Episode 1 Restaurant Wars: The Battle for Manchester

Manchester. Britain's fastest growing city.

Two world-class football teams and world-class industry.

But one thing it hasn't got - a reputation for world-class food.

When I come home for my supper,

I sit down to a plate of cabbage and ribs.

Something I can handle.

Smell that lamb.

Every big-name chef that's arrived in the city has failed.

Manchester doesn't have a Michelin star restaurant. That's outrageous.

Now two of Britain's greatest chefs have come to the city to open

restaurants and chase Manchester's first Michelin star.

The lobster's cooked too high.

No mise en place ready, your dill wasn't chopped.

Nothing's ready, Nat.

We've got two Michelin stars, five AA rosettes

and ten out of ten in The Good Food Guide. I mean, what's he got?

Two very different gastronomic experiences,

costing over £4 million to create,

hoping to bring fine dining to Manchester.

What do I think of him? Not a lot at the moment.

No. I don't want to be told what to eat.

A big fat person like me liking a salad is fairly unusual.

Got rib eye steak. Something in a bone.

What can you say?

Can either of them

win over a city that's always turned its back on celebrity chefs?

Everything's a massive risk.

But if we get it right, it'll be phenomenal.

If we get it wrong, it's there for everyone to see.

Cartmel in the Lake District.

Two covers. One no gluten.

Home to Michelin-starred chef Simon Rogan,

one of the finest chefs of his generation.

His restaurant, L'Enclume, was voted best in the country

in this year's Good Food Guide.

Here we've got a custard which we've made out of langoustine stock.

We've got some black pudding, one of our specialities.

I think the black pudding we make here is better than anywhere else.

On top of that we've got the langoustine itself.

Some sea purslane from the coast just down the road,

an intense langoustine stock.

It's just going to enhance the langoustines

a little bit by a little coating.

Then we've got a pot parsnip mousse.

On the top, raw langoustines on a grain wafer

with some cured egg yolk and some salad burnet.

You don't feel like you have to do too much to impress people.

You've got to be very confident with the amount of flavours you've

got on the plate that complement each other in the way it's served.

I mean, it's not... It's very easy to just go too far.

Service.

Simon moved up to Cartmel ten years ago

and he's transformed the village into a foodie destination.

When we first arrived it was, "Who's this southerner coming up,

"taking, you know, taking over a northern restaurant

"and using this really alien restaurant concept?"

You know, "where's the pies and the sausages?" sort of thing.

Simon started cooking in a chip shop in Southampton at 14.

He's now one of the most influential chefs in the country.

It's really quite difficult talking about food.

What you see on a plate is a reflection of me

and I don't like talking about myself, so that's probably why

I find it difficult to actually say

why this is an amazing plate of food.

I just know it's right.

Simon's got three restaurants in Cartmel,

but now he's trying to open his first restaurant in a big city.

Manchester has always resisted celebrity chefs

and hasn't had a Michelin star

since the Midland Hotel held one 40 years ago.

Its French restaurant has been a Manchester institution since 1903.

Now Simon is daring to relaunch it.

Adolf Hitler. The story goes that he was told

if Manchester was going to be bombed,

do not bomb the Midland Hotel because he wants to be based

and have his empire ruled out of the Midland Hotel.

How true that is, we do not know,

but that story goes around and has been chronicled many times.

The Beatles famously came to the French restaurant

and were turned away for being inappropriately dressed.

You knew you had to put your best Sunday tucker on before you could come in there.

The restaurant used to attract the city's rich and famous.

Mr Rolls and Mr Royce first met under its roof.

The menu full of the French classics -

smoked salmon and Chateaubriand beef to share between two.

Some of them, they have the Chateaubriand just for themselves.

David Beckham, a Chateaubriand just for himself

and Victoria was just watching him!

But it's a long time since Posh and Becks.

The restaurant is often empty and the hotel has looked to Simon

and his ten-course tasting menu to save it.

The challenge in Manchester, really, I suppose, is it's never seen it before.

You know, will there be enough interested customers

is always a worry.

We might get some people that are a bit cynical

and question my motives when genuinely

all I want to do is come in and create a great restaurant.

The restaurant has been kept going by regulars

like Mr and Mrs Best, who spend nearly £25,000 a year.

They're not impressed by celebrity chefs.

If chef decides to make a slug souffle, I don't want that.

I want the choice.

I'm not going to go to a restaurant where chef tells you what to eat.

-You...

-Where chef's more important than the customer.

-Nobody...

-That's not me.

When he opens in six weeks, Simon will find out

if the city has a taste for modern fine dining.

On the outskirts of Manchester,

another chef is getting ready to open.

Aiden Byrne, a regular on TV programmes like

The Great British Menu, has a very different approach to his rival.

What I want to do here is use modern technology

and use modern techniques to enhance what we would already do anyway.

He's using scientific techniques in his development kitchen

to create a spectacular, colour and complex menu.

People aren't happy with just a plate of food any more.

They need to be entertained from start to finish.

I don't want to just be another restaurant in Manchester.

I want to be THE restaurant in Manchester.

Aiden can't afford his new restaurant - Manchester House - to fail.

His career started with a bang

but his recent businesses have struggled.

I was a youngest chef ever to get a Michelin star when I was 22

and that's where I belong. That's what I'm known for.

That was 22. I'm 40 now, you know.

I can't carry on living on the back of that any more.

I need to deliver pretty much now

and I need to put on the plate what I believe I've got.

