A former restaurant owner who appeared on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares has lifted the lid on what the celebrity chef is really like off screen. Charita Jones, who owned Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack in Brighton, featured on the Channel 4 show in 2005 and saw her business thrive after Ramsay finished an entire plate of food during his visit.
Speaking on behalf of CasinoHawks, Charita recalled how she challenged Ramsay about his language on set. “At the very beginning, when we were upstairs in the kitchen, and I think the first time he dropped the f-bomb word to one of my chefs, I looked at him and I said, ‘Gordon, do you talk like that to your mama?’ And he said, ‘No, Mama.’ I said, ‘There you go. I don't expect to hear that language,’” she said.
Charita added that she treated Ramsay like a little brother and insisted on mutual respect. “When it came to my waitresses and my staff, I wasn't having it because my thing is, and I did say to Gordon, ‘I have so much respect for you. I expect the same.’ And that was it,” she explained. Despite initial fear among staff, Charita said everyone eventually “fell in love” with Ramsay.
The restaurateur revealed that her appearance on the show came about after she received a note from Channel 4 looking for new restaurants. Just weeks later, she got a call saying Ramsay would arrive in 30 minutes. “No warning. I literally just took my coat off, dropped everything down, and next thing I know there was a knock at the door. I opened the door and literally they’re filming right there and then,” she said.
Charita emphasised the authenticity of the show, noting there were no retakes. “Every single thing you saw was real, even to the point when he sat us down when we realised that part of the problem we had was the finance side of it. That conversation we had with Gordon was real and the emotions were real,” she said. The episode gave her business a massive boost, with the restaurant fully booked for six months within 20 minutes of airing.
