I doubt it's even opened yet. They'll still be in the training phase.
Their training starts in January. I know they already have a trendy location (London) in mind which will no doubt be extremely popular.
It is interesting to see other comments about JJ and James. I agree that although they were not necessarily the rightful winners in terms of the programme format, Chris and Nathan were most definately not a stable choice of winner's either and I can fully understand why, given the choice of finalists, RB made the decision he did.
The judges were only given progress reports/updates from the BBC production team as they saw fit to note - and RB & judges were reliant on those reports for making their decisions :eek:
With that in mind, I believe half of the things that went on were not filtered through to the right people and it is clear from the editing that this did play a large part in the outcome, which as I have mentioned before is a huge shame.
And as for Rebecca being moany and tearful - I probably would have been the same. It just shows the passion, frustration, nerves, overwhelming emotions that they went through.
yes but it is hardly the sort of thing you want to see in a prospective restauranteur - you want to see an ability to stay calm, be focused, be driven. Not that many of the others showed that in bucket loads! The very occasional tear or whinge, perhaps, but not almost incessantly and the "let's give up before we have tried the challenge" style of approach she showed so skilfully.
And that's not even mentioning the hilarious over-the-top ness, which translated itself into lack of palate/letting preconceptions get in the way - again, not a good quality for a prospective restauranteur - when Raymond sent the gourmet food over and she balked at it before even trying.
But they could well run a burger and kebab van successfully as a pair. He at least is a good chef when it comes to straighforward (arguably crowd-pleasing) unadventurous fayre - and there is a market for that.
Their training starts in January. I know they already have a trendy location (London) in mind which will no doubt be extremely popular.
It is interesting to see other comments about JJ and James. I agree that although they were not necessarily the rightful winners in terms of the programme format, Chris and Nathan were most definately not a stable choice of winner's either and I can fully understand why, given the choice of finalists, RB made the decision he did.
The judges were only given progress reports/updates from the BBC production team as they saw fit to note - and RB & judges were reliant on those reports for making their decisions :eek:
With that in mind, I believe half of the things that went on were not filtered through to the right people and it is clear from the editing that this did play a large part in the outcome, which as I have mentioned before is a huge shame.
I think that is unfair. It feels that the judges now were only given half the story so to speak and so didnt have the full details when they made their decision. I'm sure the production staff had their programme in mind when feeding information back to the judges (i.e. what makes good tv as opposed to what really happened).
I appeared on a reality show once and I can quite believe the editing part. You have no control over what is shown and what isnt and a lot of what IS shown is sometimes taken out of context. However, when you sign up for these things I think you have to bear that in mind when taking part.
The judges were only given progress reports/updates from the BBC production team as they saw fit to note - and RB & judges were reliant on those reports for making their decisions :eek:
With that in mind, I believe half of the things that went on were not filtered through to the right people and it is clear from the editing that this did play a large part in the outcome, which as I have mentioned before is a huge shame.
If this is correct it is laughable! I ask any forum member to consider this. You are a businessman/businesswoman. You are going to invest your own money and reputation on the winners of a reality show. You have to decide the winners. But you only have progress reports from a television production team - none of whom are presumably qualified chefs or restaurateurs. Would that be enough information for you?
Well it certainly wouldn't be enough for me, and I don't have a reputation like RB's to consider.
Goddess, how much money were the 3 judges investing?
Their training starts in January. I know they already have a trendy location (London) in mind which will no doubt be extremely popular.
It is interesting to see other comments about JJ and James. I agree that although they were not necessarily the rightful winners in terms of the programme format, Chris and Nathan were most definately not a stable choice of winner's either and I can fully understand why, given the choice of finalists, RB made the decision he did.
The judges were only given progress reports/updates from the BBC production team as they saw fit to note - and RB & judges were reliant on those reports for making their decisions :eek:
With that in mind, I believe half of the things that went on were not filtered through to the right people and it is clear from the editing that this did play a large part in the outcome, which as I have mentioned before is a huge shame.
JJ is reporting on Twitter that he does a month at Le Manoir in January and a month at Pied a Terre in February. Personally I'd buy a ticket for the latter, if he turns up at David's gaff as bad as he was in the series.
However, I suspect he is very trainable and looking back it surprises me that in the course of the series he showed no evidence of any progress in his non-existent cooking skills.
