It would be enough to make Gordon Ramsay fly into one of his hot-tempered rants.

Last night it was the maitre d’, who often ends up at the other end of one of the Scot’s tirades, who was the real star of the show at a special restaurant challenge in Glasgow aimed at showing how difficult it is to run a restaurant.

Never mind Hell’s Kitchen, this was Front of House Nightmares. In the firing line was The Herald’s own restaurant critic Ron MacKenna. The venue was the Merchant City’s Gandolfi Fish.

It was set up as a critics’ challenge, one of the events organised for the seventh Gourmet Glasgow festival that aims to place food and drink firmly at centre stage.

The question was, could the man who runs the rule over the nation’s fine dining establishments find what it takes to receive and record reservations for dining, escort them to tables, socialise at the right times, deal with any customer complaints and control the kitchen.

With David Maguire, chief executive of the Glasgow Restaurateurs’ Association keeping a watching brief, this was about showing that behind every Gordon Ramsay is a Jean-Phillipe Susilovic.

But Mr Maguire, the serial entrepreneur and restaurateur who commutes between businesses in Scotland and Switzerland, believes Ramsay’s treatment of the maitre d’ gives the wrong impression over how key to the success of a restaurant the manager is.

The owner of some of the smartest restaurants in Glasgow including Mexican-themed Cantina del Rey believes that without a top-class maitre d’ there can be no Michelin star.

“The maitre d’ is in charge. That’s the great fallacy of the whole Gordon Ramsay show,” he said. “That’s why Gordon Ramsay is a great chef, but not a great restaurateur.

“I wouldn’t go to one of Gordon’s restaurants if I thought he was in charge of the restaurant. Make no mistake it is the maitre d’ that is calling the shots.”

For Mr MacKenna, it started slowly. Very. At first he could not tear himself away from the wrong side of the table. A conversation over a glass of white wine with the Gandolfi godfather Seamus MacInnes heralded a casual start to proceedings.

Meanwhile Mr Maguire could not help himself taking over and escorting guests to their tables. “Why are you coming over to us and yet you don’t work here,” asked one puzzled diner Stephen Williams of Dunlop, Ayrshire, before a lengthy explanation.

But the heat was definitely on at 7.30pm as the restaurant filled up and Mr McKenna’s guiding light, restaurant manager Matthew Hendry, explained the ordering system to the bemused critic.

With three menus on the go at once and a dazzling array of dishes from pan-fried halibut fillet with chanterelle risotto and shallots braised in red wine to a simple Gandolfi fish and chips it was easier to sink rather than swim.

But was the critic up to the task? “You know, it is a very difficult skill to just have,” said Mr Maguire initially diplomatically. “Ron is up there chatting to people he has never met in an interested way, in a way that looks like the beginnings of a man who could be a maitre d’.”

After nearly two hours in the firing line, the critic rose to the challenge and impressed.

“Seamus and I would employ him every day of the week,” said Mr Maguire later. “He has stuck at it for far longer than he need to.”

Mr MacKenna helped raise at least £750 for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution – the proceeds of the night’s challenges.

“FOR ME THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WAS NOT TO SCREW UP THE ORDERS”

TABLES TURNED

Ron McKenna

What are my impressions? It’s hot in there. It’s hot. It’s quite uncomfortable when you are moving about. It was very busy, it’s bustling, there was a good feel about it and a good atmosphere.

It has been a rush and very demanding and I’m a bit out of practice and a bit out of shape. I didn’t have any difficulty speaking to people. I used to do that when I worked the tables as a student.

For me the most important thing was not to screw up the orders.

What was intimidating is the computerised system for calling up the orders – pressing a button so the chefs know when you want the meal and just making sure you take food to the right tables because there are no table numbers.

It never used to be like that.

There are three menus but at the end of the day I didn’t see that as a major problem for me. There is a tasting menu with sampler dishes of what is on the main menu and it is not that different from the specials menu. The major difficulties were dealing with the technicalities of the thing and the procedures.

I was just aware that I didn’t want people to feel when they are having their dinner that there is some kind of circus going on in the background surrounding this event.

The main thing is that people are enjoying their meal and they are not being imposed upon.

The staff that are there know what they are doing and they are comfortable there, but I was not comfortable at first.

However, I was worried that I could easily have been in the way but I succeeded in not getting in the way, I didn’t drop any plates – which I was concerned about– and it has been good fun.