Tom PowellOWNERS of an embattled Fuengirola restaurant would ‘be in prison in the UK’, claimed Gordon Ramsay in the first of a new restaurant series based in Spain.
Expats Jack and Pat Diaz were told they were ‘lucky to not have killed anyone’ at their restaurant Mayfair, which has now changed its name to Jack’s Chicken Shack.
In a trademark foul-mouthed tirade in Ramsay’s Costa del Nightmares, he slammed its hygiene standards as being the worst he had ever seen.
In particular the slammed four-day-old cooked pasta, rotten chicken and calamari ‘more rubbery than a cock-ring’.
But five months down the line the restaurant is in better condition than ever, insists son John Diaz, who has now taken over the running of the eaterie.
“We’ve got the TV show playing on a big screen every day, and people are always coming in asking for photos,” he told the Olive Press.
“The customers seem happy and 95% of the feedback is positive and we are sometimes catering for 70 clients at a time easily.
“Gordon actually said that our show was the most entertaining of the lot, it really was great fun,” added John, a former car salesman described by Ramsay as ‘one ball short of a full sack’.
To save the failing restaurant – losing €30,000 a year – Ramsay ordered a mass clear-out and demoted owner Jack to the position of waiter.
He then told John to sell his cars, write an IOU to his dad for the €40,000 he owes him and ‘prepare for the biggest summer of their lives’.
But the change was far from easy – with Ramsay admitting he had been waking at 4:30am every morning worried for them.
“I’m panicking for the first time in my life, I’m very, very worried for them,” he said.
But in a bold move he changes the name to Jack’s Chicken Shack and creates a simple fried chicken menu aimed at ‘tourists and expats’.
In one hilarious scene, he has Jack and John running around Fuengirola in promotional chicken costumes.
The show ends with Jack’s Chicken Shack making €1,500 a week, thanks to a new chef at the helm, and it appears to be going from strength to strength.
An episode airing next week on October 7 sees Ramsay run the rule over La Granada Divino in Gaucin.
I would never trust a restaurant that starts out with such disgusting hygiene standards and remains under the same management. What does it say about all the years the place served food to people before they had a “makeover” from Gordon? You can makeover the decoration, but you can’t make the owner and staff change their ways that easily.
I agree Fred.
Strange that we have had an article in the daily mirror today in England where the son John is saying that his recipes are better than Ramsay’s but they won’t last another winter!
Interested to know what restaurant the family ran in UK before they went to Fuengirola and what went wrong
I have said before that I live and have my business quite close to Jacks Chicken shack so maybe go past it 4 or 5 times a day if not more. There seems to have had an up turn in business during September as many place to as there is an increase in Foreign tourists in the area. However I do notice that Jack seems still seems to be there and like I have said before sitting there with his friends watching spanish TV sometimes even with customers on the terrace. Over the last week hand written Rent a Car signs have been put up which means the son hasnt got rid of that. I can’t see them lasting as they are not turning over enough to break even in my opinion so it won’t be long before they are dipping into to the family savings to pay their way.
Like Fred I won’t go there after seeing how they worked before and also believe it won’t be long before they fall back into their old habits
they ever look for a good English chef of 36yrs,22 in army catering corp,to try to help them then get in touch.