(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: UK | View All Season UK Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: December 18, 2007
The Granary Address: Whiteley Ln, Whiteley, Fareham PO15 6RQ, UK
Episode Recap
The Granary was a Fareham, England restaurant featured on Season 5 of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares in the UK. Though the The Granary Kitchen Nightmares episode aired in December 2007, the actual filming and visit from Gordon Ramsay took place much earlier in 2007. It was Episode 8 of Season 5 on the UK version.
The Granary is located in Titchfield, Fareham, United Kingdom and the owner, is Nigel Nieddu.
When Gordon Ramsay is called in to help, the restaurant is losing £4,000 a week. Nigel had invested over £2,000,000 into the restaurant, but he only has enough money to stay open for six more months at the time of Gordon’s visit.
Nigel thought wealthy locals would love to visit the restaurant, but that is not the case.
In 2003, Nigel opened The Granary as a private club. It cost £2,000 to join.
Although many celebrities came to the club’s opening, including model Jordan, none of them ever returned.
As a result, Nigel dropped the joining fee and named the club The Granary, but it still had a bad reputation.
Nigel recruited local chef Martin. Martin wants to make up for his criminal past, so he has two teenagers struggling to assist him named Peter and Paul. Kind of a weird coincidence with those names, right?
They just need an extra server named Mary!
Nigel sits with Gordon as the master chef dines. He orders the shark steak as a main course and a Morrocan chicken dish. Nigel thinks his food is modern British, but Gordon disagrees.
Martin is having difficulty keeping up with the orders, and the décor is bland.
Gordon decides to head out on the street and talk to locals about The Granary.
Everyone remembers when it was an expensive, private club and thinks it is still is. It is too costly for many of the locals to eat in.
Gordon tells Peter and Paul he was a troubled youth as well. He had crashed an uninsured car as a teenager.
Cooking saved him, and Gordon wants to encourage the young chefs.
He takes them to a local farm to pick up fresh ingredients. That evening the restaurant made £1,700, which caused Nigel to begrudgingly admit that Gordon was right.
Gordon challenges the team to make a chicken coop for a team builder, but Nigel does not want to participate.
Gordon then teaches the staff new recipes using local, fresh ingredients.
The dinner service is fully booked. The kitchen is sending out the food one time, but the servers are taking too long, resulting in cold food.
Martin steps up that evening, and Nigel panics. Nigel and Gordon argue after dinner about Nigel’s lack of leadership.
During the relaunch, Martin and the other chefs are enthusiastic. Nigel loves the restaurant’s new sign. The dining room is relaxed, and customers are excited.
However, Martin is too relaxed in the kitchen and is not communicating correctly.
The kitchen is struggling to prepare the orders. Gordon goes into the kitchen and tries to motivate Martin but to no avail. The dinner service is disappointing.
The Granary Update - What Happened Next?
Six weeks after Gordon Ramsay initially visited The Granary, the restaurant is busy.
However, Martin has left because he wanted to start his own business.
Gordon is impressed that The Granary boasts a local lamb on the menu, which shows that they took his local-inspired changes to heart.
Nigel took some offense at some of the insults that Gordon Ramsay hurled at him (e.g. being called a fat idiot), but in general he seemed happy with The Granary’s experience on Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares.
However, disaster would strike the building soon after.
Around two months after The Granary Kitchen Nightmares episode aired, there was an arson at the restaurant which caused real damage to the building.
Later, it would be discovered that a man was paid £2,500 to perform the arson attack on The Granary. The arsonist had fled to Spain but was eventually caught ten years later in 2018.
As a result of the fire damage and other issues, The Granary closed in 2008. The insurance company wasn’t willing to pay out £800,000 in damages which would be needed to fix the restaurant. Because of this, Nigel Nieddu had no choice but to close the restaurant for good.
The fire-damaged building was eventually auctioned off later in 2008.
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Last updated: 2021-12-31 05:12
Uhhh, I’m sure Nigel had no idea about the “arson”!!! (rolls eyes)
He just got burned, (see what I did there), when the insurance company didn’t pay!
So you’re saying Nigel only was making plans for Nigel?
Dad joke of the day – pachoo!
Stendhal has dad jokes littered all around this website.
wait, this restaurant serves shark steak? It’d be easy to serve the shark between bread slices in which case it would be shark sandwich. Is that where Spinal Tap got the idea for its classic album of the same name?
Nigel was a tool. The insurance company must have thought the fire was shady when they refused to pay
He opened a private club and invited Play Boy- that is a whole different level from Gordon- who is clean thinking with a clean life. Sounds like the tool got what he deserved.
Nigel was a totally shady character. He looked like he was not there for love of the restaurant or customer service. Reminded me of those old movie hoods that takes over the restaurant on behalf of local hoods…
You are so right!! What a idiot!
Arson my butt! Nigel had his hands in that, without question. Martin couldn’t cope and Paul just ran his mouth. Thank God for Pete. Ramsay did all he could for the restaurant.
Nigel and his wife were investigated by the police and there was no evidence that they had anything to do with it.