The restaurant will cost over £3 million

and is being paid for by serial restaurateur Tim Bacon.

It's just...a great space, great space.

Opening up something as ambitious as this will be very difficult

to do without a chef that was known.

If I was trying to do this with a completely unknown chef

I would have lost that whole marketability.

Tim knows one part of the Manchester market well.

Look, have you seen my pub before? Look.

-You've got an empire, Tim.

-Well, I wouldn't say it was an empire, but I would say...

You have an empire. Look, we're looking down on other businesses of yours.

Um, yeah. Looks nice, it's not what I would call an empire, though.

It's just... It's elementary. It's a business.

He has 16 bars and mid-range restaurants in the city

selling cocktails and casual food.

-I need a peppercorn sauce and an olive dip.

-Bring them...

-Yeah!

His company, Living Ventures, turns over 60 million.

It's popular with the city's soap stars and footballers.

Now, he's taking a gamble on something more ambitious.

Michelin-star ambition is the hook. It's the cherry on the cake.

It's the rationale behind the whole thing.

It's being able to say we run pubs,

we run a Michelin-starred restaurant.

That's a wonderful statement to be able to make

and no other caterer in this country can say that.

Tim's given Aiden nine months to develop a menu.

Nothing like this will ever come along again.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity

and I need to make the most of it.

It's a hell of a lot of work but it's going to be... I think

it's going to be worth... worth it in the long run.

Black pudding, the nori,

Cumberland fluid gel, apple brunoise...

Up in the Lake District, Simon and his team are preparing

for their Manchester opening, which is just a month away.

They're hoping they can transfer their success to the city,

with a menu that nods to the old restaurant's luxurious past.

And then the fourth and final snack, the gilded fish.

He's planning a fish-shaped jelly, covered in real gold.

The golf leaf, I mean, shall I order some right now so we can...

We need to practise the brushing on cos it's not... It's not easy.

It's quite easy when you get used to it.

-It's what carat you want as well.

-Just want it to be gold.

We're not giving it to a woman or anything, are we? You know, it's like...

Simon's success in the Lakes

has attracted wealthy customers from all over the country.

He'll need to create a fine-dining clientele in Manchester.

A lot more people live in the centre of Manchester now

so there's been a lot of development over the last, you know, ten years

where Manchester was probably a ghost town after office hours,

but now a lot of people live and work in the centre of Manchester

so I think that will help the dining scene no end, really.

He's going to be pushing the pricing in Manchester to a plate level it hasn't been before.

But where better can you do that than The French

and then Simon Rogan as well? That's a great partnership.

So if two things can pull it together - and I believe they are the two possible -

they're the two things that will hopefully and will make it for us.

Be fantastic there with The French, Simon Rogan, it's got to win.

It's got to be a winner. But we'll know in four weeks.

Simon has signed a five-year deal to take over The French.

He's bringing in new chefs and waiters,

but some of the existing staff will remain.

OK, gentlemen, er...

..tonight is the night.

It's the last night at The French before it closes for refurbishment.

For Anibal Cabral, it's particularly emotional.

He's retiring after 27 years.

For our regular customers, we have some champagne for them...

..and some port to finish.

I'm sorry, gentlemen. That's enough.

Let's have a good night. Let's go for gold. OK, guys.

It's the last night guests will be able to order a la carte.

Simon and his wife Penny have an early table.

I truly belief in the building. I truly believe in its history.

We're looking now very much to the future to get that restaurant full.

We need to attract those new generations

and with new food and new ways of doing things.

This evening's selection.

We have lemon and thyme.

Paprika smoked. Rosemary with garlic.

Chefs and waiting staff will need to completely change the way

they work under Simon's leadership.

Oh, very nice.

The guys in there have definitely got some potential.

The service is general, I mean you know it is very, very traditional.

Lots of pleases, lots of thank yous.

Lots of, "Yes, sir, no, sir".

It's quite an old style of service

so obviously we'll be looking to freshen that up straightaway.

We need to move on and bring this in into modern times.

Not having an a la carte menu, that is...

That's a recipe for disaster.

Celebrity chefs, they think they can tell the customer what to eat.

The French restaurant, as it is now, is the end of it.

I think we feel very sad that this is coming to an end as it is.

I think it's just so lovely. I think we're quite sad about that.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Nice smoked salmon.

This is the way it's going to be

and if they don't like it, then find somewhere else, I'm afraid.

In the past, Manchester has never warmed to big-name chefs

like Raymond Blanc and Marco Pierre White, who were forced

to close, unable to find enough customers.

But the city centre population has boomed in the last decade,

from 5,000 to 25,000.

Finally there may be an appetite and the money

for Michelin-level dining among the city's new young professionals.

While Simon is trying to revive a dying institution,

Aiden and restaurateur Tim Bacon are creating a restaurant from scratch.

It will be the most expensive menu in the city

and has to be spectacular.

I want to impress Tim Bacon cos ultimately Tim Bacon's my partner

and he thinks outside the box where I think as a chef.

He thinks as a restaurateur.

I was lying in bed last night thinking, "I've bitten off more than I can chew."

I think I'm not going to be able to deliver this.

That's just a natural thing for me to do,

is to beat myself up to the point where, you know, I get nervous

enough to make sure that these things, these mistakes don't happen.

See, what I'm going do is the langoustine first,

followed by the sea and soil, OK?

Aiden has much longer to develop his menu than Simon,

and every two weeks, Tim Bacon and his team visit to make sure

the food lives up to their theatrical vision.