My personal take on the series is that the "Winkers" emerged as the likely winners early on (week 3 and 4) and I suspect the producers and the judges deliberately highlighted the wide boy and non-cooking aspects from then on.
All we had seen up to that time was unremarkable ineptitude and JJ looking frightened by a hot wok!!
Whatever the mystery, I expect them to burst back on our screens sometime in the future. :eek::D
JJ is reporting on Twitter that he does a month at Le Manoir in January and a month at Pied a Terre in February. Personally I'd buy a ticket for the latter, if he turns up at David's gaff as bad as he was in the series.
However, I suspect he is very trainable and looking back it surprises me that in the course of the series he showed no evidence of any progress in his non-existent cooking skills.
My personal take on the series is that the "Winkers" emerged as the likely winners early on (week 3 and 4) and I suspect the producers and the judges deliberately highlighted the wide boy and non-cooking aspects from then on.
All we had seen up to that time was unremarkable ineptitude and JJ looking frightened by a hot wok!!
Whatever the mystery, I expect them to burst back on our screens sometime in the future. :eek::D
Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!
Have just returned from my Xmas hols to see the debate still continuing!:D:D
It appears that M. blanc must have had a very busy Xmas as he still has not yet found the time to write his promised blog update! Mmmmmmmm!
If this is correct it is laughable! I ask any forum member to consider this. You are a businessman/businesswoman. You are going to invest your own money and reputation on the winners of a reality show. You have to decide the winners. But you only have progress reports from a television production team - none of whom are presumably qualified chefs or restaurateurs. Would that be enough information for you?
Well it certainly wouldn't be enough for me, and I don't have a reputation like RB's to consider.
Goddess, how much money were the 3 judges investing?
I'm of the same mind. I've never heard so much rubbish, not only have you major money at risk but your reputation (which is worth more than money) as well. Who in their right mind would do this?
If this is correct it is laughable! I ask any forum member to consider this. You are a businessman/businesswoman. You are going to invest your own money and reputation on the winners of a reality show. You have to decide the winners. But you only have progress reports from a television production team - none of whom are presumably qualified chefs or restaurateurs. Would that be enough information for you?
Well it certainly wouldn't be enough for me, and I don't have a reputation like RB's to consider.
Goddess, how much money were the 3 judges investing?
Given that Reality TV is nothing more than a great PR escapade for RB, his decision was a bad business move, if the outcry against him is any indication. Any money he lost on the first 2 restaurants should be considered a loss leader over what he would earn from BBC and the overall media exposure.
Yes, they were, and I sort of agree with Inspiration. I thought that Barney and Badger were the obvious winners quite early on. I was gutted that they left when they did.
On another note, today I bought the Radio Times for next week. They've published a letter complaining about this series, and the Editor's comment is "Many readers thought this series of The Restaurant was a duffer". Hopefully the BBC will take note, and, if there is another series (which I hope there will be), then it will go back to the old format, and they will choose couples to take part, who have real potential, rather than those they think will make good TV. (I also hope they do this for the Apprentice!).
They should learn from C4 - Big Brother was a really good programme for the first couple of series, when they chose interesting people to enter, rather than those whose only aim was a fast track to become 'celebrities'. I definitely got the 'Big Brother' vibe from this series of the Restaurant (This is not a criticism of the contestants - rather of the people who chose the contestants!)
Had a chance to catch up my emails and have received the seemingly standard reply from the Beeb!
"The decision to pick JJ and James as the winners was made by Sarah Willingham, Raymond Blanc and David Moore. The three partners were looking for a broad range of skills, not just the ability to cook. The series is an open competition offering ordinary people the chance to open a restaurant and the judges are looking for potential they can develop."
I stil do not see that, as The Winkers were already running The Cocktail Club serving cocktalis and food platters, how they could even be eligible in the first place.
The chance to open a restaurant...NOT open another one!:mad:
If this is correct it is laughable! I ask any forum member to consider this. You are a businessman/businesswoman. You are going to invest your own money and reputation on the winners of a reality show. You have to decide the winners. But you only have progress reports from a television production team - none of whom are presumably qualified chefs or restaurateurs. Would that be enough information for you?
Well it certainly wouldn't be enough for me, and I don't have a reputation like RB's to consider.
Goddess, how much money were the 3 judges investing?
our contract only ever referred to a "six figure sum" - and did not include any mention of the other judges investment
Had a chance to catch up my emails and have received the seemingly standard reply from the Beeb!
