(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: UK | View All Season UK Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: November 27, 2007
The Priory Address: Syresham Gardens Haywards Heath RH16 3LB United Kingdom
Episode Recap
The Priory was a Haywards Heath, West Sussex restaurant featured on Season 5 of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares in the UK. Though the The Priory Kitchen Nightmares episode aired in November 2007, the actual filming and visit from Gordon Ramsay took place much earlier in 2007. It was Episode 5 of Season 5 on the UK version.
The Priory is a restaurant located in Haywards Heath, West Sussex. The owner is Scott, who bought the restaurant only three weeks prior.
He was impressed with the beautiful building, which is a converted nineteenth-century convent.
However, Scott has no experience running a restaurant, which is why The Priory ended up on Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares.
When Gordon Ramsay arrives, he is amazed by the beauty of The Priory. The building really is fabulous and it’s such a unique space for a restaurant. Very cool.
However, the rest of the experience at The Priory doesn’t quite match the beautiful building.
The customers are of an older generation and use the half-off dining coupon.
To get the “normal” experience, Gordon uses a coupon and eats off the buffet line.
The potatoes he eats are burnt, and the turkey is dry.
Gordon then meets the general manager, Matt, who is also trained as a chef.
Gordon finds spoiled meat and warm meat wrapped in cling film in the kitchen, which is a breeding ground for bacteria. If that meat were to be served, the customer could get very sick.
The Priory uses lots of frozen food. For example, their Yorkshire pudding sauces are all frozen.
Scott is clueless as to what is happening in the kitchen. Gordon wraps the kitchen in hazard tape to show Scott how poor the conditions are.
Gordon uses the confessional to speak with the staff to find out what the real issues of the restaurant are.
The master chef has an idea to turn the restaurant into a grill with steaks and leave the carvery behind.
He also wants to ditch the coupons, as it’s just not a good long-term solution for attracting customers.
The staff is taken to a local farm and tested on cuts of beef. However, Scott is worried about the changes Gordon wants to make to The Priory.
Dinner service includes local clergy members and the bishop of Sussex. They bless the meal before it begins.
Orders begin piling up, and customers are waiting hours for their meal.
Gordon closes the kitchen at midnight and leaves the kitchen feedback. He reminds them that they are a team and need to work together to ensure success.
Gordon and the staff give out samples of steak sandwiches that the locals love as a marketing strategy.
The re-launch night has a much younger crowd and over 80 reservations.
Toby, the head chef, throws a tantrum, and Matt steps up as the head chef.
Gordon lets Matt know he was the key to the restaurant’s success at the end of the night. It’s always good to recognize hard work, so I’m glad that Gordon took the time to do this.
The Priory Update - What Happened Next?
Gordon revisits The Priory six weeks later.
Scott, the owner of The Priory, didn’t take his advice and lost 2/3 of his business.
Scott did not do any marketing or promotions promoting the restaurant as a grill.
No one knew the restaurant went in a new direction.
Toby was fired for selling spoiled chicken and they had hired a new chef named Aimé Zbinden.
Is The Priory from Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares still open?
The Priory closed in 2008, less than a year after its appearance on Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Scott didn’t take Gordon Ramsay’s advice, which led to the restaurant failing.
After The Priory closed, the location was occupied by a Spanish tapas restaurant called la Capilla for a time. However, that restaurant would also close after a short period of business.
As of 2022, we can’t find out what business is occupying the old The Priory location in Haywards Heath. It was sold to a property developer around 2018, but we can’t find any record of that property development actually happening.
However, one thing is clear – The Priory restaurant is permanently closed.
More Information
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Last updated: 2021-12-31 05:25
I can’t understand that some restauranteurs have an ego tantrum and do not listen to Gordon, suits them right to go broke
This is my favourite kitchen nightmares episode I watch this quite regularly but I’m not surprised it’s apparently closed because Scott seems to be a complete numbskull.
Why by restaurants when you have no experience. He’s more of an office clerk in a restaurantuer
Scott was absolutely clueless and Toby was a total dolt. he was crying in a fake confessional with Gordon-wth?
Both of those guys were in the wrong business. No mettle!
Gordon should have converted the building back into a priory.
Toby was a horrible disgraceful chef. How many elderly customers died from food poisoning? Never diagnosed because the patrons are so ancient? I bet Toby got away with a few. The place should have been shut down, glad it closed.
He was doing god’s work.
pretty funny stuff… not the commentary, the f/u.
The Priory is now bland, characterless modern housing.
“The historical and landmark building The Priory is a beautiful collection of bespoke one, two and three bedroom character apartments which will appeal to a wide range of buyers.”
https://www.moverevolution.com/property/the-priory-haywards-heath/
Look’s nice.
It’s painful to think what they must have had to hear out for this
This whole episode just wreaks of American KN.
I suspect that they were filming this and the US version around the same time, or even that they had filmed some of the US show and Gordon came to the UK to do this one during production of the US show.
From the opening narration of Gordon saying how this is his biggest challenge yet, the worst food ever, the worse kitchen team ever, etc. That exactly how every US version of the show begins. The condemning of the kitchen with the tape (which he already had in his hands before even going into the kitchen) feels very staged. The whole confessional booth thing is god awful TV, really cheesy and unnecessary fluff that the US version is crammed with. Oh, and the new kitchen equipment makeover.
This particular episode feels the most ‘American’ out of all of the original series and I’m willing to bet that the US version was either being planned or even filmed when this one episode was recorded.
You’re speaking as if they are two different shows. They’re not.
Everyone keeps bashing the US version pitting it against the UK version, but you gotta remember that that’s the evolution of a long-running project. Your favorite YouTubers evolve the same way, and it’s usually just them and maybe an editor for the most part. It’s gonna change. The UK era started in 2004, 20 years ago. Not to mention, entirely different production teams with entirely different training. All I’m saying is to keep it in mind, it’s one show with decades of evolution, and NOT reflective of entire countries.
That Cathedral was/is beautiful…!
But even if it wasn’t a pseudo-restuarant, I can’t even begin to imagine how expensive it would have been to ever renovate/fix any parts of it.
Cringeworthy episode.
Some of the best lines to come from this episode:
“It’s an old convent full of bad habits.”
“It’s like King Kong’s condom.”
And probably more I can’t think of right now. Anyone else recall golden-grade Gordon comments from this episode?