What Happened to La Lanterna After Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares?

La Lanterna was an Italian restaurant in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, and the first episode of the second series of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, which Channel 4 aired on 2005-05-24. Wikipedia's episode summary names an executive chef who was losing about £1,000 a week and a manager who struggled to take charge; it does not name the owner. Problems shown included few authentic Italian ingredients, many precooked and prepackaged dishes, old and spoiled food in the walk-in, and a kitchen in poor condition. The episode also shows the chef's costly car and personalized plate being sold.

Ramsay's rescue, per Wikipedia, tightened both the kitchen and the front of house. He taught the manager to be more authoritative, ran a pizza contest that the sous-chef won, and had the menu and decor updated, including paintings from a local art school. The summary does not record a change of name. At the relaunch the chef became overwhelmed and service was slow, but the manager's firmer approach rescued the evening.

A return visit about six weeks later, according to Wikipedia, found the kitchen kept clean, fresh ingredients in use, and homemade ravioli and desserts on offer. Weekly takings had reached about £4,000, roughly £20,000 of debt had been paid down, and the chef had started paying himself a salary.

HertsLive, the Hertfordshire Mercury's website, reported on 2022-02-19 that La Lanterna closed in 2005, about 10 weeks after the episode aired, despite the owner's earlier claim of takings as high as £4,000 a week. The article, which drew on the show-tracking site Reality TV Revisited, said profits dropped and the owner filed for bankruptcy; the tracker adds that the building was put up for sale and that the owner went on to work as a car salesman.