I mean, it's a television show with everyone there aware that they're being recorded. Gordon Ramsay is known for trashing the food. They seem to choose restaurants that are trying to be something they can't achieve.
I really don't know what you mean by "staged," because no one is trying to pretend anything different.
I've worked in restaurants and it is more likely than not that if the owner is the chef he has conned himself into believing he's serving great food when it's just pretentious slop like that onion soup. Many of the people that eat there won't know any better if the owner is lucky. They probably think those raw lamb chops in sugar sauce are haute cuisine.