Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares

The venue for tonight's first programme is La Lanterna in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. Twenty-eight-year-old owner and head chef Alex offers modern Italian cuisine, a taste of Little Italy in England's first garden city, and the restaurant is run by his best mate maitre dé Gavin, helped by his ex-air hostess girlfriend Emily. But Alex has no customers, cookers that don't work and an expensive menu that's about as authentically Italian as a spag bol.

The venue for tonight's second programme is D-Place in Chelmsford, Essex run by Mexican-born Israel and his English partner Tara. They've sunk ~£150,000 of their own money into their trendy café bar which offers a vast selection of fusion cuisine. In charge is Executive Chef Philippe, producing everything from all-day breakfasts to hoi sin noodles with an astounding lack of flair; the plastic food is dire and boomerangs back from the dining room as soon as it's cooked.

The venue for tonight's third programme is Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack, an intimate forty-seater a stone's throw from Brighton's sea front. Big soul momma, owner Charita Jones, produces a menu of irresistibly unique classics from the Deep South. The food's hard to fault but the punters are nowhere to be seen, Head Chef Brian and a rag-tag collection of part-timers are taking the mickey - and despite working a seven-day week Charita's got an empty restaurant and a ~£65,000 debt.

The venue for tonight's fourth programme is La Riviera, a fine dining restaurant in Inverness. Owned by multi-millionaire Barry Larson and costing ~£8000 a week to run, the place boasts top French chef Loic Lefebvre and an impeccably-trained kitchen staff with Michelin star-studded backgrounds. Loic is on a mission, to bring sophisticated French cooking to the home of haggis, tatties and deep-fried Mars bars. But though he's hungry for success, he's French, he's arrogant and the food's pretentious.

The venue for tonight's program is Clubway 41, despite being voted Blackpool Tourist Board Restaurant of the year, the place is dire straits. It is the prime example of HOW NOT TO RUN A RESTAURANT. Owner DAVE is the flakey self-appointed head chef, who hasn't been in a kitchen for 30 years and can't cook. His partner DAWN invents bizarre dishes for the menu, ranging from "tomato and cointreau soup" to "pork with brie, nectarine and whiskey sauce". Gordon faces a hellish week, Clubway 41 is breaking every rule in book, can he bring Dave, Dawn and their food back to earth?

Tonight's program sees Gordon Ramsay in Oscars in Nantwich. On the surface this place seems idyllic, an Irish family run restaurant in the heart of beautiful countryside. Owner MAURA runs the front of house and her son LENIN is the Head chef, but it's not "happy families". With her life savings on the line Maura is in big trouble. She constantly bickers with her son whilst the customers are forced to wait hours for their fluorescent crab stick paellas, and stodgy carbonaras from Oscars "bit of everything" menu.

This week Gordon is at a god-awful Italian restaurant in Derby. La Gondola is stuck in a time-warp with naff Seventies cuisine, bad net curtains and no customers. New owner Daniela bought the place because she got married there back in the day but her sentimentality has blinded her to the fact that she's bagged a white elephant. Gordon's biggest problem is head chef Steve, one of the worst he's ever met, and one who'd rather open a tin of tuna or a packet of soup than create a proper meal. Can Gordon get the kitchen cooking again and save La Gondala from sinking?

In tonight's final programme Gordon returns to Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack, an intimate forty-seater in Brighton where he oversaw one of the most spectacular changes of fortune at a single venue. Owner CHARITA JONES was producing a menu of irresistible unique classics from the Deep South, but at the same facing financial disaster. The punters were missing, and so was her business acumen. But Gordon succeeded in shutting her out of the kitchen, getting the chef back on the boil and putting the soul back into the business. Today Charita is fully-booked round the clock and bursting out of the Soul Shack to take on the 110-seater Momma Cherri's Big House. But expansion brings a different set of challenges, and she's still struggling to control her staff and manage her success. Has she got what it takes to make the next step up, or will she be forced to rethink her grand plans?

In tonight's penultimate programme Gordon returns to La Riviera - now renamed Abstract - a fine dining restaurant in Inverness. Owned by multi-millionaire Barry Larson and costing ~£8000 a week to run, the place boasted top French chef Loic Lefebvre and an impeccably-trained kitchen staff, all of them on a mission to bring sophisticated French cooking to the home of the haggis. But the locals weren't biting and the restaurant was empty most nights. Gordon's recipe for survival forced them to tone down their act and demystify the menu to get the punters in. Today the restaurant's return to form has led to plans for expansion. Loic is still there, and now he's been promoted to Executive Chef he will oversee any new ventures. But can he continue to resist a return to French frills, and has he managed to pull off his own personal ambition, a Michelin star?