Raymond Blanc's The Restaurant

I have to admit even I was cringing at the Mexican night, and the carrots and greens wrap I think it was which was served when they ran out of food had me yelling 'no no don't do it!' at the tv.

Yes, it was all pretty cringeworthy!  And I would say insulting for the Mexicans who showed up.  I was wondering at the first what the big deal was that he didn't have a working oven - I mean fair enough if you wanted to do enchiladas.  But about 80% of the Mexican food I make - I make on the hob (meat, beans, plus you could do seafood, etc) or just fresh (salsa, guacamole).  It's not rocket science.  He didn't even do any research!  Just bought a few bags of Doritos & called it good. 

'Cheerful Soul' woman & her hubby have really progressed nicely! 

Yes, it was all pretty cringeworthy!  And I would say insulting for the Mexicans who showed up.  I was wondering at the first what the big deal was that he didn't have a working oven - I mean fair enough if you wanted to do enchiladas.  But about 80% of the Mexican food I make - I make on the hob (meat, beans, plus you could do seafood, etc) or just fresh (salsa, guacamole).  It's not rocket science.  He didn't even do any research!  Just bought a few bags of Doritos & called it good. 

'Cheerful Soul' woman & her hubby have really progressed nicely! 

I'd come to your house to eat Mexican and pay for it.    I was also bothered when Helen I think her name is who runs Nels, was not at all interested in adding any 'foreign' feel to her foods. She really just had a sour face about it all and her husband was the one who really was trying to hold it all together. Can't wait for the challenge tonight!

I just watched it - my first effort with iPlayer! I hope the 'Mexican' couple go. They're very sweet but the guy in particular is just gormless.

The French menu was hysterical, too. And Raymond should have let them have it for the botched coq au vin.

I just watched it - my first effort with iPlayer! I hope the 'Mexican' couple go. They're very sweet but the guy in particular is just gormless.

I don't think they're sweet at all! I loathe them! And the whole time I was watching it, I kept shouting "GORMLESS" at that idiot ... so we're definitely on the same page there. There's no other word for him! I also think the woman who was crying over her child is pretty gormless. Not because of the crying or the fact that she's missing her child, but she has that completely vacant look on her face all the time. There's no way she's going to be able to cut it.

The French menu was hysterical, too. And Raymond should have let them have it for the botched coq au vin.

I find those two boys hideous in every way. They're my least favourite team - even worse than Mr. and Mrs. Gormless. They don't work well together, they're nasty to their staff, they can't spell (the worst offense of all, in my book!  ) and they don't take any of the suggestions they're given. Idiots. They should have been in the challenge.

I was also bothered when Helen I think her name is who runs Nels, was not at all interested in adding any 'foreign' feel to her foods. She really just had a sour face about it all and her husband was the one who really was trying to hold it all together. Can't wait for the challenge tonight!

I don't think she's a great cook full stop, but I wasn't at all as bothered by her inflexibility as Raymond Blanc was. I mean, would you expect Quat' Saisons to stop serving French food all of a sudden and switch to a Chinese menu?? I thought it was a pretty bizarre and pointless request to make of the teams, to be honest. To me, it seemed as though the producers stuck it in there for the comedy value more than anything else ... seeing Mr. Gormless in a sombrero, for instance.

Ok, maybe 'sweet' wasn't the right word! Chary, I think you and I agree about this show 100% so far!

Yay! Gormless is GONE!

Yay! Gormless is GONE!

He had to go. But I will miss the train wreck aspect of his cooking. Speaking of which, I was pleased that that cocky guy who's worked in the Michelin restaurants was completely slated for his pastry!

Had to stay away from this thread until we got caught up by watching this week's challenge episode, which we didn't do until last night.  I pretty much figured that Chris and Caroline were going to be out - judging by the ending of Wednesday's episode, and even with the way they set them up in the challenge with Alasdair and James.

They were definitely out of their league in running for one of Raymond's restaurants - which begs the question why were they even included anyway?  I reckon for the entertainment value.  I liked them anyway - I could see them running a traditional style pub up here, IF they take away what they learned on the show & put it to use (with plenty of time and practice) - probably a place I would like to eat.  Definitely not the sharpest tools in the shed, but I thought they were sweet and certainly friendly.  And he kept his sense of humor, with the parting laughter about "I lost out to a Chinaman who can't cook rice!"  (I also liked that he stuck up for Caroline to Raymond!)  I think the show is going to be a bit boring without them, in any case. 

The only person on the show that I've found completely loathsome was that Mike guy - Harriet's daddy.  What a tosser!

I thought the last two challenges were ridiculous - both the international cuisine one & the airline food one.  Also, I think that, normally in first class service on an airline, you are going to have more than just two flight attendants serving up the food & drinks to the patrons - so I didn't even think that was fair on the front of house people...to fault them for slow service when I don't think there were as many of them as there would normally be flight attendants.

I think that Cheerful Soul lady & her hubby are going to win the whole deal.  Now let's get Alasdair and James off there, and the Welsh Wok people, and go from there...

Yay! Gormless is GONE!

I don't understand how he got on the show in the first place - the first time I saw him i thought that a village somewhere must have lost its idiot...

I don't understand how he got on the show in the first place...

Like I said, the show is going to be boring without him!  That's the reason why. 

We got more belly laughs off him than anyone in this series...the others are all, well arguably 'competent', but for entertainment value - they are 

"I lost out to a Chinaman who can't cook rice!"

When he said that, though Mike and I said, "Ooooh, that's not nice."  We saw it as snarky rather than showing a sense of humor.  I did think they were good entertainment, but Chris' constant jabbering and jokey-ness made his seem like such a knucklehead / chucklehead.  I found it really annoying.  I do like the way he stuck up for Caroline though.

Oh I know it totally wasn't a PC thing to say...but it was quintessential Chris - not knowing any better that it wasn't an appropriate thing to say.  And I didn't interpret it to mean something particularly snarky (I honestly don't think he meant it as such), but rather that he was laughing mostly at himself (and his outright miserable failure in the contest) than about anyone else (self-deprecation being sort of a typically Yorkshire thing to do - playing up the stereotype to the full hilt).  That was my take on it, IMHO.  (But you're right, it wasn't a nice thing to say, and not at all PC.)

Oh and I really can't stand those Welsh Wok people...not only because he can't cook rice.  The woman has that perpetual painfully tortured look on her face & doesn't seem to be able to crack a smile to save her life!  Plus he doesn't seem to cook very well.  And I think their concept is and always has been ridiculous & confusing.  (Welsh Chinese?  Chinese?  Welsh?  do they even know what their concept is?) 

Oh and I really can't stand those Welsh Wok people...not only because he can't cook rice.  The woman has that perpetual painfully tortured look on her face & doesn't seem to be able to crack a smile to save her life!  Plus he doesn't seem to cook very well.  And I think their concept is and always has been ridiculous & confusing.  (Welsh Chinese?  Chinese?  Welsh?  do they even know what their concept is?) 

I agree about the wife.  Not sure if he can cook or not, but you're right about the concept.  It would have been better just straight up Chinese.

Oh and I really can't stand those Welsh Wok people...not only because he can't cook rice.  The woman has that perpetual painfully tortured look on her face & doesn't seem to be able to crack a smile to save her life!  Plus he doesn't seem to cook very well.  And I think their concept is and always has been ridiculous & confusing.  (Welsh Chinese?  Chinese?  Welsh?  do they even know what their concept is?) 

Yeah we noticed the woman cannot crack a smile for anything and especially when Raymond mentioned to her after the airlines bit that people wanted service with a smile, she just looked at him blankly and STILL did not smile!