"The decision to pick JJ and James as the winners was made by Sarah Willingham, Raymond Blanc and David Moore. The three partners were looking for a broad range of skills, not just the ability to cook. The series is an open competition offering ordinary people the chance to open a restaurant and the judges are looking for potential they can develop."
I stil do not see that, as The Winkers were already running The Cocktail Club serving cocktalis and food platters, how they could even be eligible in the first place.
The chance to open a restaurant...NOT open another one!:mad:
Whole sorry saga still stinks IMO
Devils in the detail I imagine, if what James and JJ were running previously was not classed in a business sense as a restaurant then I imagine they still qualified. Plenty of previous contestants have worked in various tangential capacities, eg in hospitality or pub management, and at various levels of food preparation from local catering to full chef status.
Have just returned from my Xmas hols to see the debate still continuing!:D:D
It appears that M. blanc must have had a very busy Xmas as he still has not yet found the time to write his promised blog update! Mmmmmmmm!
I suspect we will not hear further from M. Blanc on this. His blog post prompted largely critical comments and he's probably decided to just let the fuss die down and then get on with his business(es).
I doubt he's terribly concerned about the critical comments; at the end of the day a few tens of people have been bothered enough to comment and a small number of those may be current customers. He may lose the odd customer but he's probably not losing sleep over this.
I doubt he's terribly concerned about the critical comments; at the end of the day a few tens of people have been bothered enough to comment and a small number of those may be current customers. He may lose the odd customer but he's probably not losing sleep over this.
You make it sound like a minor inconvenience when in actuality his reputation has been severely damaged in the short term with practically every member of the public who saw the show. How many of them might have been future customers and now will not be? A decent percentage I’ll warrant. Furthermore the rumour seems to be that should the series return it will be without Blanc and reading between the lines this doesn’t seem to be of his choosing. He clearly found it desirable and worthwhile continuing with it otherwise he wouldn’t have done a third series so one can only assume this is a disappointment for him both financially and as further damage to his rep.
He’s done irreperable harm to his business IMO which relies to a large part on the public’s perception of him as a fastidious perfectionist who never compromises and for whom only the finest quality will suffice. Annointing those two Winkers winners has swept that away at a stroke and replaced it with the image of a man solely concerned with making a fast buck, unconcerned with fairness and thumbing his huge French nose at licence payers by turning what was a great little programme into a rigged farce.
I suspect we will not hear further from M. Blanc on this. His blog post prompted largely critical comments and he's probably decided to just let the fuss die down and then get on with his business(es).
I doubt he's terribly concerned about the critical comments; at the end of the day a few tens of people have been bothered enough to comment and a small number of those may be current customers. He may lose the odd customer but he's probably not losing sleep over this.
Yes, i'd want to get rid of the odd ones if I were he. :cool:
Can you tell us about the selection process? without wishing to disparage your own skills, most of us on here feel that the overall standard of the couples this year was much lower, so just wondered what you had to do to get on the show?
Thanks for coming on here and giving us such interesting insights 'behind the scenes'!
Can you tell us about the selection process? without wishing to disparage your own skills, most of us on here feel that the overall standard of the couples this year was much lower, so just wondered what you had to do to get on the show?
Thanks for coming on here and giving us such interesting insights 'behind the scenes'!
Thats fine, my partner and I are quite confident with our abilities and to be honest we would never have even considered the show if we didnt have the skills required along with a genuine desire to run a restaurant.
That said, there were 4 (or maybe 5?) audition stints, where we were fortunate enough to meet a lot of other hopefuls along the way. There were a lot more experienced couples being turned away at each stage, at which point my partner and I realised that there were other things being taken into account instead of just ability.
There was only 1 cooking related task, which was to make an omelette (a surprisingly tricky dish to get perfect) and in our heat only my partner managed to succeed however 4 couples from that heat got through to the final 15.
Without meaning to sound offensive, the 6 back up contestants were mostly (with a couple of exceptions) "oddballs" who in my opinion got as far as they did because of eccentricities or just plain barminess.
The production team only advised us at the final 15 that RB would be included in the decision to select the final 9 - but I have strong suspisions that this was not the case.
I suspect we will not hear further from M. Blanc on this. His blog post prompted largely critical comments and he's probably decided to just let the fuss die down and then get on with his business(es).
