No kitchen nightmares here! (The Restaurant)

Member Name: thedevilinme

Product:	The Restaurant
Date:	01/10/08 (512 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Non cynical reality show

Disadvantages: Not enough help and input by Blanc

The Restaurant is essentially The Apprentice for 'foodies', and like that extremely successful reality show, the contestants that are put forward by the production team are not always ideal for the task ahead, but, of course, make good telly.
The format of the show is eight pairings made up of couples-which can be friends, relatives and lovers- are each awarded an empty restaurant by top chef Raymond Blanc in various towns and cities across the nation. They then have to apply their business model and acumen, as well as their own food theme, to make cash for Blanc who is picking up the tab (apparently). The winning couple will be offered the chance to go into partnership with chef, only famous because he has a sexy voice, if we are honest. His branded resturant in Milton Keynes recently recieved a derisory one-out-of-five rating in a respected good food guide.

For each of the twelve episodes we will be following their weekly challenges to prove to the rather cliché but amiable French chef that the pairings can not only make decent food but run a business and more importantly make him some money. Raymond sends his expert out to keep an eye on them and report back on their failings and achievements. Unlike the Apprentice, it's not always the one who makes the most money who wins. That one eviction a week is, of course, a tension mechanism although it's not really that type of show, Raymond, and so not the contestants, doing the firing as the contestants are obviously apart from each other most of the time.

-The contestants-

(Evicted)

Richard & Scott are airline stewards (cliché or what) and have everything but the pink poodle in the kitchen. There restaurant theme of 'Sorbets and Seasoning' never materialized. Richard & Scott just wanted to be on telly, probably just to keep their relationship together, not a good idea.

Tim & Lindsay

Lindsay is this series teary wife and its waterfalls as soon as the pressure is on. You just want to slap her with big wet fish.

Alistair & James

These are a couple of mates from London, although acting like a couple of Queens already, Alistair the wannabe cook and James the willing front of house. They some how survived this far.

Mike and Harriet
(Evicted)

The father and daughter team were the most middle-class on the show, he doing it his way, just trying to make his nice daughter happy by doing the project. As with most of the other couples, neither can really cook the good stuff. They were dead couple walking early on.

Peter and Laura

She's Welsh and he's English/Chinese so the menu is an equal muddle in their restaurant called the Welsh Wok?

Steven & Helen

The middle-aged married couple have impressed early on and already Raymond's favorites.

Michelle & Russell

The shows attractive young couple hasn't been pulling up trees so far but will get a run at it as they are cute and sweet, there only for that reason. I don't thin Russell has actually said a word in the first five episodes. He could be really camp and so a ringer and so keeping quiet.

Chris & Caroline
(Evicted)

A young smiley couple who are just enjoying life and having a laugh here and smart enough to realize this is about their mistakes not achievements. I like these guys.

-The early episodes-

The couples on show are just about from all walks of life, but some already treating this like a game show, no doubt encouraged by the production team to drop the odd plate here and a big swearing fit there. The attractive Caribbean mother and daughter and the predictably tearful and hissy fit same sex couple seemed to be there only for the sake of political correctness and those BBC ethnic and minority quotas, and were first to be voted off, pretty awful at the tasks, the Caribbean pairing not even able to get through the preliminary round, a round clearly put in to make sure the pairings could at least make toast. Where's the new rusty Lee when you need her! The daughter only seemed to be on because she was very pretty and so wasn't allowed near mums ingredients.

After the opening eviction it all settled down and the pairings began to get used to their restaurant and kitchens and we got to see if they can serve some actual customers and turn a buck. There was no eviction on week three of the main restaurant challenge as Alistair and James were exempt because they had gas leak in their restaurant and so couldn't take part.

Week three officially saw two teams go up for eviction after performing poorly in the previous challenge...one where the customer pays what they think the food is worth type deal. Father & daughter team Mike and Harriet had to play off against gays Richard and Scott in a motorway service station challenge where all the teams had to prepare and serve grub to the drivers and passengers, but incorporating their ideas with presentation and menus. As you already know by now the second minority couples on the show were the second to go, airline stewards Richard and Scott's idea of serving what turned out to be airline food to hairy lorry drivers not a great one. It was XL airlines time for the gay guys, an angry Blanc kicking them off, a service station where they really should be cooking now.

Week three and the competitors are given pig each for their restaurant service, the instruction from Raymond to sell all of the pig as food on their menu, not an easy challenger for any eatery. Most fared quite well - happily none of the chefs Muslims in keeping with that ethnic quota at the BBC. Drama Queens Alistair and James were in the challenge, again going up against Mike and Harriet. The challenge, with the help of the other team members, was to prepare a dinner at two different snobby Oxford colleges. It quickly went pear-shaped as they made the fatal mistake of serving 'blue-collar food' to Britain's elite. So much for 50% of Oxbridge stock coming from the proletariat! Fortunately for the whole British class system the Dons failed to spot they were drinking cheap wine after the chefs went over budget, although grumbled at being served a 'leg of chicken' for the first time in the colleges 500 year history. It would be stubborn Mike and his sweet daughter who lost their restaurant this time, his pushy manner too much for all. How James and Alistair survived it is beyond me.
The following week saw the teams selling foreign food to foreign clients. Unfortunately they hadn't cooked the foreign food in question before and it was to the same nationality. The specially invited Mexican clientele were not impressed with cold burritos. Michelle and Russell won again, the pretty people building momentum.

Peter and Laura, Chris and Caroline and Tim and Lindsay were put in the challenge by Raymond. This time they had to sell and prepare airline food, their menus, and their cooking, first class passengers too, including Raymond and the judges. Sadly the likeable Yorkshire couples of Chris and Caroline were found out after buying in most of their menus from ASDA and found themselves in the departure lounge, losing to a Chinese cook who could prepare rice. That's how haphazard Chris was.


-Conclusions-

I think what's good about the Restaurant is its not cynical and the people on it are not looking for TV careers off the back off it (as far as we know), which is often the case with these things. The contestants clearly want to win the prize and the last ones standing will be the best able pairing to open a restaurant with Raymond Blanc after 12 weeks, which is not the case in 'The Apprentice' any more. Sugars guys couldn't give a stuff if they work with SAS or not and it was always about being seen and winning on that show, pumped up salespeople showing off on telly. Apparently the winners of that show spend more time opening things with Sugar at celebrity bashes to promote his ego than actually grafting. The winners of this, on the other hand, will have to work very hard as running a restaurant full-time isn't easy.

The inquisition at the end of each show works well and Blanc doesn't need a bigger chair than his fellow judges to prove he's the most important guy there. His passion for the show and the fact he's a decent guy who cares for his contestants and wants them to succeed is all that's needed for him to be the focus point. It would be nice more interaction if he helped them with new recipes every week and stuff, Gordon Ramsey style, but one would presume he has more important things to do with his time. But the show works smoothly and is just nice gentle evening viewing with no posturing and inflated egos on show. That posturing is ok on some of these gigs as it makes for great entertainment, but not when the show becomes about the people rather than the task in hand, which is where the likes of Wife Swap and Big Brother imploded. The task in hand here is to learn how to run a restaurant and that's exactly what you get. How refreshing is that.

Its on BBC2 on Wednesday and Thursday night at 8pm...

Summary: Proper reality TV