What happens if you combine The Apprentice, Tycoon and fine dining? You get The Restaurant from the BBC. It’s the latest business reality show to hit the television screens. In the show Raymond Blanc puts nine couples through their paces to see if they have what it takes to run their own restaurant.

During the eight-week series every decision, every mistake the couples make, every argument they have, will be caught on camera. They are working and living together 24-hours a day, under enormous pressure. Each of the nine couples takes over an empty restaurant, makes it their own and will open their doors to the paying public.
Ramond Blanc

Every week each restaurant is visited by Raymond’s panel of “inspectors” – restaurant industry experts Lee Cash, Sarah Willingham and John Lederer. Raymond will then select the three restaurants he judges to be the worst performing and they will be given a tough specific challenge. They must prove in this challenge that they are good enough to stay open.

Each week, one of the restaurants will be eliminated from the competition by Raymond, acting as judge and advised by his panel. The restaurant that fails the challenge will have its doors shut. Raymond’s decision is the one that counts. By the end of the series just one couple and one restaurant will be left.

The winning couple will be given the opportunity to set up a brand new restaurant, financially backed and personally supported by Raymond Blanc.

Personally I’ve always fancied running a restaurant but it’s one of the hardest businesses opportunities to make a success of and from my experience working in the restaurant trade the reality doesn’t quite match the dream. In fact every year in Britain more than 1,000 new restaurants open; of which, unfortunately, approximately 50% will have closed within two years. If you watch the show you’ll get to see why.

I hope the production crew at Peter Jones TV are watching it, as if it wasn’t for the food, this is what Peter Jones’ Tycoon should have been.

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