I doubt he's terribly concerned about the critical comments; at the end of the day a few tens of people have been bothered enough to comment and a small number of those may be current customers. He may lose the odd customer but he's probably not losing sleep over this.
More than a few tens have complained on the BBC's Points Of View message boards. If Crazy Ray has read through them, I doubt he's terribly laid back about his reputation as a restaurateur or his career on TV.
This is my first pure cookery series for more than a decade, and I will be teaching home cooks how to elevate their dishes from the ordinary to the sublime – step by step.
Comments
Their training starts in January. I know they already have a trendy location (London) in mind which will no doubt be extremely popular.
It is interesting to see other comments about JJ and James. I agree that although they were not necessarily the rightful winners in terms of the programme format, Chris and Nathan were most definately not a stable choice of winner's either and I can fully understand why, given the choice of finalists, RB made the decision he did.
The judges were only given progress reports/updates from the BBC production team as they saw fit to note - and RB & judges were reliant on those reports for making their decisions :eek:
With that in mind, I believe half of the things that went on were not filtered through to the right people and it is clear from the editing that this did play a large part in the outcome, which as I have mentioned before is a huge shame.
yes but it is hardly the sort of thing you want to see in a prospective restauranteur - you want to see an ability to stay calm, be focused, be driven. Not that many of the others showed that in bucket loads! The very occasional tear or whinge, perhaps, but not almost incessantly and the "let's give up before we have tried the challenge" style of approach she showed so skilfully.
And that's not even mentioning the hilarious over-the-top ness, which translated itself into lack of palate/letting preconceptions get in the way - again, not a good quality for a prospective restauranteur - when Raymond sent the gourmet food over and she balked at it before even trying.
But they could well run a burger and kebab van successfully as a pair. He at least is a good chef when it comes to straighforward (arguably crowd-pleasing) unadventurous fayre - and there is a market for that.
I think that is unfair. It feels that the judges now were only given half the story so to speak and so didnt have the full details when they made their decision. I'm sure the production staff had their programme in mind when feeding information back to the judges (i.e. what makes good tv as opposed to what really happened).
I appeared on a reality show once and I can quite believe the editing part. You have no control over what is shown and what isnt and a lot of what IS shown is sometimes taken out of context. However, when you sign up for these things I think you have to bear that in mind when taking part.
If this is correct it is laughable! I ask any forum member to consider this. You are a businessman/businesswoman. You are going to invest your own money and reputation on the winners of a reality show. You have to decide the winners. But you only have progress reports from a television production team - none of whom are presumably qualified chefs or restaurateurs. Would that be enough information for you?
Well it certainly wouldn't be enough for me, and I don't have a reputation like RB's to consider.
Goddess, how much money were the 3 judges investing?
JJ is reporting on Twitter that he does a month at Le Manoir in January and a month at Pied a Terre in February. Personally I'd buy a ticket for the latter, if he turns up at David's gaff as bad as he was in the series.
However, I suspect he is very trainable and looking back it surprises me that in the course of the series he showed no evidence of any progress in his non-existent cooking skills.
My personal take on the series is that the "Winkers" emerged as the likely winners early on (week 3 and 4) and I suspect the producers and the judges deliberately highlighted the wide boy and non-cooking aspects from then on.
All we had seen up to that time was unremarkable ineptitude and JJ looking frightened by a hot wok!!
Whatever the mystery, I expect them to burst back on our screens sometime in the future. :eek::D
Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!
Have just returned from my Xmas hols to see the debate still continuing!:D:D
It appears that M. blanc must have had a very busy Xmas as he still has not yet found the time to write his promised blog update! Mmmmmmmm!
I'm of the same mind. I've never heard so much rubbish, not only have you major money at risk but your reputation (which is worth more than money) as well. Who in their right mind would do this?
Doesn’t take that long to type, "’J’aime Muhn-ney more than ma réPOOtation" does it?
If they were the army guys, then I totally agree
Yes, they were, and I sort of agree with Inspiration. I thought that Barney and Badger were the obvious winners quite early on. I was gutted that they left when they did.
On another note, today I bought the Radio Times for next week. They've published a letter complaining about this series, and the Editor's comment is "Many readers thought this series of The Restaurant was a duffer". Hopefully the BBC will take note, and, if there is another series (which I hope there will be), then it will go back to the old format, and they will choose couples to take part, who have real potential, rather than those they think will make good TV. (I also hope they do this for the Apprentice!).
