Episode 2 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 named 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.

You've got beetroot on your fingers.

Simon Rogan, one of the finest chefs of his generation,

is first to open in the city and is about to face the critics.

Michael. Did the one have black curly hair?

Thin guy, yeah. Get Camilla.

If there's one broad bean out of place, I'm going to notice it.

Aiden Byrne, youngest chef ever to win a Michelin star,

is struggling to get up to speed for opening night

in his £3.5 million restaurant.

Yeah, the lobster's cooked too high.

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

Nothing is ready, Nat.

Over a year in preparation, and at a cost of millions, what does

it take to open two of the country's most ambitious new restaurants?

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

I'm just going to go home and get some gin and tonics,

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

Can either of them

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

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

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

Cooking at the highest level involves dehydrating machines,

water baths and rotary evaporators.

For the past eight months Aiden Byrne has been developing

a menu for Manchester House, a multi-million pound

restaurant that is aiming for the city's first Michelin star.

I'm 40 years of age now and I've done this close on 20-odd,

20-odd years and this is the perfect platform for me

to showcase where I want to be.

Aiden wants food that's theatrical and complex,

but everything he comes up with must satisfy restaurant owner Tim Bacon,

who's footing the bill.

The name is Manchester House

so it needs to have some sort of connection to this.

You know, loose links.

We're not going to make it so sort of... it's not going to

be about Eccles cakes and Boddingtons Smooth.

One of his main dishes is a twist on a northern favourite.

And there's your steak. That's basically your steak and ale pie

and out of the pump would come the cream of Manchester which is

the potato soup which is the top of the pie.

OK. So what's the volume going to be like at the back end of it?

What does that mean? As in the amount of food?

Amount of food to eat? It's quite rich that, Tim.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

Multi-millionaire Tim has an empire spanning 32 restaurants.

His right-hand man is Chef Director John Branagan.

That looks fantastic the way the spume's come out now.

The spumer, can we not use -

-Foam.

-Just call it potato soup.

-It's a potato soup.

Fantastic.

Yeah, but I think there's enough food there as a main course.

-I think it's too small, to be honest.

-OK.

How much are we going to charge for it?

At the moment it's sitting at 26 quid.

I know this sounds stupid,

but I think the meat needs to be more succulent.

I just think it's cooked... it's just dry.

After eight months working full-time in the development kitchen,

Aiden has created over 50 dishes.

His most spectacular is his beef board,

served with King mushrooms, clay baked potatoes and salsify.

Whoo! Look at that! I mean, how cool is that?

-So this is for two, isn't it?

-Yeah. Yeah.

You know it's just completely OTT, isn't it, it's wonderful.

-I love it.

-There's a lot of food there.

-That's great.

-A lot of food.

There is, yeah. You're looking about 40 quid.

40 quid? For two.

No, no, no, no. Each.

-Oh, OK, 80, really.

-Yeah.

Taste one of those, fantastic.

The last of the main courses is Aiden's signature lobster tail

with a fennel top.

Can I just take that off a sec?

-Why?

-Because I just wanted to see what it looks...

whether it needs to be there, that was all.

-That's the foliage of the tree.

-Yeah.

-You see?

-OK. I think it looks better without.

No, that's totally different to...

With the extravagant menu almost signed off, the next stage will be

finding a team of 20 chefs who can actually cook his food.

I think that's an excellent menu, mate.

I do, I do, I do.

There's no reason why that can't stand up to any other

one or two starred restaurant in the country.

I'm totally comfortable with that.

After nine months, the development kitchen can be packed up

and moved to the new site.

Aiden left home in Liverpool at 16 to make his name in some of the

country's most respected kitchens.

But when he opened his own top end restaurant in Cheshire he

struggled to find enough customers and had to turn it into a pub.

'I was the youngest chef ever to get a Michelin star

'when I was 22, 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.

I need to put on the plate what

I believe I've got - what I believe I've got.

This is my last throw of the dice.