It's true to say that we're not doing the classic white tablecloth

typical Michelin-star offer that doesn't really tickle me, turn me on.

I like something that's got a bit of differential to it

and we are trying to do that. It's a lot more theatrical, a lot more about the environment,

so I think it should work.

He says hopefully!

Tim's right-hand man is John Brannigan.

I would like to consider that I have a very good standard of taste.

This is a winter menu so flavours need to be big, bold and strong.

Today, they're looking at Aiden's starters.

Homage to Irish Manchester.

The first dish is inspired by Manchester's Irish connection.

An oyster served with a beef consomme.

In here is the oxtail consomme,

which has been seasoned with a beetroot distillation vapour.

The oyster has been fed on a beetroot reduction, turning it crimson.

What?

Say it...

Well, it doesn't look very pleasant, does it? Looks like a placenta.

I think it looks fantastic. I love it.

It's served on a bed of dry ice, scented with sea salt.

That sounds a very theatrical dish, strong, strong flavours, yeah.

I think that's fantastic. I really do. They're a bit cold.

Yeah, OK. OK, Well, maybe cos it's been sat on this frozen block for so long.

-I love that dish.

-We will make this look like a marshy...

A marshy bed kind of thing, do you know what I mean? That...

It's surf and turf, isn't it, if you will?

-I quite like that, surf and turf.

-The hallowed turf. Every week we take half an acre of it.

-Of United and City turf.

-Can you tell the difference?

Between a blue one and a red one. Jeez, there's a marketing story there.

We just need to work on... on the grass a bit more.

When you develop this food, you've just got to go through a process.

I'm going through that process in my own mind, trying to understand

exactly what the message is and what we're trying to create, I guess.

No doubt I'll be there in ten weeks and it'll be fine.

The next dish features carrot and langoustine.

This dish will sell for £14, £15.

The black carrot, that's been cooked.

-That's a black carrot?

-Yeah. That's how carrots were originally.

So the original ones, you've got the Dutch ones ...

Until the Dutch got hold of them and sabotaged them

and turned them into orange ones.

Manchester is only a small market,

so dishes have to have a broad appeal.

-OK. Well, it's very pretty, I think.

-Yeah, it's a very feminine dish.

It's very summery, nice introduction to the...

Yeah. I'd like to see it.

I'd like to road-test that out on, particularly, the girls.

The female aspect of this to me is very important.

Some dishes are feminine and some dishes are masculine

and you've got to make sure you've got a balance.

You see a lot of very fancy menus that are very offal-based

and very sort of, you know meat-based and that sort of stuff,

and that is typically masculine and it's very difficult to get

someone like my wife, for example, to go into a restaurant like that.

I might love it, but she will just say there's

nothing on there for me, so you've got to make sure

you balance it right out and soon as you put prawns onto a dish, bang.

For Tim, the focus is the customer, but for Aiden it's the food critics.

Tim wants this to succeed.

There is people out there that will want this to fail.

Reach for the stars, then people will just say,

"Who do you think you are?" and they'll want it to fail.

And the people who I want to please are the people who want this to fail.

All the talk of Michelin stars and tasting menus has grabbed the attention of the press.

Simon is due to open in two weeks and he's first into the spotlight.

I don't want to set you up and I don't want to push your buttons

but I mean, would you see a star here, do you want a star here?

We're not talking Michelin stars.

We let other people talk about that, but if we do what we do

and cook to the best of our ability, who knows what might happen?

We just want to make, you know, a really successful restaurant and then hopefully the rest will follow.

-Thank you very much. Thank you for letting me in your kitchen, chef.

-OK, no problem.

Did you like my...my public image, though?

Well, you know, we're just keeping our head down and...

of course we want it.

Of course we want it!

Simon's hard-won reputation is under real scrutiny at The French.

His food has to match that served at his main restaurant,

L'Enclume, or it'll be judged a failure.

Everyone's waiting for the kink in the L'Enclume armour

because I'm... I'm here.

A whole onion...

He's recruited six new chefs

and taken three from the old French to cook his food.

Just has to be lovely little rings.

They're used to cooking in modest hotels and high street brasseries.

Simon's approach and the techniques he uses are a massive step up.

That's all cut wrong.

-A whole

-BLEEP

-lot of cabbage is cut wrong because you didn't ask.

You just got in there, all guns blazing

-and

-BLEEP

-cut it all incorrectly. Again, yeah!

I want perfection,

so I'm giving them a few hints on how to achieve that

and I'm giving them instruction on how I can achieve perfection.

So if they don't follow those hints

and I get a product which I'm not happy with, then I go ballistic.

You obviously don't see a cabbage as a very, very important,

you know, item in the kitchen to treat it like this,

but it's treated with just as much respect as a loin of veal.

It's quite important.

There's a way of doing it without ripping the guts out of it.

Know what I mean? So it splits like...

That's just not acceptable.

Just what is that?

I can't comprehend how somebody can't carry out

a simple instruction

and I'm not used to it.

At L'Enclume or Roganic or all my other restaurants,

when I ask for something or I tell them how to do it, they do it.

So these guys better come round to my way of thinking

pretty quickly or they're not going to work here for very long.

Let's go, guys. Need some confidence here, are we ready to go?

Simon won't always be at The French.

In his absence head chef Adam Reed will run the kitchen.

-Just wilt it down, like spinach.

-OK.

Don't smash it about.

