I’m a huge Gordon Ramsay fan. The man takes no shit, has no filter and can turn finding a disgusting cutting board into must-see television.
There really isn’t much else like a good Ramsay show. The Great British Baking Show ranks pretty high on my entertainment scale, but for completely different reasons. Nobody on that show is screaming because somebody stored raw chicken next to a moldy lemon.
So naturally, I watched Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service when it first premiered on FOX, came across it on Tubi (of course), and decided to watch it again.
What I wasn’t expecting, though, was having the same reaction I had the first time I watched.
Gordon Ramsay Channels His Inner James Bond
Secret Service doesn’t exactly reinvent the Gordon Ramsay restaurant-rescue show. He’s still walking into struggling restaurants, finding everything that’s wrong, confronting the people responsible and helping them fix it.
This time, however, Gordon decided he wanted to be a spy.
He has an insider at each restaurant feeding him information. Hidden cameras are planted throughout the place. He’s got a surveillance vehicle filled with monitors where he can watch what’s happening inside, and undercover diners are sent in to test the food.
Whether every second of this is genuine covert surveillance or there’s a healthy dose of reality-TV bullshit involved, I don’t particularly care.
It’s fun.
His first target is the Parthenon, a family-run Greek restaurant in Washington, D.C. that’s been around for nearly four decades. Pete owns it with his wife, Susie, while their son Mikey, daughter Stephanie and Mikey’s wife, Stella, are also involved in the business.
Pete is very much the patriarch. And Pete has thoughts about how his restaurant should be run.
Unfortunately, so does Gordon Ramsay.
Maybe Don’t Look at Your Favorite Restaurant Under a Blacklight
Gordon’s first sweep through the Parthenon is f*cking gross.
He gets into the kitchen after hours and starts examining equipment, surfaces and food-preparation areas. When Ramsay pulls out the science equipment, we get to learn about all the lovely bacteria living in places where people are preparing dinner.
This is where shows like this always leave me with the same question: Are any restaurants really clean?
Seriously. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
Because if you think about it, if you’re a regular at a restaurant and end up watching Gordon Ramsay expose all the nasty stuff living in the kitchen, would you ever eat there again? Sure, Gordon comes in and helps clean the place up, but how do you know they won’t go back to their old habits six months later when Gordon says his last goodbye?
Maybe there are some things I don’t need to know before ordering the chicken.
Gordon later sends in his undercover diners, including people who really know food, which reminded me of when my son first started serving in a high-end restaurant. For a while, you couldn’t go anywhere to eat with him because he had thoughts.
These diners have thoughts too. They’re brutal. And Pete isn’t particularly interested in hearing them.
At one point, his attitude is essentially, “That’s the way it is.”
Oh, Pete. You have no idea Gordon Ramsay is sitting in a van watching you.
The Spy Gimmick Is Fun, But Gordon Is Still Gordon
Eventually Ramsay has seen enough.
He stops his undercover diners from eating because he’s concerned about the food, marches into the restaurant and kicks everybody out.
Holy shit. This is the Gordon Ramsay I came for.
But once the big reveal happens, Secret Service starts becoming something a little different from what I expected.
Yes, Gordon lays out everything that’s wrong with the restaurant. The kitchen needs help. The food needs work. Pete keeps interfering with Mikey instead of allowing his son to actually run things.
But Gordon isn’t just there to scream about bacteria and leave Pete standing in the wreckage, because believe me, this guy is shocked at what just happened.
Instead, Ramsay sort of takes on the role of family therapist. It’s almost uncomfortable to watch.
Pete’s children are honest with him about what it’s like working under their father. The rest of the staff share their feelings. His wife explains that she just wants to spend more time with her husband. Mikey is supposed to take over the restaurant, but Pete just can’t let go.
Pete looks embarrassed, hurt and, understandably, betrayed.
And I’m sitting there thinking: Did Gordon Ramsay just sandbag this poor guy with his entire family?
Because for a while, that’s essentially what’s happening.