They should learn from C4 - Big Brother was a really good programme for the first couple of series, when they chose interesting people to enter, rather than those whose only aim was a fast track to become 'celebrities'. I definitely got the 'Big Brother' vibe from this series of the Restaurant (This is not a criticism of the contestants - rather of the people who chose the contestants!)
"The decision to pick JJ and James as the winners was made by Sarah Willingham, Raymond Blanc and David Moore. The three partners were looking for a broad range of skills, not just the ability to cook. The series is an open competition offering ordinary people the chance to open a restaurant and the judges are looking for potential they can develop."
I stil do not see that, as The Winkers were already running The Cocktail Club serving cocktalis and food platters, how they could even be eligible in the first place.
The chance to open a restaurant...NOT open another one!:mad:
Whole sorry saga still stinks IMO
our contract only ever referred to a "six figure sum" - and did not include any mention of the other judges investment
Devils in the detail I imagine, if what James and JJ were running previously was not classed in a business sense as a restaurant then I imagine they still qualified. Plenty of previous contestants have worked in various tangential capacities, eg in hospitality or pub management, and at various levels of food preparation from local catering to full chef status.
I suspect we will not hear further from M. Blanc on this. His blog post prompted largely critical comments and he's probably decided to just let the fuss die down and then get on with his business(es).
I doubt he's terribly concerned about the critical comments; at the end of the day a few tens of people have been bothered enough to comment and a small number of those may be current customers. He may lose the odd customer but he's probably not losing sleep over this.
You make it sound like a minor inconvenience when in actuality his reputation has been severely damaged in the short term with practically every member of the public who saw the show. How many of them might have been future customers and now will not be? A decent percentage I’ll warrant. Furthermore the rumour seems to be that should the series return it will be without Blanc and reading between the lines this doesn’t seem to be of his choosing. He clearly found it desirable and worthwhile continuing with it otherwise he wouldn’t have done a third series so one can only assume this is a disappointment for him both financially and as further damage to his rep.
He’s done irreperable harm to his business IMO which relies to a large part on the public’s perception of him as a fastidious perfectionist who never compromises and for whom only the finest quality will suffice. Annointing those two Winkers winners has swept that away at a stroke and replaced it with the image of a man solely concerned with making a fast buck, unconcerned with fairness and thumbing his huge French nose at licence payers by turning what was a great little programme into a rigged farce.
But the Winkers' so-called chef couldn't cook at all :eek:
How different that response is, weasel-worded as usual, compared to the frank response of RT: "many viewers thought the series was a duffer".
parthena
LOL!! Frank but understated response!!!:D;)
Yes, i'd want to get rid of the odd ones if I were he. :cool:
M. Blanc is in hiding, in Brazil.
Can you tell us about the selection process? without wishing to disparage your own skills, most of us on here feel that the overall standard of the couples this year was much lower, so just wondered what you had to do to get on the show?
Thanks for coming on here and giving us such interesting insights 'behind the scenes'!
Thats fine, my partner and I are quite confident with our abilities and to be honest we would never have even considered the show if we didnt have the skills required along with a genuine desire to run a restaurant.
That said, there were 4 (or maybe 5?) audition stints, where we were fortunate enough to meet a lot of other hopefuls along the way. There were a lot more experienced couples being turned away at each stage, at which point my partner and I realised that there were other things being taken into account instead of just ability.
There was only 1 cooking related task, which was to make an omelette (a surprisingly tricky dish to get perfect) and in our heat only my partner managed to succeed
Without meaning to sound offensive, the 6 back up contestants were mostly (with a couple of exceptions) "oddballs" who in my opinion got as far as they did because of eccentricities or just plain barminess.
The production team only advised us at the final 15 that RB would be included in the decision to select the final 9 - but I have strong suspisions that this was not the case.
More than a few tens have complained on the BBC's Points Of View message boards. If Crazy Ray has read through them, I doubt he's terribly laid back about his reputation as a restaurateur or his career on TV.
http://www.raymondblanc.com/blogs/bonne-ann%C3%A9e-2010.aspx
BUT, he is also advertising his new TV programme which starts early 2010 and asking us to let him know what we think about it.
Join the queue!
parthena
Just add Cocktails?