He's worked in Michelin-starred restaurants

but this is his first time back in his native Manchester.

Less like that, yeah.

Get the angle right and let the blade do the slicing.

It's proving hard to find chefs in Manchester who have

experience of Michelin-level food.

It will be hard to get the right people.

It's hard enough to go to London and get the right people in a restaurant

who are going to have the right attitude and do the right thing.

In Manchester it's like there's nowhere else that is doing this,

what we're doing.

So it's even harder.

It's like your man there, you know,

he thought that he was coming in,

it's like, "Oh, Simon Rogan. "Oh, I'll get a job there.

"Ooh, be great, you know, oh, well easy

"and then it'll be exactly the same as like working at Harvey Nicks."

No offence, but do you know what I mean?

We haven't got six months to kick around going

"Yeah, come on, stroke your back," and all that.

"Oh, let's get off now, it's a bit late, innit?"

We ain't got time for that. We need to hit the ground running.

The restaurant will open in a month

and the re-launch needs a strong publicity push.

-Website's gone live. Bookings have gone live.

-Yeah, perfect.

They reserve a table.

OK, great, that's done, boxed.

Menu.

Simon is selling the city's first ever £79 ten-course tasting menu.

That's the one that people will want to understand a little bit more about.

Will it fill them, will it not?

Oh, don't worry, it'll fill them. We made plans.

We're very conscious of the fact that it's a different market

and there's going to be a lot of people saying, "Oh, you know,

"we had to go for a kebab afterwards," or stuff like that,

so we don't want that to happen.

So we're not going to launch this to anyone, are we, until...

-I'd like to keep it a surprise, really.

-Great.

Everything in the new French will be chosen by Simon,

but paid for by Mike.

It's a commercial venture and we have to make money,

it has to be a success, otherwise in a year's time if we're not

doing the covers, not making the money, well, why are we doing it?

It's a risk for the management, but one they have to take

if they're to save the restaurant and raise the hotel's profile.

So, this is the range, really, from the 1960s that Robert Welsh is known best for.

Really? Maybe a little bit too chunky.

I prefer the rounded spoon, to be quite honest,

rather than the flat top.

That one. Yeah. Good.

A little something for an appetiser.

You can put in there napkins.

At the moment we just fold.

Yeah, it's coming along actually, the menu, actually.

Is it? On the website?

I think it'll be ready... I think, well, maybe not next week, maybe the week after.

It's just these little periphery things now, isn't it?

You just think about jugs, trays.

You've always got to have a vision of where you're going to keep on getting the hotel there.

If you just sit back and just wait, someone else will steal where you are,

so you've got to keep on pushing and bring something new to the table

because unless you keep on coming up with new ideas of where you want to take the hotel

you'll stay static, and if you stay static,

your rates will stay static, your costs will go up, you're in doom town.

Four weeks and one day.

Loads of time.

Moving the hotel forward means a new coat of paint for The French.

The ornate gilding is being replaced with Simon's muted colour scheme.

Maitre d' Anibal has decided to retire but he can't resist

a final peek at the room he spent 27 years working in.

Yeah, it looks interesting.

This wood panel is being covered with this paint,

it looks like undercoat.

The colour is not very, very nice for the ceiling.

The old French had a small but wealthy following.

Simon is hoping for a very different market.

Celebrity chefs,

they think they are bigger than anybody else but they're not.

They're not because what this guy's doing, what these celebrity chefs

are doing, is destroying some things

that were built in the past.

Call it the French Restaurant and put it on the plate, whatever.

Flowers, herbs and this and that.

I grow these herbs so big.

So what? I can grow herbs.

I can grow out in my garden. No problem!

I think it is a romance that is going to end up in tears.

Two, three, four months, a honeymoon period, and then the bride

puts the dress away

and then the divorce proceeding starts.

Thank you.

15 miles south of Manchester lies The Church Green pub.

It's where Aiden Byrne cooks when he's not working for Tim Bacon.

Fish and chips in straightaway, please.

Spicy salmon on?

Yes, Chef.

At 16, Aiden left home in Liverpool

to cut his teeth in some of London's most prestigious restaurants,

eventually making his name at the Dorchester Hotel.

Bread and butter, please.

When he left London six years ago, he took over The Church Green

hoping to bring fine dining to the North West.

Chips, chips, chips. Welcome to my world, yeah, eh?

But not enough people wanted his fine-dining menu and

he received mixed reviews,

so he had to start serving pub grub instead.

As a chef, cooking in the arena I was cooking in,

we always looked down at restaurants like this.

We always looked down our noses at restaurants like this because it wasn't good enough.

It was never... It was just that London mentality that we had

drilled into us, that anything beyond or below

one and two-star Michelin restaurants wasn't good enough.

Linguini, linguini, get your pan on, please.

So to turn my restaurant, which I aspired to being a Michelin star,

to turn it into a grill, it was tough, you know,

and I wasn't a very nice person to be around.

Service!

But, you know, fortunately enough I stumbled across Tim Bacon

and them aspirations can now be carried out.

Table 57, mate. Come straight back for a well done, yeah?

Is that the last table?

Aiden hopes that his new partner's money and the city centre location

will give him a second chance at fine dining.

Chi-chi chic. You know the kind of New York advertising...

Tim's spending £150,000 on a design to attract the city's new

young professionals.

So it's lot of leather, lots of shag pile,

lots of dirty stuff going on up there, you know,

but it's all got this kind of nice kind of slickness to it.

Yeah, I want to go.

