In this Kitchen Nightmares episode, Gordon Ramsay visits Amy's Baking Company in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Amy's Baking company is owned by Samy Bouzagio and wife Amy Bouzagio.
Samy invested $1m to open the business for his wife in 2006 so that she could pursue her dream of opening a restaurant.
Samy runs front of house and Amy runs and cooks in the kitchen.
They had their head above water until a number of local bloggers reviewed the restaurant.
They gave the restaurant poor reviews and criticised the place and as a result they lost business.
Customers still complain and Amy ignores everything that they say about the restaurant or her food.
Both her and Sammy retaliate against customers or ask them to leave the restaurant when they return food or give negative feedback.
Before Gordon arrives Amy and Samy prepare for his visit by doing a big clean up.
There is footage of the day before Gordon arrives Miranda is a server who is not allowed to use the POS, pour alcohol or handle money.
Amy only cooks one ticket at a time so the diners are waiting a very long time to get their food.
The food that is received is sent back including under cooked pizza and poor salads.
One customer has enough of waiting for his pizza, asks about the pizza, is given a tirade of abuse and tries to leave.
Amy threatens to call the cops and Samy tries to stand in their way to stop them leaving!
Gordon arrives the next day and he meets Sammy and Amy seeing the full display of dessert and cakes.
Amy does not waste any time complaining of bloggers and online reviewers, overwhelming Gordon with information.
He is taken on a tour of the kitchen and is impressed as it is as clean as a sterile doctors surgery.
Server Katy tells Gordon that the problem in the restaurant is Amy and Samy.
Gordon sits down with the couple and samples a slice of Amy's cake, that he brands as delicious.
The owners say when either one of them are not around they close the restaurant.
They complain their staff are not competent having gone through hundreds of employees already.
They say online bullies are the problem of their business and they have been retaliating to the online attacks.
Amy’s goal is for Gordon to deem their restaurant good to counter the negative comments.
Gordon asks if they have children and they say no they have cats.
Amy reveals she speaks cat and Gordon tells them both that they are nuts.
Gordon talks to Miranda, who reveals that she does not receive tips and Samy takes all of the tips.
Gordon confronts Sammy about the tips situation and he says she is not good enough to earn it.
He says that he does most of the work so he should get the tips.
Gordon orders the pear and fig prosciutto pizza, blue ribbon burger, salmon burger and red pepper ravioli.
While waiting he hears a doorbell ring and it turns out it is for the busser to clean up dirty dishes.
Gordon notices Sammy also controls the POS system even though Miranda knows how to use it.
The Fig Pear Prosciutto Pizza has raw dough and is far too sweet.
When Gordon gives feedback Samy doesn’t tell Amy as he thinks it will make her nervous.
The wait time is over an hour by the time a Blue Ribbon Burger arrives.
The bun is soggy and greasy, the meat is not medium rare.
The burger is a mess and it is dripping as he eats.
The ravioli smells weird and it has a confusing taste as it is sweet and spicy.
Gordon can tell that the ravioli is store-bought.
The salmon burger looks like a crab cake patty and it is over cooked and dry.
Gordon has feedback but does not tell Amy yet and makes a point of tipping Miranda.
He changes and returns in the evening to observe the dinner service.
Gordon asks why Sammy did not give Amy feedback on the pizza but she is defensive saying it was not undercooked.
Gordon continues to give feedback on how the flavours of her dishes do not go together.
Amy continues to defend all of the dishes and the store-bought ravioli.
Gordon announces to the restaurant that the ravioli is store bought.
They agree to removing the ravioli from the menu that night.
Samy is tasked with telling Amy, who reacts by removing every single item on the menu except for the desserts.
Gordon pulls Samy aside to comment on Amy’s stubbornness.
A customer is left waiting for an order that Samy mistakenly didn’t take and he blames Miranda.
Amy makes a mistake on an order going out and asked if she was sure by Katy.
Amy calls it disrespect and attempts to send her home.
The food is served slowly and is still sent back with problems.
Gordon is confused why no feedback is given to Amy and food is just tossed immediately after it is sent back.
Gordon tells the customers about Samy taking the tips and they can’t believe it.
Amy attacks Katy and attempts to fire her.
Samy tries to intervene and stop it happening but Katy quits instead.
Gordon sits with the owners and asks why Amy cannot take criticism and she bickers with Sammy.
Amy is in denial about the feedback but Gordon is too tired to get into it and they close for the night.
Gordon returns the next morning and the door is locked as the owners are not in yet.
Gordon meets former staff members Jessica and Henry.
Jessica and Henry say they were only allowes to pour water for guests for months.
Jessica begged to be allowed in the kitchen but was refused even though she has a culinary degree.