I'm not a has been, I haven't been and gone.

In my opinion, I'm better now than I ever was.

Manchester's city centre population has boomed from 5,000

to 25,000 in the last decade.

Aiden and Tim are targeting new, young professionals.

In the Midland Hotel, Simon Rogan is hoping to attract wealthy

foodies from across the north west.

His restaurant, The French, has been open for two weeks.

OK, one ten course, but no desserts.

Take the day off!

Simon already has two Michelin stars at his restaurant

in the Lake District.

He's hoping for a third in Manchester.

Having a go at some edible

razor clam shells.

I made a sort of, like a potatoey sort of, flavoured tuile

with some colouring in it

and I'm going to dry it over the razor shell

and dehydrate it, then deep fry it.

We can just fill it with egg puree, egg yolk puree.

Don't know. This is probably not a great idea for 40...

40 covers every day.

Need to be out by 2.30 so let's crack on.

Let's go, let's go.

The city's rich and famous are starting to arrive.

Noddy Holder's in the house. Get in.

Bring him into the kitchen. He's a legend.

Simon's on the crest of a wave at the moment,

he's only getting bigger.

He's one of, you know one of the chefs in the UK.

Well, we're with him now and he's with us,

so that's got to benefit both.

Automatically he gives a stamp of quality right away.

We're hoping for the awards to come in. That's great recognition.

But fundamentally we have to make money.

Fundamentally it's got to be a lot of money as well.

But coping with the early success has exposed a major staffing issue.

Look, why isn't this hogget garnish ready? Why isn't it ready?

The long hours and complexities are too much for the inexperienced

chefs he's forced to rely upon.

That sauce is not right at all.

When the chicken stock completely disappears into the horseradish,

it's way too thin, so get it thickened quickly.

Every service, every puree, every sauce, checked.

Oi, oi.

All a bit tired and getting a bit flustered but it's really,

really important to make sure everything is seasoned. Check.

Get someone else to test it for seasoning, for consistency,

and then a perfectly amazing service

doesn't go completely pear shaped in the space of 30 seconds.

-Yeah, all right?

-Yeah.

So just think about... Ask, ask, just ask someone, yeah?

-Don't think it upon yourself, ask. Not sure about, ask.

-OK, yeah.

I knew it was going to be hard

and me and the missus knew it was going to be hard...

but...

..it's another level of hardness.

I don't see my mates any more, don't have time for 'em.

The only people I have time for is the kitchen and me girlfriend.

Got to have time for her.

Spend me days off with her moaning at me

just cos I'm falling asleep.

She asks me why, it's cos I'm working so many hours.

They're working 18 hour days. It's taking its toll.

I've got a varicose vein, basically,

just from standing on your feet all day and your veins give way.

You know, yesterday I was going dizzy and everything and

dizzy and like it was really painful you know, and because we're not

eating and you're sort of drained as it is, you know and taking

antibiotics and that it was like,

I was just exhausted, you know what I mean?

I couldn't really concentrate.

I don't plan on working like this for ever.

If I did I'd have gone to be London and be single.

Do you know what I mean? Not! I live in Manchester and married.

But there's no chance of any rest.

An inspector from Michelin or a national restaurant critic

could arrive unannounced at any moment

and their opinion could make or break the new restaurant.

Inspections go on all the time.

It's very important

that we do achieve a star here.

So, it's every chef's dream to have stars in the Michelin Guide, so...

..you know...

..lot of pressure.

PLATE CLATTERS

Oh, for f...

We're not going to have any plates left at this rate. Ohhhh!

Manchester hasn't had a Michelin starred restaurant

since the Midland itself in 1974.

Big named celebrity chefs, like Raymond Blanc

and Marco Pierre White, have opened in the city but closed after

struggling to find the customers to support fine dining.

Simon's rivals are opening 500 yards away

in the business district, right next to thousands of potential customers.

They're four weeks from first night

and restaurateur Tim Bacon is overseeing every detail.