And then someone's dropped in a quarter-of-a-million-pound kitchen

right in the middle of it.

Manchester hasn't had a Michelin star since 1974

and there's a reason for that.

Because Manchunians don't like to get told what to do,

and when you go to these high-end restaurants

with the waiters in their dickie bows and the huge, er, phone books

for wine lists, it's offensive.

We want to give that high-end service,

high-end food in a really relaxed atmosphere.

You turn up in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, you're just

as welcome as the guy who's sitting next to you in a three-piece suit.

That's the master logo, but very simple.

It's nice, innit?

Yeah, we're doing fine dining, but it doesn't need all that pomp

and all that kind of...

regalia that goes with the fine-dining world.

There's absolutely no reason why you can't be chilled.

In fact, you turn up the funk buttons.

It's kind of... It makes it better.

I'd like to start seeing real samples now. We're not that far off, we're on site in two weeks,

so we're a couple of months away, three months away, that's it.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, we're all good.

The kitchen and the celebrity chef will be the main feature dominating the restaurant.

Amazing innit, eh?

It's phenomenal. It's great, great to see it in the flesh.

Bigger than I... It's much bigger than I remember.

The kitchen needs to accommodate 20 chefs.

The units alone will cost around £200,000.

This is where I will be spending the majority of my day,

especially during service, standing here.

And six customers will be sat there

and the restaurant will be out in front of us.

We've gone for this rusty look, but that's going to fit in with

the theme of the industrious feel of Manchester House

and it's all really coming together now,

it's absolutely fantastic.

To get the industrial look, the units have to be rusted, sanded,

then sealed.

It's much more expensive than normal shiny metal.

It's the first time I've ever been asked to build a rusty one.

cos usually people want to see it shine.

But it ain't shining.

Tens of tonnes of metal there. It's cool.

It's cool.

For a chef it's just like getting a Ferrari delivered, isn't it?

It's just... There's four Ferraris sat there waiting to get

parked in your garage that you've designed.

What more can a chef want?

Another one.

THEY LAUGH

With only weeks to go before opening,

Manchester's bloggers and food journalists are already

speculating about the chef's chances of success.

Details of Aiden's plans have reached Simon and his PR team.

Well, the big surprise was actually that I've been told yesterday

that our rival opening in Manchester this year is

plotting the same format as what we are.

-Oh, really?

-Aiden?

-Yeah.

Aiden is also offering a tasting menu.

We had a little meeting about how we actually counteract that.

We've got two Michelin stars, five AA rosettes and ten out of ten in the Good Food Guide. What's he got?

So the bottom line is, obviously, you know, we're glad he's here

because it's another person in Manchester, it's going to raise

the profile and there's going to be lots of other people coming

and it's completely different, so, you know,

obviously we wish him well, but our cooking styles are like chalk and cheese.

You know, he's always had a certain style.

I understand he's going a little off piste

and doing something a bit different, which will be interesting to see

but obviously there's a lot less pressure on me

because we've already got a couple of successful restaurants

which, you know, are pretty much at the top of their game.

Whereas Aiden's, you know, trying to get there.

But Simon doesn't think the rustic style of his Lake District

restaurant will transfer to Manchester.

He's spent £10,000 on two chandeliers imported

specially from China to give the new French some urban glamour.

A bit time-consuming.

If you get a knot in it, you've had it.

800 on this one.

Oh, I think it might take three days, I think.

Two salad away.

Where's the onion oil?

With just two days remaining, Simon's team is having to

work 18-hour days preparing the menu.

Where's the parsley cress?

Chefs are finding the long hours exhausting and are making mistakes.

Where is all the sauce?

-Have you used it all? That's it? Oh, for

-BLEEP

-sake!

-You've all... You've all made me

-BLEEP

-swear a lot today.

I hate swearing. I hate it.

I can't stand swearing.

I don't like losing my temper, I don't like swearing.

People say, "laugh at that" but I do not like it.

I want to just keep quiet,

send out amazing plates of food,

thank you very much, everyone, go home, sleep well at night. That's all I want.

But when someone doesn't toe the line and they don't do what I tell them,

I don't sleep at night and I'm very angry.

New recruit Sam has only recently left college

and he's finding it particularly hard.

What's up with that? Why is there more on that plate than that plate?

You split one pot into two, yeah, in half.

Sam is also finding it tough being away from his young family for so long.

Got a six-month-old little girl.

It's difficult being away from her for 18, 20 hours a day,

especially with the pressures that you've got from work

with stupid mistakes that you're making where in some kitchens they'd fly.

You could get away with things like that,

but a kitchen that's pushing for a star with chefs of two-Michelin-star calibre

breathing down your neck the whole time is just... That's what I mean by overwhelming.

It's the littlest of minute details.

He can't hack it...

so... Personal life-wise.

A meeting is called to discuss the staffing problems.

And Sam, he is...

..unbelievable.

He's costing us a fortune at the moment.

Everything he touches is just, like, wrong.

Oh, Jesus.

He's got a young child at home.

I'd love to be compassionate and I am, I look after him, but...

To be blunt about it, he is terrible.

Yeah, yeah, he is, and I put that across to him.

Yeah, I said that to him

and he needs to go home and make the decision.

We don't want to have complaints.

That you're not just slogging to death seven days a week.

That's not how we want to run this restaurant. I want you to have enough.

That's it. I mean, there's a lot of people busting their balls to do it,

so the ones that can't, I'm sorry you just have to cut loose.

