Say this for “Restaurant: Impossible,” the hit Food Network show that begins its fourth season Wednesday: It is not afraid to stick to a formula. In every episode, the menu and décor of an ailing restaurant are overhauled in 48 hours on a budget of $10,000.
The project always seems hopeless at first, typically because the food is lousy, the staff inept and the premises a shambles. But salvation arrives in the form of Robert Irvine, a brawny British chef in a snug black polo shirt, who, through a mix of tough love, expertise and shouting (and with an assist from an interior decorator and crew of carpenters), transforms the place.
The last scene of every show is a full house of customers dining happily from a radically altered menu in a bustling and beautified room. Cut to the once-desperate owner, beaming joyously.
Roll credits. Another week, another miracle. But does it stick?