So you've got these, you've got that,

you've got the wingy panels at the back, they need to change.

-Probably these lights.

-Can we just trim the cable?

Are we happy with that?

One assumes we've got something for that.

We have a panel, yeah.

I can safely say this will be the most expensive restaurant

I've ever done and I've done quite a few of them over the years.

It will be well in excess of two million pounds spend

which is a lot of money.

Particularly in the middle of a recession.

But sometimes you've got to do these things.

They want a restaurant that's luxurious but informal,

a design that will appeal to the city's wealthy, young professionals.

This is handmade in Cornwall, this paper.

And that can be laser etched for the invites.

Crazy.

Designer Aiden Keane has come up with an interior

inspired by Manchester's industrial past.

Crafted, optimistic. Nice balance between the two.

It's so much more theatrical than normal.

The whole building's theatrical, the whole space is theatrical.

You're right in it. You walk through the kitchen into the restaurant.

Never been done before.

For me, the whole attitude is Manchester.

It's not... We haven't got pictures of Georgie Best

and Shaun Ryder on the walls

and you know a kind of you know Stone Roses playing in the toilet.

It's not about that. It's attitudinal.

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

We look upon this detail in the same way that Aiden looks upon

the detail of the food.

That's the...

A 360 journey, isn't it, all the way through. It is.

Beautiful, isn't it?

To serve the food,

50 waiting staff have been recruited by Tim's company Living Ventures.

They've deliberately hired people without any previous

experience of Michelin level service.

I used to be a synchronised swimmer.

I am Ukrainian.

-I really enjoy rugby.

-And I'm a snowboarder.

And I've got a first class honours degree in dance.

So, welcome and congratulations.

You have to start an intensive training course which at times

you'll find very demanding,

but at the end you have the skills of a Living Ventures team member.

You'll need to work hard...

The company runs 20 restaurants in the north west,

specialising in casual dining aimed at the under 30s.

It's a destination dining experience and people are going to come

for the theatre, to see you guys, to see the chefs,

you know, to be able to watch the chefs like that.

It's all about showmanship. Make yourself feel good.

Presentation and confidence go hand-in-hand with each other.

If you feel like you look good, you feel more confident.

Everything's going to look beautiful all the time.

OK?

Don't look so scared.

We're going to teach you everything.

It's easier to take a blank canvas

and teach somebody from scratch how to do things.

They've got no preconceived ideas as to how

they should approach a table what they should do,

so they'll do it the way we want them to and it's easier

to take guys who've not necessarily done that before and teach them

than it is to take somebody who's got an idea of what fine dining

is, who are then going to do it their own way, if that makes sense.

Was everyone on time?

Yes. One bartender wasn't.

-Did we fire him?

-No.

-Why?

The waiting staff will be taught the Living Ventures company

manual over four weeks.

-350.

-They'll need to learn the numbered codes that waiters use to

communicate during service.

-200.

-A new customer needs attention.

-800.

-Get security.

500.

Come on, ten star jumps over here!

Somebody nice looking walks in, so rather than have them

shouting, "Look at her", they'll just go, "700".

Afternoon, everybody.

With an open kitchen, Aiden needs to communicate with the waiting staff.

He's worked in some of London's most expensive restaurants, but he's

developing a new, less formal style to appeal to a Manchester market.

As the customer comes out the lift, Tim says as you hit this point

it's then you lift your head up and that's the money shot.

Oh, shit. What's that?

All right?

Us Brits learned how to run fine dining restaurants

off the French and if there's any French in here, please forgive me

-but they're a bunch of arrogant

-BLEEP

-when it comes to a restaurant.

Our job is to be hospitable

and welcoming to the people who are giving us a livelihood.

So Manchester House is where

Manchester is going to accept fine dining.

I don't want it to be too starched,

I don't want it to be too straight laced, I want it to be

something that actually is part of the experience in a nice way.