That's just the way it is.

You could put your arm around him and say, "Look, let's forget about it, tomorrow's another day."

Someone that blatantly disregards an instruction

that's when it's just not acceptable.

Sam finished his shift but then handed in his resignation.

With two months until opening,

the kitchen is being delivered to Manchester House.

It'll be in the middle of the restaurant, showcasing Aiden

and his team of chefs.

Unbelievable, ain't it, mate? It is an amazing bench though, innit, eh?

Just fantastic.

It's great to see it in its raw-rity now.

The restaurant marketing is being designed around Aiden.

The team has commissioned some short videos to send out

to his 13,000 Twitter followers.

The film-maker has travelled up from London to show the first cut.

You haven't got these on file?

I'm already late for my next week.

Could be less people using it.

Living Ventures have 30 restaurants

and a mailing list running into thousands.

Yeah, that background stuff has got to go.

They'll send the videos out to all their followers.

It's going well, Ted.

The films need to reflect Tim's £3.5 million vision.

Don't really get the music.

The idea of the music was they're all Manchester-based bands.

Is it a Manchester-based band?

Yeah. I don't know who it is but...

See, do you do that for effect or not?

There's no soft way of putting it. It's amateurish compared to what's out there at the moment

and it's the last thing it can be.

But, yeah, no, we can't release that.

Even cutting it down, I don't think we can release it.

The dishes themselves have moved on so much,

so it's no relevance to what's going to be served in Manchester House.

I don't like any of the blues.

Look, you know, I need this place finished, mate, so...

Construction is also causing Tim problems.

He insists on being involved with every aspect of the design.

What I don't like is seeing this sitting there like that.

It's altogether a stupid design, whoever designed that.

When you've spent so much money and you've got such a fine finish

and then people take their foot off the gas, it's not good enough.

So there will be some repercussions, I have no doubt.

So none of these are wired in?

So when are we looking to get these wired in?

One of the main design features are the four corner balconies in the bar.

They have spectacular views but the handrails are too low.

I've got a drink falling off there, it's 12 floors up,

it's going to hit someone on the head and it's going to kill them.

You know I can't live with that.

It's obviously at a very low height against your leg,

which is obviously somewhat dangerous,

especially if you've maybe had a drink or two.

A long way down, isn't it, 12 floors?

The bar is key to the restaurant's profitability.

There's a greater mark-up on alcohol sales.

Tim would also like to use the space to sell food during the day.

So what the hell is happening here? This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life.

I love the idea that we're actually lighting power points,

such is the attention to detail and the death trap that is this.

They've all got to be filed off.

OK, when are they going to be filed off? I mean, this is a health and safety issue.

I don't know yet. I will find out.

Tim's got an amazing eye to walk in somewhere

and say, "We'll do this," and you kind of go, "Really?"

Sometimes he'll come back and change stuff

and sometimes he'll be, "No, it's fine."

He'll say, "The floor's wrong," and he'll go away and he'll come back

and he'll change the ceiling colour and then he'll realise the floor was right, and the ceiling was wrong.

And, Tim, you need to make a list of all the outstanding items

and just chase these suppliers.

I don't know if it's their fault or your fault

or a combination of both, I don't know,

but either way, I need the stuff on site, we need this solved.

I'll shout at them all I can so...

Well, yeah.

500 yards across town and now only a day until launch,

Simon is discovering that working inside an existing hotel

has its own problems.

HE GROANS

Deliveries are going missing and suppliers are confused

about which part of the hotel they're dealing with.

Just chasing people up all the time on orders

and trying to get everything into the restaurant on time.

It's just a nightmare, it really is a nightmare.

One of the biggest problems is liquid nitrogen.

It's used to instantly freeze ingredients,

but it's a hazardous substance and needs secure storage.

The hotel has never needed it before.

It's just really, really getting on my nerves now.

The tank was delivered with no nitrogen in.

So we've been waiting for nitrogen to finally get here,

which has been a right fiasco.

But now we've got the nitrogen that's been delivered, apparently there's no hose to squirt it off.

There's... There's no hose.

Yeah, that's it.

Is it supposed to be like that?

It's all right. We're stocked, innit?

I cannot believe they have not delivered a hose.

How do they expect us to get it out? In our hands?

Unbelievable.

USELESS!

So we're going to break every health and safety rule in the book now and try and yank it out,

cos we can't go without it.

CUTLERY FALLS ON FLOOR

With opening night only two days away,

Simon needs to put the new chefs to the test.

Right, I haven't even got enough soup bowls in here.

We've got to stock the ...ing hotplate up.

That's the most basic thing.

They need to practise sending out food,

so a buffet has been laid on for the hotel staff.

Here we go. They know the food will be coming out now. There we go.

Where's the parsley cress?

It's not really about the quality of the cooking,

it's about the nerves of actually starting to deliver something

on the plate rather than the actual whether you can cook or not, you know.

Soon as we get the first couple of services out the way,

they'll be, like, breathing a huge sigh of relief I think.

"Oh, what was I worried about?" you know, and it'll be easy for them.

Just the sense of the unknown at the moment.

English truffle dumplings

and they'll be served with a very much rich and tasty artichoke broth.

Ah!

It's the first time Simon's served his food in Manchester.

Ooh, that is lovely. Oh, that is lovely.

Oh, no, sorry.

It is good, isn't it?

Dinner for two will cost over £150.

It's not everyone's idea of a hearty meal.

