A former manager of NYC's Purnima, aka Dillons, is suing Gordon Ramsay.
photo: Liz Borod Wright
On Tuesday, Gordon Ramsay was smacked with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by a participant in the upcoming American version of his reality TV series, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, in which the celebrity chef swoops into failing restaurants to save them from the brink of disaster. This time, the restaurant to be rehabilitated was Dillons, aka Purnima, an Indian restaurant at 245 West 54th Street in Manhattan that also houses a pub. (The history of the space is as convoluted as a plot twist in a made-for-TV movie – Dillons morphed into Nirvana 54 in October of last year before recently transitioning into Purnima. Yet it's managed to hang onto the Dillons moniker despite all its guises.) But instead of saving the restaurant, the lawsuit, filed by former Dillons GM Martin Hyde, alleges that the show is "a prime example of Fake TV," and that Ramsay hired actors to play new customers in order to demonstrate the success of his makeover.
The decor at Dillons, post Ramsay visit.
photo: Liz Borod Wright
Interestingly, the personal release signed by participants in Kitchen Nightmares states that the "appearance, depiction, and/or portrayal of you and in connection with the Series and your actions and of others displayed in and in connection with the Series, may be disparaging, defamatory, embarrassing or of an otherwise unfavorable nature, may expose you to public ridicule, humiliation or condemnation, and may portray you in a false light."
This isn't the first time Ramsay has gotten into hot water while filming Nightmares. Last year, he won a ₤75,000 payout in a libel suit against The Evening Standard, which had accused him of faking scenes for the British version of the show. At the time, Ramsay said, "I won't let people write anything they want to about me."