The Restaurant 2009

For all the absurdity of JJ's efforts in the kitchen, this strikes me as a serious business - something more than the middle class foodies (who failed to last more than a few months after winning series 1+2), who never seemed convincing.

So, the "tough on the high street" intro at the start of every Series 3 programme - looks like for once the programme actually intenRAB to deliver what it said it would.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-...sour-to-star-at-new-bar-london-food-buzz.html
 
Brilliant episode, a few random thoughts:

I really thought Shaun was going to do a 'Basil Fawlty' speech at the end there....'You ponce in here expecting to be waited on hand and foot, while I'm trying to run a restaurant here. Have you any idea of how much there is to do? I've had it. Come on, pack your bags and get out.' In the end he come up with something just as good!

Also loved the shots of Sarah in the kitchen, with her white 'pork pie' paper hat on - I have the strangest thoughts about her some times which I am unable to rationalise....

Also liking the arty 'filler' shots of Bristol - am I the only one who keeps thinking Eddie Shoestring is going to shuffle into the background at some point with a wry smile on his face?

Couldn't really see the problem of having to wait an hour at Pizza Express for an overpriced pizza - isn't that normal service?
 
Sadly,you are correct. I quote:

"Having been a contestant last year I can enlighten on some aspects of the selection process. RB and the inspectors will have had no input into the selection of the contestants - all prospective contestants will have gone through a BBC audition process. During the auditions there is no cooking required. People will be selected on the basis of how the BBC want to run the story lines rather than their ability to run a restaurant. My suspicions were raised at the final audition where we were up against a Materchef finalist from the previous year and he did not get through. There will be two or three couples with a realistic chance of winning".

That was extracted from message 87 here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbfood/F2670470?thread=6845899&skip=80&show=20

I really enjoyed the last series but am becoming disillusioned with this. In the slimmed down version there is no second programme to sort out who goes. The girls who went this week and the Winkers would have been obvious candidates for a shallenge, which would in itself have tested particular skills, and may well have resulted in a different outcome. At least you had to fail twice to be sent home!
 
Pixie, I have just watched the restaraunt for the 1st time, and just by reading your posts seems that you are particulary bitter that you did not get onto the actual show:), jesus you must be very poor/appalling by the way you talk about other contestants, the fact that you have the word cafe in your name leaRAB me to believe that you run some north London back street dodgy cafe serving nothing but deep fried crap with your chubby little partner/lesbien friend ?, 1 can only imagiene what sort of run down cafe you work in if you cant even get onto the restaraunt:). how lame, unlike buck he rules, you need to get into the news of the world man
 
No, it is still there, but for whatever reason it is not part of the "blogs" archive for December.
To get to it all you need to do is to navigate to his home page (http://raymondblanc.com/) then scroll down the page to find a headline near the bottom-right of the page with the title "Raymond's Blog" which says
Clicking on this then takes you to the posting itself (http://raymondblanc.com/blogs/the-restaurant-series-3-winners-losers.aspx) which is apparently still within the "Blogs" section.

My personal theory is that this is incompetence rather than trying to hide anything. This is also a bad blog in my view because it doesn't seem to have an RSS feed, which means that I (and probably others) won't bother to follow it since I follow most things through Google Reader...
 
Totally agree. Every week I was expecting them to be kicked out. I can't believe they've actually won it when he can't cook / won't cook / is too damn lazy.
 
I doubt he'll last a week, he didn't seem to work well under pressure and no one will allow him to ice a cake for hours on end while ignoring everything else.
 
I suspect the LCCs PR, Charlie Mason Pearson, had something to do with the Winkers being 'contestants' on the show.

RB has lost all credibility in my eyes. I wanted to see winners who have a passion for food - in the semis, all the Winkers could talk about was making a pile of cash.

Hey, here's a thought... my initials are JJ. I can cook. And I love to cook....maybe I should give Charlie a call and get him to have me win next year's show :p
 
I think that you are right about the winkers being the likely winners. But I'm not happy about it.

If all they wanted this year was a high street concept and people who are business savvy, but it doesn't matter about them having cooking skills, why weren't they honest from the start?

In the past, The Restaurant seemed to focus on excellent cooking, all round good restaurant management (including staffing, pantry management etc...etc) and a really good concept for a restaurant.

Tbh, it just feels as if I have been watching a dumbed down, third class version of the series.

They may has well have filmed it and called it The Dragon's Den + Food, Or The Apprentice Does Cooking, guest starring RB, for all the relevance this series has had to its previous ones. What they are looking for seems more likely to be found on these shows, if what they really want is entrepreneurs with business brains.

If they are going to carry on like this, then I really hope that they don't make another series. I also feel as if I have to question RB integrity as well.

I was annoyed with Rebecca too. She should have bigged Stephen up instead of pandering to him.

If facing those 100 people was truly the worst thing he has ever done in his life, then he should consider himself a lucky man. I wonder how they will cope when a real crisis hits them? :rolleyes:
 
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