Where's all my oils? The oils for the fish.

HE GRUNTS

Oh, it's gorgeous.

-Very tasty.

-Mmm.

-Mmm.

Parsley cress.

Parsley cress!

Parsley cress!

Each chef is responsible for different ingredients in each dish,

but they're not handing them to Simon at the right times.

That talking. We're in a kitchen not a monastery.

That's all it is, boys, yeah? This is all it is - communication.

We'll give it a good try.

Among the dishes are razor clams with scrambled eggs.

Would they serve it to the customer like this?

Wouldn't it be better in an egg cup, then?

All the stuff's fell out.

And raw ox in coal oil.

You don't like it?

That looks like raw meat.

Is it raw?

I like mine well done.

-What do you call it?

-Ox tartar.

Ox tartar.

It's really important to get the staff engaged

and understand why we're going through this process.

You know, the staff will look from the outside and see

a lot of money being invested into one small area of the hotel

and managers will think, "Why is that not my area?

"Why isn't it happening down the leisure club?" Or why isn't it happening in different areas,

and this is for them to see why we've done it.

No.

The kitchen has served four different sample dishes

to 30 staff.

Tomorrow they need to send out the full ten-course tasting menu

to a full restaurant.

Well, it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad.

The food was nice, so after you got the second lot out,

the third lot out, it went fine.

It was just that initial, like,

you know when you kick-start your car, it just won't have it.

So, yeah, there's a lot of work to do.

-You've just what happens if you're not

-BLEEP

-ready.

If you're not moving your arse quick enough, make sure you do now because

-if that happens in a real service you'd get your

-BLEEP

-arse kicked.

Ox in coal oil. What's that?

I mean, I go for a couple of pints Saturday night with my wife

and when I come home for my supper I'd sooner sit down to

a plate of cabbage and ribs.

Something I can handle.

The staff reaction may have been mixed.

Tomorrow night it's the turn of the old restaurant regulars.

Mrs Best ate at the French three times a week.

So you're the new chef?

Yeah. I mean, obviously Simon's head of the restaurant

but I'll be the head chef, yes.

The thing is, though, Steve and me like to pick the menu, that's the problem.

Come on, you've got to trust us. We know what we're doing.

In Manchester - people, are they going to pay that money?

Yeah, but it won't be necessarily the people of Manchester.

There'll be a new generation of customers.

There's a lot of people in Manchester who aren't what people think that Manchunians are.

I mean, I know for a fact I'm Manchunian

but I don't sit in the Rovers Return every Saturday night and have Betty's hotpot.

But the thing is that...

I'm here to attract a whole new type of customer that will pay the prices.

Do you think you can do that five or six nights a week, fill the place up?

I wouldn't be here if I didn't think I could do that.

I eat very plain food, so I'll have, like, grilled tuna.

That's the kind of things I like, just plain food.

Quite boring really.

Yeah, we'll do our best.

Right you are. I'm going.

Mrs Best has spent 20 years ordering smoked salmon and omelette.

Things have changed at The French.

-I don't think she'll like it.

-No, I don't think she'll like any of it.

You want it blunt then I'm telling you.

She won't like any of it.

I think the guy don't know what he's talking about.

I think the guy's got delusions, absolute delusions.

Absolute delusions. It'll go down the pan. I give it...

Even comments on the internet,

absolute delusions.

He's going to fall flat on his face.

In 12 months' time that restaurant will either close

and become a function room or they will revert back to it having a menu.

The restaurant design at Manchester House is supposed to reflect

the city's industrial heritage.

A pill press.

Aiden has started to look to the city's acid house era for inspiration.

These things will be individually wrapped

and presented to the customer.

They unwrap them, OK, you're playing to that drug culture type thing

which is fine, yeah, whack it in there, Happy Mondays, job done.

Happy Mondays.

The idea is to make a palate-cleanser using a pill and flavoured water.

As I've got coffee in my mouth now, if I drank that, it would get rid of that coffee.

It's great, innit?

I think it's a brilliant idea.

As soon as you said it, I thought, "You know what? It's genius."

Too chemically?

Yeah, I think so. I think it's too soapy for me, yeah.

Look, at the end of the day, early days on that and I wouldn't get stressed out about it.

Can't not do it.

We can only do it if it's right.

All right? I think you're stressed and I think you're trying to force it a bit too much, mate.

Preparing 55 dishes that each have a story to tell is

labour-intensive and proving a massive technical challenge.

What we're trying to do is trying to create a wow factor.

But at the same time try not to over-complicate flavours.

Chefs, you know, they'll learn something new.

It's all about the techniques and not about the actual product itself.

It's easy for us to get carried away.

We still need to wow people and I'd rather be wowing people with flavour rather than technique.

The pasta is made out of burnt fennel which has been binded

with a lobster butter, so it's got that shellfishy flavour in there.

Today the team is trying Aiden's main courses for the first time.

They're hoping the city centre market will be willing to part

with up to £50 for some dishes.

-Is that big enough for 40 to 45 quid?

-Yes. Yes, it is.

What people will say is, "Well where's the rest of the lobster?

"Where's the rest of the course?"

They won't be.

The food will be expensive but so will the plates.

They're spending up to £170 on each one and some dishes require two.

That just seems a hell of a lot of plate.

It's a lot of platage, there is a lot of platage.

Can we not fit it all on one nicely?

Yeah.

And this is one of the appetisers, so the fish...

-Is that the right bowl?

-No, I'll show you the right bowl.

