The Restaurant Series 1

Episode 2

In the first elimination challenge, three couples must host big formal events for three very demanding clients. They have to come up with gourmet food and great entertainment on a strict budget. But their lack of experience soon shows when kitchen staff cannot cope, food is inedible and clients are far from satisfied. It’s a desperate race to pull things together before Raymond puts one of them out of business forever.

Episode 3

The pressure is on for the remaining eight couples to make more money by adding profitable cocktails and desserts to their menu. They are all desperate to do their best to avoid being selected for the elimination challenge. While a few find they have a natural talent for sales, others soon realise that it is as much as they can do to just hold things together. As the stresses and demands of running a business together increase, the couples also discover how strong their relationships really are.

Episode 4

Three couples must battle for business in the tough world of large-scale canteen catering in an attempt to save their restaurants. The three teams go head to head at a lunch service for hundreds of scientists. But things soon career out of control when some forget basic ingredients and others find there is not enough oven space. Whoever makes the least profit will be out of the competition and so the pressure is on to exploit every sales technique possible.

Episode 5

The seven remaining couples are battling to attract more customers. They try every marketing trick possible, from balloon releases to free gifts, but many misfire and the couples soon realise just how difficult it is to turn their restaurants into profitable businesses. They also have to offer a special children’s menu with entertainment. But the bigger numbers cause chaos. Some customers are kept waiting for hours and many of the would-be restaurateurs find children can be the most difficult customers to please.

Episode 6

In the third elimination challenge, the selected couples must host gourmet evenings featuring local produce and provide entertainment celebrating local history. But finding seasonal ingredients and cooking up lavish historical fare proves their most difficult challenge yet. Some decide to break the rules, with dramatic consequences.

Episode 7

Raymond tests the couples’ management skills by seeing how well they can train their staff in sales techniques. To make the task particularly challenging, he gives all the restaurants live eels. They have to come up with original, appetising eel dishes (rarely seen on British menus) and then try to sell as many as possible. But many chefs struggle to prepare and cook them, and the front-of-house teams soon find eel is not popular with the British public. In one restaurant, things get so out of hand that a wedding anniversary is ruined by poor food and service, and there is a fiery clash when a contestant struggles to cope with the criticism.

Episode 8

In the fourth elimination challenge, the selected couples must show they have the management skills to pull off a big event. They will have to organise a three-course sit-down hot meal on the lawns of Blenheim Palace, where Raymond Blanc has invited three tables of 50 important guests, representing the great and the good of Oxfordshire. But the couples are in for a surprise: their staff will be local teenagers who have little experience in this area. Will they manage to get them in shape in time?

Episode 9

When Raymond Blanc challenges the remaining couples to come up with distinctive brands for their restaurants to make them really stand out, some of the would-be restaurateurs struggle to create a winning concept. To make matters worse, the battle is then on to promote the new brand as effectively as possible. One couple wastes all their budget printing leaflets full of errors, while others hope that a live radio appearance will help pull in more customers. The couples are starting to realise just how tough it is to attract in enough paying customers. Some have to take desperate measures, changing their menu and concept a few hours before opening, in a rash attempt to generate more business.

Episode 10

In the fifth elimination challenge, three couples must come up with exciting new microwave meals and pitch them to two leading high-street stores. They must produce a successful, innovative dish with mass appeal, produce the packaging and give a winning presentation. But some soon realise that what works in their restaurants will not be effective on supermarket shelves.

Episode 11

Raymond Blanc asks the remaining couples to focus on the most important person in the restaurant business: the customer. They must come up with ideas that will “surprise and delight” every customer who walks through the door. But they quickly realise that what pleases one customer alienates another. One couple surprises some customers with a high-spirited dance routine, but manages to upset others. And a singing performance at another restaurant causes embarrassment as well as delight.

Episode 12

With the emphasis still on the customer, Raymond’s elimination challenge is simple: it’s dating night, fill your restaurant with singles, give them the night of their lives and help them to find romance. But the couples don’t find it so easy to spread ‘the love’. Finding customers who want to go dating proves difficult – there’s a mad dash along the Thames to find suitable singles, and a very high drop-out rate. Confusion in the kitchen over a romantic seafood platter for two leaves several guests without any food at all, and being the ‘host with the most’ leaves one contributor unable to run his restaurant efficiently.

Episode 13

Raymond springs a surprise visit on the remaining three couples, turning up at their restaurants to see for himself how they are faring. The contestants are in for some big shocks as he examines every aspect of the running of their establishments. He samples the food and checks that their service is up to standard. He also uncovers mouldy ingredients, undercooked dishes being plated up, and customers heading for the door after unacceptably long delays. All three couples are quizzed about their standards before Raymond decides which two will go into the final elimination challenge, and the remaining couple discovers that, whatever happens, they are now guaranteed a place in the final.

Episode 14

One couple already has a guaranteed place in the final. The other two must battle it out for the last coveted place. Instead of returning to their own restaurants, they must work in the kitchens and front-of-house at Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons, Raymond Blanc’s own restaurant. They thought running their small establishments was tough, but now discover it was child’s play compared to meeting the exacting standards of one of the best restaurants in the world.

Episode 15

It is the grand final – the day of decision when Raymond will decide which lucky couple will become his partners and open their very own restaurant with his financial support and expertise. To help him make this very important decision, he takes the finalists to his home town of Besançon (the regional capital of Franche-Comte in France), the place where he grew up and started his own career. The two couples are shocked to learn that they have less than 48 hours to open their own restaurant here for one night, and introduce the French to British cuisine.

And the winners are…