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Welcome to THE MAIN INGREDIENT a place where Food News, Food Politics, Food Culture, Food Fashion & Food Humour meet. Each week you can preview topical foodie matter from my 'Gourmet Lifestyle' radio show called (wait for it) THE MAIN INGREDIENT. Food for the belly & the brain, I hope you'll enjoy the journey with me. Regards Kel

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Winners of 'THE RESTAURANT' BBC 2


I’m sure many of you have been watching Raymond Blancs THE RESTAURANT on BBC 2, and of course its now time for Chef Blanc to put his money where his mouth was and back the series winners Jeremy and Jane Hooper and their concept EIGHT IN THE COUNTRY into a fully fledged restaurant. Located in Oxfordshire the eatery will open next month with a little help from series judge Lee Cash and of course overseen by Raymond himself. Blanc has commented that the winning couple were fixated with becoming restaurateurs, he also felt that they were the most passionate about their vision and what it meant to them to win ‘The Restaurant’. Jeremy and Jane were in competition with eight other couples to be crowned the winners of the TV reality show. It will be interesting to see how they cope with taking a reality TV restaurant into the real world.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A shock and a pleasant surprise. Congratulations to Jeremy and Jane, and commiserations to Jess and Laura.

I have to admit I’m chuffed Jeremy and Jane won. Not that necessarily I think they were the best couple over the entire series, but they were so passionate and for me displayed enormous resilience throughout. Jeremy’s final speech on his eight course menu when he was unable to pick any course that he way happy with, even though it had received praise from Raymond Blanc and more importantly Raymond’s Mum, for me just illustrates his passionate approach to his food.

But I just want to advocate for each and every couple that entered this competition. The thing that made The Restaurant such compelling, entertaining viewing, is where other reality TV shows failed, it was exactly that: Reality. I know from my own bitter experience running (and failing at running) a restaurant how much effort and hard work every contestant put in. Every customer complaint and every messed up order, each mistake, each badly cooked dish, each accident and every single stressful teardrop over the past 9 weeks, I have previously experienced and have shared again with them week in and week out.
Good luck for the future to every contestant.

Running a restaurant: It’s a stressful and emotional ride. I’m glad that this time, I was just a passenger.

Kelli Brett said...

Hi Steve
Thanks for your comments.
YES! I was really impressed with the format of THE RESTAURANT. Considering the limitations they must have had it was VERY realistic and did highlight the multitude of highs and lows of running a restaurant. For those of us who have done the real thing it certainly brought back good and bad memories. I really thought the Ghanian couple had it in the bag to start with, but as we saw, its not just about a concept and the food, so many other business skills come into it that they just didnt have. Cant wait for the next series! Anyone out there who might be considering opening a restaurant for the first time really should have a look at it.
Kel

Anonymous said...

i thought it was great but they didnt get enough time for many of the tasks. Great show though and great blog by the way
Mark Treull
Estepona