A woman who appeared on Channel 7’s Kitchen Nightmares Australia has slammed celebrity chef Colin Fassnidge after his renovations actually hurt her business. Meanwhile, another business from the show had to shut its doors shortly after filming.
Virginia Cheong owns an eatery in Sydney’s Homebush which was formerly called Cafe de Vie, but was rebranded by Fassnidge to become “Cafe Tabouli” in May.
Fassnidge overhauled Cheong’s entire menu and changed the business so that it became a Lebanese restaurant, instead of a modern-style cafe. He also moved its coffee station from the front window of the shop (where customers ordered from the street) to the back— but Cheong says all she wanted was help streamlining her business, not a complete rebrand.
In case you aren’t across the premise of 7’s Kitchen Nightmares, it follows Fassnidge as he revives struggling businesses by guiding them with his apparent expertise over five days. The episode on Cheong’s business aired on Tuesday, five months after it was filmed. Since then, she said her business faced even more troubles than before the show.
“It was constantly down all down for a whole nearly two months,” she told news.com.au.
In the first week since reopening, Cheong saw a $6000 drop in business. The following week saw a $4000 drop.
“We were doing on average between 30 to 38kg a week of coffee,” Cheong recalled of the business’ finances before Fassnidge moved the cafe’s coffee station from the front window to the back corner of the store.
“In the first week [after reopening] it dropped to 5kg. The second week, maybe a little more around 7kg.”
She said her business was experiencing an okay turnover before the show and she just wanted help targeting a few problems she couldn’t solve. She appreciated their advice and implemented it, but it wasn’t what she asked for.
“The turnover was there and that’s why it didn’t make sense. We were hoping to get some kind of clarity on how we do things and streamlining [the process],” she said.
Cheong also said her local Lebanese customers felt the Cafe Tabouli’s name was a “joke” and was making a “mockery” of Lebanese culture.
“I was trusting,” she said of the show.
“I said you know what, I’m going let my ego and everything go and then let the experts in. If they say this is the way to go then they must have done the research and that’s the way we should do it.
“The biggest thing is that we are predominantly a cafe and they literally changed us into a Lebanese restaurant. We were a modern cafe serving all kinds of food and then suddenly a Middle Eastern restaurant.”
Honestly, as someone who grew up in western Sydney and frequented the Homebush area, I can understand why people weren’t impressed with the cafe’s rebrand — there’s no shortage of Lebanese restaurants in the area and they’re usually owned by Lebanese families who are known and loved by their customers and community. Why Fassnidge thought Cheong should compete with them is beyond me, because anyone familiar with the area would know that wasn’t a good idea.
Another restaurant also criticised advice from Kitchen Nightmares
A day after Cheong slammed the show, it’s emerged that another business which appeared on the same season of Kitchen Nightmares had to close down for good right after filming.
Anthony Davies and Lauren Crisell‘s Blue Mountains restaurant Araucaria closed down in July due to “financial hardship” months before their episode went to air.
While Davies said he doesn’t blame the show entirely for his restaurants closure, he too reckons its changes to the pub’s menu didn’t make sense.
@kitchennightmaresau Araucaria’s menu goes from fancy to flop when Colin tries the chicken schnitzel 😬 #KitchenNightmaresAU
♬ original sound – Kitchen Nightmares Australia – Kitchen Nightmares Australia
“The guidance from them was to pay more attention to the basics and not to high-end items – the implication was that we were overreaching with some plates and prices. But we were just trying to be different from every other pub in the mountains,” he told news.com.au.
“We were left with a menu with no garlic bread, no bruschetta but things like chicken terrine. They implied we were overreaching with some of dishes, but I feel they absolutely failed to deliver some pub staples with the menu we were handed.”
Davies said that some of the menu changes, including adding salmon, mixed leaf salads and a schnitzel crumb, increased the expenses of his restaurant. Which didn’t make sense considering it was trying to avoid bankruptcy. He echoed Cheong in that the show gave them mixed messages and was confusing about its advice.
So, what does Colin Fassnidge have to say about this, you wonder?
Well, nothing nice it seems.
The celebrity chef hit out at Cheong to Fitzy and Wippa on Nova FM.
“It was a Chinese owned cafe serving terrible Middle Eastern bread and Italian food. It was also losing,” he said. FYI, Cheong’s husband is Lebanese and restaurants serving a mix of Lebanese and Italian food are pretty common in Sydney.
“[Her] husband is a tiler and his wage was keeping the cafe going. So this thing of they’re losing all this money because we moved the coffee machine, mate — move the coffee machine back.”
He also told Confidential that Cheong needs to “take ownership” of the business’ downturn, which he maintains had nothing to do with Kitchen Nightmares.
“She [claims she has] lost four grand a week from us moving a coffee machine … she wasn’t even making that much when we were there,” he said, per The Daily Telegraph.
“We filmed the show in May, so it has taken her until November to realise that the coffee machine, she could move it back. She can do whatever she wants, it is her joint. She could have changed the name back and moved the coffee machine, it doesn’t take six months to work that out.
“It is her business. They asked us in to help, you have got to take some ownership. That is the nature of the business.”
Ugh, that’s not what you want to hear when someone’s livelihood is at stake because of decisions *you* made. Fkn yikes.
