Really loving The Restaurant at the moment. It's just like The Apprentice - but in a restaurant. I wasn't in the mood for more cookery shows, let alone another reality show, but I Sky+ed it anyway, then someone told me how great it was so we gave it a go. I've not seen the end of last night's one yet, but we'll catch up tonight then watch the cook-off.
If you ever fantasized about running a restaurant and thought it would be a piece of piss, here's where reality bites. I think we all know what a lot of hard work it is, but this hard?
Raymond Blanc, in the Alan Sugar, role is nice, not scary, cares a lot and has his own version of Nick and Margaret as sidekicks. It's glossy, funny, the people are generally vile and it's a great mix of rows, food, stupidity, arrogance and jazz drumming.
On the latter point, the guy who is the jazz drummer is probably my least favourite of all. Since the nasty, gimlet-eyed Scottish guy and his bug-eyed girlfriend got kicked out last week, him and his wife are my new hate figures. This man shows himself to be a tubby fool, with his frustrated actress wife who's irritating just by dint of being American. What did she ever see in this doofus? He seems to have no interest in cooking, only in slinking off to play the drums like some nine-year-old.
The mother and son team are unnaturally close, with him all the time telling her how proud he is of her and then hugging her, in a role reversal that makes me feel quite uncomfortable. The couple with Ghanain restaurant are probably my favourites at the moment. We've not seen much of The Brown and Green team, or the two brothers, but the Bravo! couple are a bit stupid. The woman who cries at the drop of a hat is a gem.
So all round, a great show not to be missed. If you liked The Apprentice, you'll love this.