I'm not particularly interested in standoff waiters that might have

an arrogance or two, don't have knowledge or three,

aren't particularly friendly.

They've got to engage and add to the experience of my...

in my business.

Both chefs are bringing a level of cooking that's never been

seen in the city before.

There's no shortage of good restaurants in the north west,

but ones with Michelin stars are often away from the cities,

in Cheshire and the Lake District.

At the Midland, Simon is trying to teach his chefs how to cook

Michelin standard food.

-Maybe that to go on first.

-Yeah.

I try to let things fall on the plate and you know,

although it's placed on a plate I want it to look like it's fallen

out of the sky or just grown up from the ground and it's very, very

difficult to do that and you know, I feel sorry for the chef that has to

try and plate my food because they're on a hiding to nothing.

So, nothing really is good enough.

Try not to muck around with the cooking

and we also try not to muck around with it

when you're putting it on a plate. It's a very easy concept.

Very...very simple way of looking at stuff.

I wish it was that simple.

It's a completely new approach to food for chefs

like 18-year-old Jamal who's just left catering college.

Maybe what I'll get into more...

find out more about how you grow things, you know.

Like before Simon come 'ere

I didn't really think about anything like that.

But seeing all the produce come down and how we grow all the cresses.

It's like when you're sending food out, it looks...

You get a nice, warm feeling when you send it down, it looks nice.

Like Christmas baubles, that's what they're like.

-Table three please, thank you.

-Table three.

With a reputation as one of the country's most innovative cooks,

food critics and Michelin inspectors are watching to see

if Simon can successfully make the move into the city.

Everyone's looking for something to moan about.

Everyone's looking for that kink in the armour,

so if there is one they will find it, believe me,

so it is, yeah, a lot of pressure trying to make sure every

detail is followed to the letter and there's no mistakes, but mistakes

happen unfortunately and you know,

you have to take it on the chin.

As well as the critics and inspectors,

there are the food bloggers.

One has posted a review of their visit on opening night.

Adam. Yes, Chef.

Shell, shell in the crab.

It's quite good apart from the crab shell.

It's a schoolboy error.

Shouldn't have happened, so something we have to

look at very carefully and make sure it doesn't happen again.

A bad review can break a new restaurant.

Service staff, ingredients and preparation all have to be perfect.

Simon has had a fortnight to prepare his team.

Aiden's had nearly six weeks.

The idea is to try and do as less damage to the shell as possible.

So the shell isn't shattering into the meat.

Because if you shatter the shell into the meat, you end up

spending more time picking the shell out of the meat later on.

There's five crabs there at 40 quid each.

There's a lot of money in there, a hell of a lot of money.

While the chefs learn Aiden's menu,

construction work is falling behind.

The restaurant needs to be ready for practice services in three days.

I'm opening a restaurant without heat lamps which is a fairly major

issue, quite frankly. Why is it taking so long?

Um, cos, um...

And more importantly than heat lamps, I need lights.

Now the lights are in, why aren't they working?

That needs to be solved for tonight.

So these and then light under there. You happy with that, Aiden?

Anything else?

Tim gets frustrated mainly with inadequacy.

The "that'll do" attitude frustrates us all.

He's the visionary and when you've got a vision

and you've got it 100% in your head,

then the slightest detail that is out of place ruins you.

When are the ties happening?

They've got the keys.

I need it done. They should be done by tonight.

They look ridiculous as they are

and they've been sitting there for over a week now, so.

I'm not reviewing it, just get it done, you know,

you're three weeks late as it is. It needs to be sorted. All right.

You cross their claws and put them face down.

They go into like a little trance, right?

You get them all relaxed, then you kill them.

The meat will be better, yeah?

Aiden has a team of 20 chefs to train.

Many of them have worked in London

for chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal.

But there's always something new to learn.

Aiden is complicated in his food but it's his style,

that's always been his style.

He does like a lot of things on the plate,

he does like a lot of things done different ways.

He will go that extra mile to put another two things, even if

it doesn't need to be there, but just to give it that edge.

