal, Gordon learns that Martine will not listen to Celine and Alex can’t handle confrontation or constructive criticism.
When dinner service starts it becomes clear that chef Martine is burnt out and has lost his passion for food.
The only owner that cares is Celine, however she is constantly ignored and her ideas are always brushed aside.
Gordon becomes infuriated by Alex’s attitude and makes it clear that he has to change his ways and make an effort with his sister.
If he can’t take the restaurant seriously there is no point in him being there.
The dinner service is abysmal and food is consistently returned to the kitchen.
Chef Martine makes very little effort to produce any delicious food and forgets to season his dishes with any salt or pepper.
It’s standard fare when it comes to the food on Kitchen Nightmares, but it’s still surprising how bad it is given the restaurant’s long history.
Gordon decides that the only way to move forward and get the restaurant back on its feet is to fix the fragmented relationship between the owners.
He decides to speak alone with Celine and convinces her to open up about the relationship with her brother.
While discussing the restaurant, Alex walks in and joins the conversation.
He opens up about how he feels towards his sister and admits that he has been jealous that she was given the restaurant over him.
However he states that he wants to put the past behind him and work hard to improve the restaurant.
Gordon and his team transform the restaurant giving it a brand new look making it much more inviting.
He introduces a spectacular menu and hires well-renowned “Chef Chuy” to run the kitchen.
Gordon provides all the tools to make the bistro a success and the re-launch couldn’t have went any better.
Overall, things seem to be looking up for the restaurant going forward.
So was the Kitchen Nightmares La Frite episode a success?
Keep reading our update to learn what happened next and if this Los Angeles restaurant is still open in 2024 and beyond.
La Frite Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the La Frite Kitchen Nightmares episode, let’s talk about what happened to the restaurant after Gordon Ramsay and his crew left Los Angeles, CA.
After the show was filmed Chef Chuy was brought in full time to continue as the executive chef.
Alex and Celine continued to work well together and put their differences aside.
Not only did Gordon save the restaurant from disaster, he saved the family.
La Frite managed to stay open for years and was highly regarded in Los Angeles as an above average French bistro.
It had very good ratings on TripAdviser and seemed to be a great success.
The food was well presented and was clear that the team had been taught well by Gordon and chef Chuy.
There were many positive reviews stating how delicious the food is and the vast majority of people have said they would return for more excellent French cuisine.
Did Gordon Ramsay revisit La Frite?
Chef Ramsay revisited the restaurant later only to find a well structured restaurant running smoothly with a harmonious family serving delicious food.
His revisit happened in Season 5 Episode 11, which is where he also revisited Spanish Pavilion, Kingston Cafe, and Capri.
In the La Frite revisited episode, Celine revealed that her brother and father were now listening to her a lot more and taking her ideas on board.
Alex admitted to chef Ramsay that it was difficult making huge changes to the restaurant at first but is thankful for all the help he received.
Celine and Alex said that they are now closer than ever and working hard to make La Frite a success.
Here’s a YouTube video of the La Frite Gordon Ramsay revisit.
The La Frite part starts around the 37:53 mark – the video should automatically start there:
However, La Frite’s success would not go on forever, unfortunately.
Is La Frite still open in 2024?
While La Frite did enjoy years of success after Gordon Ramsay’s visit, the owners sold the restaurant to a new owner, George Zaoui, in 2016.
George originally continued with the La Frite concept after purchasing the restaurant.
However, in late 2017, the new owner converted La Frite into a new restaurant concept called Modo Mia.
The new owner said that La Frite had too many issues so it was better to switch it to Italian cuisine.
Unfortunately, that means that La Frite now has to officially be put on the closed list.
Modo Mio was still active at the old La Frite Sherman Oaks location on Ventura Blvd until 2021.
Modo Mio had solid reviews, with a 4.5 star rating according to its Yelp page.
However, as of 2023, Modo Mio is now closed and the old La Frite Sherman Oaks location seems to be empty for now.
In the Google Maps street view image from February 2023, you can see that the property is boarded up and covered in graffiti:
I also found a LoopNet listing that advertised the property for sale.
However, the LoopNet listing is no longer active.
I’m not sure if that’s because it was sold or they just pulled the listing.
If anything changes, I will update this post.
And if you live in the area and know anything about the La Frite Sherman Oaks property, please let me know in the comments section below.
While the La Frite Sherman Oaks location made it until 2016/2017, the La Frite Woodland Hills location closed back in December 2012.
This location was not featured on the show as Gordon visited the Sherman Oaks location.
The Woodland Hills location is now occupied by a restaurant named California Pita & Grill.
Why did La Frite close?
As I mentioned above, La Frite closed because it was sold to new owners.
The new owners tried to continue with the La Frite concept for about a year, but they then switched it to an Italian concept named Modo Mio (which eventually closed in 2021).
What happened to the La Frite owners?
After La Frite closed, Celine had a few jobs working as a General Manager for some other restaurants.
As of 2022, she seems to be the general manager at a Los Angeles tennis club, which seems like a pretty good job. Congratulations to her!
Alex worked as a server for a time and he’s now an event manager at a local yacht club.
I’m not sure what happened to Andre, but I’d imagine he’s retired at this point.
A weird bit of trivia about La Frite
This happened long before the La Frite Kitchen Nightmares episode.
But in researching this post, I came across an old 1991 article about a car plowing into the La Frite outdoor dining area and injuring 8 people.
Thankfully, no one was permanently injured – but it’s a very weird situation!
Final thoughts on La Frite
La Frite stayed open for a good amount of time after the Kitchen Nightmares episode.
