I’m having a hard time sleeping tonight, so I’m indulging a guilty pleasure of mine…watching Gordon Ramsey go to town on people in the show Kitchen Nightmares. I enjoy the show because it has drama, swearing, and usually some really awesome feel-good endings of success and victory.

If you’re like me, you also get a kick out of the many obvious mistakes and poor choices that these restaurant owners make that lead them near ruin until they’re rescued by Chef Ramsey. The episode I just paused to write this takes place in Woodland Park, Colorado, a place I’m familiar with. I won’t spell it all out, you can watch the two-parter yourself, it’s in season six. What prompted my writing is that the owner of the restaurant kept defending her food, after Ramsey ate some of it, by repeating back, “my food is good,” every time he brought up an issue with it.

Throughout both episodes, I found myself mildly giggling at all the obvious horrible practices Ramsey uncovered, and all the deflection, denial, and apathy displayed by all members of staff including the owner. I caught myself, realizing I was getting actual entertainment/mild joy from watching Ramsey tear into everyone in his signature manner. I wasn’t happy that I found the obvious pain and embarrassment the owner felt, even though she was still in denial and tried to act otherwise.

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It got me thinking.

She thinks her food is good. She repeatedly said it even though it clearly wasn’t, and even though customers were kicking it back to the kitchen. She was so clueless about how to run that business, she was aware of so little of what was going on. She doesn’t even realize most of the issues with her business even exist!

The question that jumped into my head was: What if my food isn’t good?

What if there are things about my art business that I’m not aware are screwed up? How would I know? I don’t know of a Chef Ramsey for artists. Now don’t get me wrong, my art business isn’t hemorrhaging money with dissatisfied customers repeatedly kicking stuff back to me. I’ve never had someone return something because they weren’t happy with it, thankfully. It’s not in the state of disarray that those restaurants are, but couldn’t every business use a tool, checklist, or process for objective self-examination or “gut check” just keep things in top working order? I mean, most businesses don’t come with a “check engine” light.

So how do we, as commercial artists, objectively examine the different facets of our business and practices to ensure that if there were something akin to Kitchen Nightmares for us, we wouldn’t be the one in tears getting yelled at by Ramsey?

I haven’t quite figured it out, but it’s got me thinking. I’m putting a pin in this and putting it toward the top of a list I have because I think this is worth exploring, not just for myself, but for anyone who reads my blog and finds it useful.

If this sparked some ideas or you’re interested in having this conversation, get in touch with me via the contact form or leave a comment on this post. I think this could be a powerful tool for our art business toolkit!