Hate drips, hate tide marks.

If there's one broad bean out of place or one pea shoot

out of place or, you know, anything, I'm going to notice it.

Unlike at The French where Simon has an experienced front of house,

Aiden has to introduce the Living Ventures team of former pizza

waiters and models to the intricacies of fine dining.

This is chilled broad bean soup.

Don't use one hand as if you're putting it down.

Front of house. I'm reserving judgment at the moment.

Once I've got the food right and kitchen right I'll start

worrying about the front of house.

There's not one staff member out there who's worked in a restaurant

we're aspiring to be.

It's going to be a bit of a shock to them.

I think there's a good few in there which will

crumble at the first hurdle.

This is the start of a £95 tasting menu,

so it's quite an expensive journey.

I want the customers to go away feeling that it's come from you

and not a text book, all right?

You put your personality into it.

I really want that to come through, guys, otherwise you're all

going to be a bunch of robots and we can replace you tomorrow with

another bunch of robots and that's not what we want.

The waiting staff need to memorise every dish...

Razor clams. We've got some baby squid in here.

..and some dishes have more than ten ingredients.

The thing on top is a duck's tongue and duck's tongue

is about the duckiest flavour you'll get from any part of the duck.

There are complicated cooking techniques

which the chefs are struggling to master.

This isn't right. There's a few things missing which I'm not very

happy about but we've got the lobster which has been

poached in lobster butter.

Grilled fennel which hasn't been grilled very well.

Apple puree, fennel puree, lobster emulsion.

You treat the freeze dried lobster

as if you were serving Parmesan with pasta.

And you grate the lobster over the top of the pasta.

Incredible, isn't it?

Yeah, lobster's cooked too high.

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

Like we had a conversation about it. Nothing was ready, Nat.

First main course we've done, it was a disaster.

With 99%, top of the pile, Alice Higgins.

Getting staff to the required standard

means passing the daily tests.

Anyone who fails or turns up late is sent home.

Once you're in hospitality, it's tough every day.

And if they're not cut out for it to sort of get to knuckle down

and work hard now they're not going to make it for very long.

'We're really fortunate to have this lead time in before we open.'

If we were to open straightaway

then obviously we would have been sinking like a battleship

and my life would have been a lot more miserable,

but every lunch and every evening that goes by, you know,

we're one step closer to the restaurant being open to the public.

So we need to get it right.

It's the end of the third week at The French

and there's still no sign of a newspaper critic

or a Michelin inspector.

Staffing numbers are continuing to cause problems

for head chef Adam Reid.

When I come in at, like, eight o'clock, this place is dead.

Where is everybody?

'And you're thinking...'

This is going to be another bad week!

-Morning.

-Morning.

-How you doing, mate, you all right?

-Yeah, good.

All go.

Simon's reputation means critics are inevitable.

Spotting them is the problem.

He wants them to get a perfect meal,

so he's got his PR advisers to send up some biographies.

Most of these people book under different names

with phone numbers that don't really go anywhere.

So you just have to recognise their faces.

So you have to have a good memory for faces

which is one of the things that most of us have.

I'm good at reading people.

From my point of view, they don't really get any special treatment.

Everyone should be treated the same.

Oh! Hope he comes in.

They're personable.

There's not one bona fide arsehole in this list, that, you know...

Well, there might be, I've not met them all,

but the ones I've met, they're fine. They're great.

It's the normal people who think they know what they're talking about

you need to be worried about.

Although it's a day off, everyone's in.

Because there are no customers,

the chefs get a rare chance to leave the kitchen and venture into town.

Not used to the sunlight!

Starting work at half six, seven o'clock in the morning

and finishing at one, it's always dark, especially in the winter,

so it's nice to see a bit of daylight on a weekday.

0ne of the advantages of working so hard

is the chefs never spend their £300 weekly wages.

When they do, they like to treat themselves.

Got to have good tools. It's like a workman, innit, you know?