However, it closed in 2016/2017 because it was sold to new owners who put in a new concept.
Andre seems to be retired, while Celine and Alex both have successful careers.
The old La Frite Sherman Oaks location is empty for now after Modo Mio closed in 2021.
If you want to see some other nearby Los Angeles Kitchen Nightmares episodes, you can check out my posts for Sebastian’s in Hollywood and Burger Kitchen in LA proper.
And if you want to share your thoughts on the La Frite episode, you can do so using the comments section below.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
https://www.yelp.com/biz/la-frite-sherman-oakshttps://www.facebook.com/lafritecafe/
What did you think about the La Frite episode of Kitchen Nightmares? I'd love it if you shared your thoughts on the episode in the comments below!
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And don't forget to check out all of the other Kitchen Nightmares updates.
Last updated: 2023-11-01 08:45
When you say that Gordon has revisited this restaurant or that restaurant please post a link to the show that shows when he is revisiting a restaurant. Everyone would love to see that.
Ok I’ll try to do that but sometimes it’s hard to find the video because of copyright issues. You can usually find them on YouTube if you’re willing to dig around a bit.
I finally found a video of the Gordon Ramsay La Frite revisit – I just added it to the post above! The quality sucks, though. I can’t seem to find a good version.
If anyone finds one, please let me know in the comments.
Go on Hulu and tubi all of kitchen nightmares videos is on there
Yeah the only problem is that I can’t embed them in my site for other people to watch. I try to always embed the “revisited” segments if I can find them on YouTube.
Unless of course the person who posted the video on YouTube has had their account terminated!
Oops! You got me. I will try to find a working version again.
Do you know what happened to Alex and Celine?
I found Celine’s Facebook page.
Here is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/cramillon
Andre & LA Frite , Sherman Oaks, were very good, for many years. Things change, and best wishes, to everyone, in 2022. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing! Always interesting when people have visited the restaurants in person.
What’s so bad about microwave cooking? It’s been a recognized method of heating food since the 1970s and I’m sure microwave skills are taught at Le Cordon Bleu and other fine culinary skills. Anyway, La Frite must have failed because it did not serve good pommes frite.
Martine, is that you?
Lol my thoughts exactly 😆
In my culinary journey we never used microwaves while in culinary school or while working kitchens
Also, Celine was too busy writing Death On The Installment Plan to help out at the restaurant.
Chef Martine is a punk. His cooking sucked. Hopefully Martine is working at a car wash now.
I agree. He should have been fired ages ago. Martine is a lazy and snooty piece of shit!
I found out on Celine’s Facebook page that she started working at Granville Cafe in Studio City on March 1
Cool thanks for the update! I will add that to the post when I get a chance. Appreciate it.
Why is there no comment section for Cafe Tavolini?
I must’ve accidentally disabled it. I just activated it now so it should be working.
Where is Martin now? He must be close to 60. Where is the manager lady? She was very nice.
Whether or not she admits it, Celine did go into the restaurant to upset her brother’s claim to it. He was probably not doing a great job managing it, but he had his Father’s blessing to take over until Celine blew that up.
I agree I’m surprised to see people talking about how nice she was when I can clearly see that she was just a younger sibling type who always played the victim when she wasn’t freely welcomed or allowed to take over by everyone who was ready there. she annoyed me a lot.
She didn’t “play the victim” at all – that creepy little chef would never even talk to her, and neither would her brother, until Gordon came. She didn’t “always” do anything, except try to communicate, and ask GR for help. She didn’t try to take over, she tried to improve it, but no one would cooperate.
Totally disagree. Yes, I’m sure she did see that the restaurant was failing, but that doesn’t mean she came in to “blow up” and “upset her brother’s claim to it.” Perhaps she just wanted to see it successful, instead of imploding and destroying the legacy her father cultivated. And clearly everyone (with the exception of the arrogant little “head chef”) agreed with her assessments, including Chef Ramsay. Additionally, once the concerns she raised were addressed, the family relationship improved significantly, as well as turning around the restaurant and its trajectory.
I just watched this episode, never seen it till tonight. I can’t believe Martine wasn’t FIRED the first day Ramsey showed up! When Chuey took over that is when they should of sacked the horrible cook! And I would NEVER place a microwave in my kitchen ever! Fresh food is all you need for a Restaurant… Not reheated crap! Would of loved to have eaten there with Chuey as head Chef.
I was sad to see that La Frite was closed. It looked like the food was great and it got good reviews after Chef Chuy took over the kitchen. Five years was better than most, but both Celine and her brother seemed to really care about continuing the success, so I was hoping they would keep on going. I wonder why they decided to sell, when they had such a good family business. Her Facebook page says she’s a digital creator.
I worked there from 1998 to 2006, but in the Woodland Hills Location. Was one of the best jobs I ever had. Andre was a great boss, and no one mentions chef Jean, who made all the recipes. Chef Jean was a true Frenchman, snooty, condescending, rude, and cold. But he was the best at what he did, and although many people hated him, he was respected. Also, the microwave was never used at the Woodland Hills location, can’t speak for the Sherman Oaks one. I will say Alex was a great manager/owner. Celine was too young to manage a restaurant, although she wanted the best for the restaurant. I learned a ton about the service industry working there as it was my first job in the restaurant business. Worked with some amazing people-shout out to Mike T, Anna K. Kamiar, Adam-12, Stephanie the crazy one, BC, Rocky (Mapacha), French B, Peter the German. Man those were good times.
Thanks for sharing the inside scoop! Always cool to hear about nice owners on Kitchen Nightmares given there are so many bad ones.