Originally published September 2015. Updated October 20, 2026.
Amy's Baking Company became the textbook social media crisis after its May 10, 2013 appearance on Kitchen Nightmares, when owners Samy and Amy Bouzaglo answered critics online with sustained, combative posts on Facebook, Reddit, and Yelp. The episode was the first in the show's history that host Gordon Ramsay could not finish. The restaurant, in Scottsdale, Arizona, was sold in August 2015.
Part of EPR's crisis coverage. This page also preserves Amy Bouzaglo's September 2015 response to EPR's coverage as primary source material.
What happened in the Amy's Baking Company crisis?
The crisis moved from a television episode to an online argument and ended with a sale. The table shows the sequence.
| Date | Event | Why it mattered |
|---|
| May 10, 2013 | The Kitchen Nightmares episode featuring Amy's Baking Company airs | Ramsay left without completing the show's usual transformation, a first for the series |
| May 2013 | The owners post combative replies to critics on Facebook, Reddit, and Yelp | Each reply gave critics new material and extended the story |
| May 2013 | The owners say their accounts were hacked, then withdraw the claim | The reversal damaged the credibility of every later statement |
| 2013 to 2015 | The restaurant keeps operating | The owners said business stayed strong |
| August 31, 2015 | Last day of operation under the Bouzaglos | The owners said they sold the restaurant, and did not close it |
| September 2015 | Amy Bouzaglo sends EPR a direct response, preserved below | The response is a primary source on how the owners framed the outcome |
The owners' response went wrong because they engaged critics directly, treated every platform the same way, and relied on a hacking claim that they later withdrew. A reality television appearance added pressure that a small business was not prepared to manage.
| Failure point | What happened | What a restrained response looks like |
|---|
| Direct engagement with critics | Replies to Facebook commenters escalated the crisis | Pause, and let one prepared statement stand in place of live arguments |
| One response for every platform | The same message read as defensive on Facebook, as fuel on Reddit, and differently again on Yelp | Match the response to how each platform's audience behaves |
| The hacking claim | The owners said accounts were hacked, then withdrew the claim | Verify a compromise before saying so publicly |
| Reality television exposure | Production schedules created pressure the owners had no plan for | Agree a communications plan before filming starts |
What does Amy Bouzaglo's own response say?
In September 2015, Amy Bouzaglo gave Everything-PR a direct response to earlier coverage. It is preserved here as primary source material, with minor copy-editing for readability noted by the editor at the time. The views are hers, and EPR makes no representation about their accuracy.
It has been very upsetting to have our name continued to be pulled through the mud.
The simple truth is we never reached out to Kitchen Nightmares to help us. A casting company asked us to be on the show.
The show was as fake as Gordon's hair, they set us up and edited us to look like lunatics because they did not like how we told them to leave after the second night of filming.
Gordon Ramsay sexually harassed me during the filming, they set us up and endangered everyone involved. They also made up a bold face lie that we were stealing or "keeping" our servers tips.
This was only done to try and harm us and our reputation.
The ironic thing is a few months after Gordon did that to us he was sued by 16 of his servers at The Fat Cow restaurant in Los Angeles for not paying them their full wages, not giving them proper break time and failure to provide their full tips.
The publicity did not hurt our business. We have been very very busy since the show aired. We decided to stay 2.5 years to prove to the WORLD that Gordon Ramsay & Upper Ground Productions lied to all of their viewers.
We decided to sell our restaurant. We did not lose it or close it because of bad publicity. We sold it, we are financially whole and very strong.
We love our new Landlords, they had nothing to do with us selling. Our new Landlord is Bob Parsons the owner of GoDaddy. He and his team YAM properties are the most incredible professional people we have ever had the pleasure of working with.
Our previous Slumlords (Karlin Real Estate) were one of the reasons we decided to sell. We had the worst Landlords imaginable for three years. Finally we decided after 9.5 years we were going to sell and pursue several other opportunities that have presented themselves to us.
August 31st was our last day.
The new owners will be opening a Wine Bar R&B Food and Wine.
We have Trademarked Amy's Baking Company and we continue to move forward.
We will be selling our desserts exclusively online and we are also building a Studio Kitchen for filming Baking and Cooking Video Demos.
I have written my first CookBook "Baking with Amy."
I have also developed a story that will be turned into Comics, an animated Video game and eventually hopefully an animated digital movie.
We are also working on a video and book that tells the true account on what really happened behind the scenes during the filming of KN.
It is very important that people understand that we did not lose our restaurant, we sold it.
We never stole our servers tips, we would have been sued and arrested. We were investigated after the show by DOL and we have been cleared from any wrong doing.
The simple truth is we put Gordon Ramsay a paid BULLY in his place and he didn't like it and his "team" didn't like it.
The show was as fake and the producers asked us to lie. We refused they set us up. End of story.
Peace!
Amy
Editor's note (2015, preserved): The views above are those of Amy Bouzaglo of Amy's Baking Company, in response to claims that the business closed because of bad PR from its appearance on Kitchen Nightmares. The Department of Labor reference is to an inquiry that the Bouzaglos report cleared them.
Editor's note (2026, added): Amy Bouzaglo's allegations against Gordon Ramsay reflect her view as the named party at the time. EPR makes no independent representation about them. The reference to a suit by restaurant staff in Los Angeles concerns a separate matter, which the parties resolved under terms reported in the business press at the time.
Why does the Amy's Baking Company case still matter?
The case still matters because its central lesson, that engagement often escalates a social media crisis instead of resolving it, has held up from 2013 to 2026. Large brands now run monitoring and escalation teams that small businesses in the owners' position still lack, and the review platforms involved have changed their moderation. The pattern the case shows has not.
Reality television has also changed the work. Restaurant operators who agree to appear on shows such as Kitchen Nightmares, Bar Rescue, Restaurant: Impossible, or Hotel Hell now often prepare pre-production agreements, social media plans, and crisis plans that the 2013 owners lacked.
Which other EPR case studies show similar response failures?
These EPR case studies show how a quick or defensive reply can deepen a crisis.
