The third NJ Restaurant featured on ’24 Hours to Hell and Back’

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant makeover show, 24 Hours to Hell and Back, made its third New Jersey stop of the current season in Swedesboro.

Last night’s episode tackled Botto’s Italian Line, a faltering family Italian restaurant owned by four brothers (although we only met three of them). The tension between the two brothers who run the restaurant is quickly identified as the cause of the decline.

After going to undercover (as he always does), chef Ramsay samples the food and comes to the conclusion that it sucks (which he almost always does). After revealing himself to the employees and patrons he tours the kitchen, which is really disgusting. So gross in fact that when Ramsay pulls down a hood over the stove, grease comes pouring out and starts a fire. There’s also a lot of uncovered, old, rancid food. If you want to see Ramsay’s reaction to the kitchen slop, watch this.

Chef Ramsay throws out the menu and introduces just a few, but well made Italian dishes which his culinary staff teaches to the Botto’s crew. Meanwhile, the decor of the restaurant is also being overhauled, giving it a more modern look while preserving a few of the photos that one brother, Robert, insisted would stay. Then the big move is made: Robert is banished from the restaurant, leaving his other brother Henry in charge of the whole operation.

During the relaunch dinner service, there are some hiccups, but it goes off pretty well, at least well enough to show the employees (and Ramsay) that Robert is not needed. The four brothers also own a sausage factory and a small Italian market; Robert is now limited to running the market while Henry runs the restaurant. Ramsay leaves satisfied, having successfully turned around another struggling restaurant in 24 hours. When the show checks back in three months later, Henry reports that Botto’s is still humming along and the changes have turned things around.

That is the last New Jersey restaurant scheduled to be highlighted this season.

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