Was a Delco Restaurant Duped Into Doing Gordon Ramsay’s New Show?

A sign at Wilson’s Secret Sauce. The Upper Darby barbecue restaurant is featured in the new Fox series Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service. (Wilson’s Secret Sauce photo, provided. Gordon Ramsay photo via Getty.)

Precisely one month ago today, we told you that foul-mouthed television chef Gordon Ramsay had been hanging out in Delco. And we were pretty sure we knew why: He was there to remake Best of Philly-winning barbecue restaurant Wilson’s Secret Sauce, perhaps for the next season of Kitchen Nightmares.

The owner of Wilson’s Secret Sauce wasn’t talking. He was likely precluded from doing so thanks to showbiz-standard non-disclosure agreements. But the restaurant was closed to the public for a week. A TV crew was present, as was Ramsay. And once Wilson’s Secret Sauce reopened, it had a refreshed look and vibe and a dramatically pared down menu. Standard Kitchen Nightmares stuff.

Alas, Kitchen Nightmares this was not. Wilson’s Secret Sauce will be featured in an episode of an entirely new Gordon Ramsay show. It’s called Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service, premiering on Fox on May 21st.

Kitchen Nightmares is, of course, known for segments in which Ramsay finds less than sanitary — and sometimes downright disgusting — conditions in restaurants, though not at every restaurant he visits. And the show is about a lot more than that. But it seems that Ramsay is leaning hard into this grimy angle for Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service.

A Fox press release for the show is headlined as such: “Culinary Titan Gordon Ramsay Goes Undercover to Rescue America’s Filthiest Restaurants In Fox’s All-New Unscripted Series Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service.” America’s. Filthiest. Restaurants. Right there in the headline!

The idea behind the show seems to be that Ramsay does his normal interactions with a restaurant and its owner and staff. But, unbeknownst to ownership, Ramsay is working with a “secret insider” at the restaurant. Maybe a server. Maybe the sous chef. He’s also using surveillance technology to do his, er, dirty work. You can see the silly trailer with what look to be computer-generated cockroaches here.

Gordon Ramsay walking around outside of Wilson”s Secret Sauce barbecue restaurant in Upper Darby during the shooting of Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service (photo provided)

Here’s a bit from the Fox announcement:

In a Gordon Ramsay series first, Chef Ramsay will venture into struggling restaurants under the cover of night. With the help of a secret source on the inside, he’ll gather raw, unfiltered evidence and get a 360-degree view of the major issues facing each restaurant. This insider will not only remain a secret to the staff, but will also help Ramsay infiltrate the restaurant after-hours for a dramatic nighttime black light kitchen investigation that reveals more filth and grossness than ever before. By the time Ramsay reveals his identity, it will be too late for staff to cover up their culinary crimes.

“Over the years, I’ve embarked on many daring adventures alongside my partners at FOX,” Ramsay said in a statement. “And Secret Service is the most intrepid of them all! With undercover help and cutting-edge technology, I get to go full on ‘MI6’ with these restaurants…and they’ll never see it coming.”

So… why on earth would a restaurant sign up to be part of a show focused on “America’s filthiest restaurants.” Could the answer be that the restaurants involved in the series had no clue what they were getting themselves into?

A report last week from New England television station WPRI claims that Narragansett restaurant Crazy Burger was “duped” into doing Secret Service. From the WPRI report:

It appears celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has tricked a Narragansett burger joint — and most of Rhode Island — into thinking it was going to be revamped and refreshed. Instead, Ramsay supposedly visited Crazy Burger Cafe and Juice Bar under the cloak of darkness for his new reality TV show Gordon Ramsay Secret Service.

Steven Feinberg, executive director of the Rhode Island Film and Television Office, confirmed that he was initially told the Boon Street eatery was being featured on a new show tentatively called Restaurant Refresh. Feinberg later learned that the name of the show was actually Secret Service.

“Restaurant Refresh” certainly sounds more pleasant than what Secret Service is offering.

It’s hard to know exactly what Wilson’s Secret Sauce and the other restaurants in Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service signed up for, since any agreements between the parties are almost certainly made confidential by those aforementioned NDAs. But anyone with insider knowledge of the “reality” TV business knows that show producers have a lot of latitude in what they do with the footage they capture and that there’s little recourse for those featured on the shows if they don’t like the outcome. Fox isn’t stupid. They know exactly what they are doing.

The thing is, I’ve been to Wilson’s Secret Sauce countless times over the years. And I’ve even been in the kitchen on more than one occasion to pick up catering orders. I’ve gotta say, the place has always seemed quite clean. And a detailed analysis of the restaurant’s health inspection reports from the last few years shows absolutely nothing alarming and only the most minor of infractions.

So is Wilson’s Secret Sauce one of America’s filthiest restaurants? I find that incredibly hard to believe. But does Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service hit a new low for trash TV? Sure sounds like it.

Wilson’s Secret Sauce owner Steve Wilson declined to comment on this story or offer any insight into whether Wilson’s has been a victim of a bait-and-switch. A spokesperson for Fox didn’t respond to a request for comment.