This Couple’s Relationship Is in Just as Much Trouble as Their Restaurant

Johny and Aysha, the husband-and-wife owners of Spicy Affairs in Oshawa, Ontario, are on the brink of financial collapse and closing their doors for good, as recent sales have dropped nearly 85% due to the town’s downtown district struggling to bring in diners in a post-pandemic climate. Though economic circumstances can be blamed, Aarón and Jen soon discover the family drama bubbling just beneath the surface at the once-popular Indian establishment.

Opened in 2013, the couple divided duties, with Aysha running the front-of-house while Johny and his brother, Lovato, assisting their father, Vijay, a veteran Indian chef of over four decades, in the kitchen. Upon opening, they were greeted with rave reviews and full reservations on a daily basis.

As years passed, however, a decline in foot traffic, plus cutting corners on recipes, has led to poor responses from customers and decreased morale among Aysha and Johny, resulting in high stress and even higher debt piling up. Communication between the couple has dwindled, affecting both their personal lives and overall health.

Just in the nick of time, Jen and Aarón arrive to help revitalize Spicy Affairs and breathe new life into the downtrodden duo who have let both their marriage and restaurant fall into disrepair.

Walking through the front door to an empty dining room, there is a feeling that Johny and Aysha have given up, as the atmosphere appears dark, dingy and worn down. “A vibeless disaster,” says Jen. Bags on the countertop indicate that most of their daily business now relies on takeout orders instead of dine-in clientele.

In the back, Aarón is happy to see an organized kitchen but is disappointed by the use of prepackaged sauce to create signature curries. The tandoor oven, used to make garlic naan, is also old and cracked, affecting the bread’s quality.

Aarón and Jen take their seats, ordering a range of dishes from Spicy Affair’s excessively long menu to get a feel for their flavors: butter chicken, beef vindaloo, lamb kabob, vegetable biriyani and garlic naan. Jen notes that the rice looks “really fluffy and beautiful and inviting,” while Aarón notices that the butter chicken, although nicely seasoned, has the wrong cut of chicken. “It’s so dry,” adds Jen, as were the lamb kabobs. The pair also determines that old garlic or jarred garlic is being used for the garlic naan, and the beef vindaloo was made with jarred sauce. “I would never come back here,” Jen concludes. “Yeah, me neither,” agrees Aarón.

With only three days and a $20,000 budget, Aarón and Jen get to work on updating the front-of-house decor, purchasing a new tandoor oven, making changes to the menu and helping to steer the couple’s financial future in a better direction.

Upon installation, Aarón proudly dubs the new tandoor oven “the Bengal tiger because it roars!” and the team is overjoyed by the upgrade. Aarón understands how chefs who have been cooking for a long time may lose their mojo — “in this case, Johny’s lost his ‘masala.’” This could be a golden opportunity for Johny to break away from his father’s old ways while staying true to their family’s roots and the cuisine’s authenticity.

In the dining room, Jen is reimagining a vibrant, robust layout featuring paint and burnt sienna grass cloth wallpaper inspired by a clay pot, with a mission of connecting the atmosphere to newer, brighter flavors coming out of the kitchen. She constructs an eye-catching arch over the bar that will greet customers when they walk in.

Aarón creates two new dishes. First up, the Tandoori Feast Platter, featuring masala-marinated chicken, lamb chops and vegetables that can be offered at a higher price point. For takeout and lunch crowds, Aarón introduces the Tandoor Power Bowl, offering chunks of pineapple, yams, cauliflower and paneer on top of a colorful bed of rice and drizzled with vibrant, acidic yogurt sauce, plus a side salad. Johny notes that Aarón’s focus on the tandoori items “might be a game changer for us. Customers are really going to love it, especially with the variety we have in there now.”

Aarón, Johny and Lovato must now face their toughest critic: Vijay, who stops by to sample the new dishes. After tasting the power bowl, however, their dad declares, “Perfect. Very good. I love it,” to which Aarón is so honored that he gives the respected Indian chef a hug.

After having lost his spark, Johny says, “It was amazing having Aarón in the kitchen because he had the kitchen alive.”

Lastly, Aysha works with Vijay to edit down the menu. Tensions are high in the room, and Vijay shows some resistance to removing items, but he reluctantly agrees. As a result, Aysha feels more empowered to have her voice heard.

Aarón suggests the restaurant take their food truck out on the road and hand out samples of the new dishes they’ve just created in order to hype up the grand reopening the next evening. Parked across the street in hopes of attracting office buildings, Aarón gets on a megaphone to attract nearby workers who come for free samples and rave about their new offerings, declaring “10 out of 10” praise.