Pete thought he was running his restaurant the same way he always had, no problem. Suddenly Gordon Ramsay appears out of nowhere with surveillance footage, filthy-kitchen evidence and Pete’s own family telling him things he probably doesn’t want to hear.
That’s brutal. You feel sorry for the guy, even though you know Gordon is going to stick around and help.
Do We Really Have to Modernize Everything?
There’s a part to these restaurant makeover shows that makes me a little sad.
Pete has been serving essentially the same menu for decades. He’s had the same decor. But what really is the problem with that?
Add some things. Fix what isn’t working. Improve the quality. Clean the kitchen. But if people have been coming to a neighborhood restaurant for 36 years because they love a particular dish, maybe don’t vaporize the f*cking thing because it isn’t trendy anymore.
Same goes for the restaurant itself.
I love watching these makeovers. Gordon and his team completely overhaul the Parthenon while the staff is gone. There’s new tableware, a new menu, new paint, and pictures that are important to Pete hanging on the walls. It looks fabulous.
But it makes me wonder if a complete modernization really enhances a place or just strips away the character that made someone love stopping in for a quick bite in the first place.
And then you have to wonder what happens if the owner walks through the door and hates what Gordon and his team have done.
Pete looks shocked when he sees his restaurant’s new look. And at first you’re not really sure if that’s happy shock or the kind right before he flips his lid and screams at Ramsay, “WTF have you done to my restaurant?”
But Pete’s shock is a happy one. He really loves the new look. And he finally understands what everyone has been trying to tell him.
He even apologizes. Dammit, Gordon.
Wait. WHO Was the Insider?
There’s still one piece of unfinished business: The insider.
Throughout the episode, somebody close to the restaurant has been secretly helping Gordon gather information. Obviously, everyone wants to know who sold Pete out.
So, Gordon finally asks his mole to reveal themselves. And I literally fell off my chair.
SUSIE!
His wife!
I didn’t see that coming. And suddenly the whole episode lands differently.
Susie wasn’t trying to destroy Pete’s restaurant. She was trying to save the restaurant, help their son move forward and, more importantly, get her husband back so they could enjoy their twilight years together.
And she tells Gordon she’s glad she did it.
So this show that started with Gordon Ramsay sitting in a surveillance van spying on a Greek restaurant has turned into a story about a family figuring out how to let go without losing everything they built.
What the hell happened here?
Gordon Ramsay Is Supposed to Yell at People, Not Make Me Tear Up
That’s what ultimately sold me on Secret Service.
Gordon Ramsay shows are escapist television for me. I don’t have to take notes on six timelines, remember which government agency is secretly evil or figure out whether somebody in 1987 is actually their own grandfather.
I can sit down and watch Gordon find something disgusting in a refrigerator and lose his mind.
That’s entertainment.
And for a while, that’s exactly what Secret Service delivers. The spy gimmick is ridiculous enough to be fun, Gordon’s reactions are Gordon’s reactions, and waiting for Pete to discover that he’s secretly being watched is hilarious.
But “Parthenon” sneaks another layer underneath it.
By the time the restaurant reopens and Gordon is watching this family try again, I actually care whether they make it.
At the end, Gordon reflects on everything that happened, Pete has accepted that things needed to change, and the family gets its happy ending.
And I’m sitting there thinking: OMG, is Gordon Ramsay supposed to make you tear up?
Apparently he is now.
FOX clearly liked the formula too. Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service was renewed for a second season, so Gordon will soon be climbing back into his spy van to surveil another batch of unsuspecting restaurant owners.
There are 14 episodes in Season 1, which gives me plenty of time to catch up before the show returns.
Will I review all 14? Absolutely f*cking not.
But if Gordon Ramsay makes me cry again, you’ll probably hear about it.
🔥 Our Verdict: WATCHABLE. Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service takes a familiar restaurant-rescue formula, gives Gordon some spy toys and then sneaks in more heart than I expected. I came for the surveillance van and disgusting kitchen. I left rooting for Pete and his family.
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