Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service review – one restaurant’s kitchen looks like the scene of a murder

‘A rich mash of kitchen-reality motifs and cheesy espionage frippery’ … Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service. Photograph: Greg Gayne/Channel 4

It’s 1.07am in Washington DC, and Gordon Ramsay is in a baseball cap, driving. His destination: Parthenon, once a thriving neighbourhood joint where White House power-brokers ate Greek. But 36 years after it was opened by Pete, who left Zakynthos for a new life in America when he turned 18, Parthenon is in such a state that one of its staff has contacted Ramsay and arranged for him to break in overnight.

Kitchen Nightmares was a decent runner for Channel 4 in the UK, but the US remake was a bigger hit, lasting for more than 100 episodes – so this follow-up has a lot to live up to. Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service overreacts to the challenge by keeping the basic format (our man lovingly bullying bad restaurateurs into being good), then hurriedly throwing on garnish after garnish.