Henry said Samy wasn't professional and made him wash his car for him!
They saw high turnover rates of the staff and the owners being completely defensive of their food.
They also say that they weren’t willing to listen to customer feedback.
The owners sit with him and Amy cuts him off when he is talking about the problems of the kitchen.
They get into an argument of what was said about the night before.
Amy exaggerates the reason she fired Katy saying she had an attitude.
Even though Gordon witnessed it and the situation was not as she said.
Gordon then gives the feedback on what he learned from the former staff.
Amy tries to defend the turnover rate. denying the numbers.
Samy confirms it is the correct number and she is upset that he has told Gordon.
Amy leaves to have a water and she is complaining of Gordon attacking her and insulting her.
She blames everyone from disrupting the service the night before.
They get into an argument once again and she threatens to go home.
He tells her she is delusional and Amy doesn't want to hear any more but Samy tells her to listen to Gordon and let him finish.
Gordon says he cannot help people who cannot take criticism or want to help themselves.
He tells them that if they aren't willing to change he isn't going to continue.
They have the right to run their restaurant how they want but he is going to do what is right and what is right is to walk away.
He wishes them good luck and Gordon Ramsay walks out the restaurant.
Amy says she doesn't need his help and things will continue without him.
Amy's Baking Company Revisited
The episode goes through the social media outbursts and interviews with Buzzfeed and Huffington Post writers talking through the media surrounding the show.
After the episode aired social media turned on the restaurant with an avalanche of negativity.
There were countless memes, gifs, skits and cartoon parodies about the episode and the owners.
Gordon introduces new footage including more meow footage.
It also shows Amy explaining that she has female kitchen staff as the kitchen is too small and men are rubbish at cleaning.
There is footage of an argument over pre packed gnocchi and the tips.
Amy tells Gordon that the servers don't deserve the tips as they don't work as hard as her husband.
Gordon shows their submission video which features Amy criticising Samys customer service skills.
The walk is shown as being a mess.
Amy explains there has been a few incidents with customers and that she has been retaliating to Yelp reviews.
The staff talk about what happened since the episode, they fired everyone and then begged the staff to return.
One waitress was caught taking a $5 tip from a customer and this started an argument.
The restaurant has since become a tourist site with people coming to see if the restaurant is as shown on the show.
A couple is interviewed and their dining companion had flies in their drink.
They were accused of putting them in themselves and asked to leave the restaurant.
They have tried to cash in on the notoriety of the restaurant by selling t shirts with slogans from the episode.
The couple is interviewed at the restaurant by Ana Garcia, Gordon's rep.
Amy initially says that she has no time for an interview and Samy wants money.
He wants compensation for what Kitchen Nightmares did to them.
They say that they believe they were set up and the episode was not fair.
She believes the restaurant was filled with Yelpers and says they were just defending themselves.
She claims that since she has been plagued by rogue customers.
They have been browsing or placing fake cockroaches in the restaurant and she has to stand up to these people.
She says that the initial Facebook comments were not them but because of internet trolls they are now reacting.
Samy says that they are now giving the waitresses tips as the restaurant is empty.
The ravioli is still frozen, there is more abuse at Gordon and Samy still believes Amy's food is excellent.
Amy ends with saying that if customers come to attack them they will throw them out.
What Happened Next at Amy's Baking Company?
They temporarily closed the restaurant and reopened on 21st May 2013.
Yelp reviews were mostly negative after the episode aired with some loyal customers posting positive reviews.
Miranda was fired for taking a tip that a customer had hidden for her and is now working for Cracker Barrell.
Negative comments were responded to with a tirade of abusive and insulting posts on Facebook by Amy and Samy.
Details of Amy's past including a criminal conviction for social security fraud to obtain credit have surfaced.
It was also reported that Samy was subject to an immigration case after failing to declare previous charges including drug charges and trafficking.
He was banned from entering France and Germany.
Katy did an AMA on Reddit and answered a whole host of questions about the restaurant.
The owners claim they have received death threats and hired PR guru Jason Rose to help them with the media backlash.
They cancelled a press conference and were dropped by the PR company, after legal threats from Fox.
They reopened the restaurant and reviews were once again mixed.
They began selling merchandise with catchphrases from the episode and appeared on Dr Phil.
Amy's Baking Company closed in September 2015 due to problems with the landlord.
Amy planned to focus on an online cookery school and to sell her desserts to businesses.
Amy and Samy have moved to Tel Aviv in Israel.
Amy's Baking Company was aired on 10 May 2013, the episode was filmed in December 2012 and is Kitchen Nightmares season 6 episode 15.
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This post was last updated in March 2023.