Give it a nice white piece of crockery.

Tim's concern is that Aiden's finely tuned food

may be let down by its presentation.

You go into some restaurants

and you can tell it's all about the food and the lighting, the heating.

The service can all be, and are, quite secondary to that.

When you're a restaurateur you're looking at the overall.

You're trying to create a space, an ambient environment that people are going to enjoy

everything in it, as opposed to just one specific part of it.

So basically it's pumpkin puree, turned into a spherical.

It's been stuffed with truffle puree

and then grated, freeze-dried truffle on top.

Bosh, straight in.

-I hate that.

-Really?

Spherical, skinny thing that's...

No.

I'm never going to like that. I like the flavour.

-Fine, right.

-It's not for me.

-The point is that these are the menus.

You don't have to like every single dish and that's the point of it.

Everything is a massive risk but if I get it right, it'll be phenomenal.

If I get it wrong, it's there for everyone to see.

At the Midland Hotel, Simon and his young team are taking their

full tasting menu to the Manchester public for the very first time.

It's a different type of pressure now.

We've got lots of people in there that have booked and not necessarily

as friendly as all the people we've asked to come in to test our dishes.

So a hostile atmosphere out there.

People looking for weaknesses.

40 years on from its last Michelin star,

The French is about to be reinvented.

It's a great day to be general manager. A great day to be general manager.

It's a new chapter for the hotel, so, yeah, very exciting.

They've invited local food bloggers and journalists to try

Simon's food and hopefully spread the good word around the city.

Two covers.

Always get a few butterflies.

Even though you are telling yourself you've got nothing to prove, you have really.

Restaurants are three times more likely to fail

in the first year than any other business.

Simon may have two Michelin stars

but he can't afford to damage his reputation.

Well, it's got to work.

At the end of the day I didn't come up with it just to create something nice in the Midland

in which everyone will go "Ooh," but doesn't make any money.

If we're going to do that we could have just kept The French.

It's a commercial venture.

£100 a meal is nothing new for people in London,

where in the North it's a different thing.

Especially in Manchester, £100 per person for food is a new area they haven't been to.

How are you? Well, let's hope everything goes well for you.

No tongues!

With you?

For The French to succeed it'll need to attract customers from all over the North West.

It won't be able to rely on a small group of rich

regulars like the Bests who visited the old French three times a week.

We're not a restaurant any more where you come

to just have a sit on a chair and in a posh restaurant and be pampered.

-Success.

-Success.

-To you both as well.

Hopefully they'll enjoy it. If they don't...sorry.

Well let's go, quickly, come on.

Tonight is the first time the kitchen has served

the ten-course tasting menu that Simon is best known for.

Onion bread, smoked eel, leek puree.

Fantastic.

The old bread trolley has been replaced with a box.

Mm. Very tasty.

Can't get the eel, though.

We may lose certain customers who've been coming for many years

who don't want to change.

Hopefully, I'll be able to increase it three fold on customers who've never been before.

I mean, the tweets in there tonight is going crazy.

There's a battle between two of them at the moment who can send out the tweets quick enough.

One potatoes, please, quickly, and another portion of cabbage.

Quick as you can. Cabbage, come on, quickly, yeah.

Quick, quick, quick, quick.

The tasting experience takes around three hours

and customers don't get to choose from the menu.

-It's not what I like.

-It's not your taste.

There's too many courses, there's too many bits.

It's like... I can't...

The whole evening is a gastronomic experience of flavour...

Yeah, but I don't need it.

..of taste, of textures and I get that.

When you go to the Pizza Express...

I never go to Pizza Express!

No, I won't, but at least you can pick a pizza you want to eat there.

Right, I need four sole desperately, yeah.

More lamb sauce, come on.

Turnips, quickly.

In the kitchen the food is coming together - just.

You sealing all them veal off?

At the moment I'm just making sure that we're all doing right,

because we can't... Everyone's not doing what we want them to be doing.

Come on, come on, come on. Final push.

I need to go and lie in a dark, cold room.

After the last of the three desserts, the verdict on the food.

Where's the spoons gone?

The salad here is probably the best salad I've had for 30 years.

It's beautiful, you know.

A big fat person like me liking a salad is fairly unusual.

He's obviously confident enough not to have to try too hard,

which is really nice because some people, they'll be

putting, you know, 35 different flavours on a plate, which is

actually what Aiden Byrne's famous for.

Did they enjoy that?

-They did.

-Good.

Table six you won over.

Yeah, no, they came into the kitchen.

Yeah, and they'd had avocado for 20 years.

Yeah.

I'm in absolute agony,

so I'm just going to go and get some gin and tonics...

put the Walkman on and lie in the bath for about an hour,

just reflect on what has turned out in the end to be a brilliant day.

The first reaction from the local media may be positive,

but it will be the number of bookings and the national

food critics who decide whether Simon has been a success.

Well, it's not as good.

HE LAUGHS

I've loved every single course that I've had, so...

Yeah, but you couldn't eat it regularly.

I could, but not with you.

Oh, stop it.

Right let's go, let's go, let's go, come on.

Next week, Aiden and his team finally start

cooking in Manchester House after nine months of preparation.

Tim says as you hit this point it's then you lift your head up

and that's the money shot.

And as Simon struggles to establish himself, the world

and its food critics begin to pass judgment.

Oh. Get Camilla.

-Did you not recognise him?

-I've never met him before.

It's Giles Coren, he's only like one of the most famous critics going.