Location: Los Angeles, California
Sebastian's is a pizzeria led by its delusional namesake owner more concerned with being unique enough to potentially franchise his restaurant than noticing that his initial business is failing due to its insane "concept" and oversized menu driving people away.
Tropes
- Appeal to Novelty: The entire menu was designed with this in mind — and got called out on it by Ramsay.
- Bad "Bad Acting": After food service has started off badly, Sebastian instructs one of the waitresses to give Gordon the next dish while saying "As Sebastian's mother says, mangia!" Her delivery could not be more stilted, and Gordon sees right through it, joking that she's already gotten the part and making it clear that the performance was unnecessary. Given that she's an actress when not working, it's likely she just wasn't trying.
- Beat:
- Gordon: "So what do you do?"
Sonja: "I'm an actress."
Gordon: "Oh, do you play with Sebastian?"
Sonja: ...!
Gordon: (Beat) "...cause he's an actor?"
- Berserk Button: Gordon always dislikes oversized complicated menus (Sebastian learned this the hard way).
- Sebastian would become rather defensive whenever his batshit insane "concept" of a menu was challenged or threatened. He's seemingly reduced to tears by Gordon simply declaring that the menu needs to be changed.
- Break the Haughty: Sebastian goes through a huge one during relaunch night after Gordon rips into him for his impudence and stubbornness. He snaps, flying into a rage in front of his staff and customers.Sebastian: THIS IS MY FUCKING LIFE!!
- Cool, but Inefficient: The most generous interpretation of Sebastian's confusing menu (available here
via web archive). It's massively bloated, featuring eight types of fries (in a pizzeria) along with burgers, sandwiches, steaks, salads, seafood, and even breakfast omelettes on weekends. It took the poor waitresses fifteen to twenty minutes of their time, each time to explain how the menu worked to customers who were often left absolutely overwhelmed and indecisive by the scale of choice between various flavour combinations that mostly didn't work together at all. And it didn't help that he was using substandard ingredients too. - Cordon Bleugh Chef: The "unique" menu involved combining a variety of spices and "flavor combinations" with different meats, many of which made no sense together. After Sebastian himself tried, in vain, to explain the menu to Ramsay for almost twenty minutes (with the servers behind the counter laughing at Gordon's bewildered expression), Ramsay just had Sebastian bring out what he thought was best. Ramsay was not pleased.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: A particularly idiotic example: at one point while he's arguing with Gordon, Sebastian says he's "gonna step back" because he doesn't want to hurt Gordon. Ramsay's a black belt in martial arts and a trained boxer. If it had come to blows, Gordon would have destroyed him.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Sebastian is trying to make his restaurant into a franchise, but Gordon tells him that it's ridiculous to even consider expanding when his first restaurant isn't even succeeding.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Sebastian serves as a deconstruction of this trope. Needing something unique to make the restaurant stand out in an area with competition makes perfect sense, but he goes about it in such an inane and impractical way that the idea only works to the detriment of his restaurant in that he'd be better off being the same as every other restaurant.
- High Hopes, Zero Talent: Sebastian has ambitions about starting a franchise of namesake restaurants with his first as a launching part. An incredulous Gordon tells him that he can't run one restaurant properly and yet he's thinking about a second.
- High Turnover Rate: Sebastian says he's fired 49 people in the past year.
- Ignored Epiphany: Ramsay gives the restaurant an overhaul, a new approach, and a new start. However, he also takes Sebastian aside and explains that, even after all this, Sebastian is the same useless, misguided and pretentious frat-boy loser he's always been, and he's a waste of time to try to mentor as a chef *or* as an owner. As you can see in the main page quote and below, it's brutal. And just to take it a step further, around the time the episode originally aired, Sebastian posted anonymously on several culinary websites trying to defend himself while he talked shit about Gordon; the other posters quickly realized it was him and called him out on it.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Sebastian, the owner of the eponymous pizza place. To put it bluntly, until Gordon revamped the menu, the restaurant had wood-burning ovens perfect for making delicious pizzas, that went unused as Sebastian used frozen dough.
- The Millstone: Sebastian, given that he has absolutely no idea how to run a restaurant, has absolutely NO idea how to even cook basic items, and is so far up his own ass about his "Concept" that he thinks is going to make him a famous star that he can't see anything else.
- Overcomplicated Menu Order: Sebastian boasts of his "special menu." It's about eight pages long with the diner having to order at least a couple off of each category and mixing them up. In a priceless moment, Sebastian explains it all as the camera focuses on Gordon just staring at him in utter disbelief.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gordon gives Sebastian quite a scathing one."Mate, there's one thing that hasn't changed in this establishment... and that's you, Sebastian. I'm 40 years of age, and I've gone to a lot of restaurants. But I've never, ever, ever ever met someone I believe in as little as you. I think that you will go back to your sloppy, shortcut, 5 out of 10 frozen ways. Good luck."
- Small Name, Big Ego: Sebastian went on local culinary websites and posted anonymously to badmouth Ramsay after his restaurant failed. The other posters immediately realized it was him and called him on it. Lesson: When trashing somebody and trying to stay anonymous, don't mention bad breath.
- Stealth Insult: When Gordon decides to train the staff in making and tossing fresh pizza dough, you get the feeling that he's enjoying calling all of them "great tossers".
- Stillborn Franchise: An In-Universe example, as well as a deconstruction. Sebastian is so concerned with trying to establish a chain of restaurants that he's willing to compromise the quality of his initial restaurant... which prevents him from having the profits to even keep his one restaurant afloat, let alone be able to invest in future establishments. Gordon calls him out on his misguided ambition:"You haven't got fucking one right so far! How the fuck can you think about two?"
- True Art Is Incomprehensible: If Sebastian is the chef equivalent of a Mad Artist, then his menu is this writ large.