The new 300-layer Uday knife. The only one in Manchester.

Probably the only one in the UK.

And if you feel that there, you can actually feel the layers.

Same as Simon's, this, innit?

It's 300 layer, that is. That's 1,700 quid, that.

1,700? Yeah.

That's handmade, that is.

To be honest with you, for a peeling knife, that's fantastic, that is.

It's really sharp, it's so sharp, that is.

That's cute, that. It's great.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Do you lot ever share knives?

-No.

-We wouldn't share knives.

I've never seen a chef share his knives.

You shared your knife.

We share bath water and girlfriends but definitely not knives, yeah!

I'm only joking.

It's your personal thing, innit? It's what...

If someone else blunts your knife, you're going to go mental.

-Are you having that?

-Yeah.

On top of his 18-hour days in Manchester,

Simon has his three restaurants in Cartmel in the Lake District

to worry about.

His wife Penny runs them on her own when he's away.

He works seven days a week.

We've had three holidays in 18 years now.

I mean, he's a fair bit older than most of his staff as well

and they find it tough.

You know, once you hit 40 onward, it's different.

You can't stand up all day and, you know,

you're not made of the same stuff as these young 'uns, are you, really?

Unfortunately, you get that arthritic click when you bend and...

you know?

So how would you like to appear in the Indie magazine?

Like Brad Pitt?

Hmm.

Today he's being photographed

for a newspaper article on his flagship restaurant L'Enclume.

If I was a woman,

I think Brad Pitt's got to be, like, top of my list. Don't you reckon?

If you were a woman, I'd be very surprised.

'I feel that I'm getting old. My time is running out.

'I'm on a stopwatch. There's still a lot still to do'

and I'm never content. I'm never happy. Always want more.

But the pressure of spending so much time in Manchester

has made Simon reconsider Roganic,

a two-year pop-up restaurant in London,

his only previous venture in a city.

There's a bit of bad news, to be quite honest

-but I wanted to tell you first.

-He's calling the head chef.

Um, we're not going to be doing anything else in London.

No, I mean, I can't. I can't do it.

Manchester's almost killed me.

How much, you know, how much do you need?

I mean, how...

You know, what is enough?

If Simon wants to finally make it in the city,

he can't afford any other distractions.

Why do we need to be in London?

We've got incredibly successful businesses in the north west

and this is where we are, so why do I need to be in London?

The cutlery is going down here.

With just two days until opening,

Tim Bacon has arrived to inspect Manchester House.

We just know him as the big man, the big boss, the CEO,

who we all have to be terrified of!

Tim has opened over 50 restaurants

and turns over 60 million a year.

He's hoping he can now make fine dining work in Manchester.

Everything he touches turns to gold.

That was my... That was my view of Tim Bacon before I even met him.

The guy owns about 40 restaurants altogether

so he knows... he knows what people want.

That's not, that's not good enough.

Obviously cos of linen being what it is, quite a ragged sort of finish

-but perhaps not to that degree.

-What are you talking about?

I have linen shirts that are pristine. You just need someone who knows what to do with it.

-Yeah, OK.

-You've got tables at the moment so you need to get sorted out,

-simple as that.

-OK.

-Hi.

-Hi.

-So this is the high street uniform, is it?

-Yeah.

-So this is the short-term one?

-Yeah.

-OK. Cool.

-Thanks, Alice.

-Alice.

So with the shirt sort of being out like that, I mean...

-I'd be inclined to try and get that tucked in.

-I think so, yeah.

'He knows in his head how he wants it to feel more than how it looks

'and when you come in and talk about stuff and I say, "Look,

'"I think it's cold, it's a bit this, it's not soft enough for me,"'

he'll go and analyse that

and he'll have a look at it and then he'll come back with some ideas.

Can you do me a favour, take all the tablecloths off for me?

'If you get to the end stage and he realises you have to spend,

'you have to make massive changes, he's not afraid to kind of go,

'"No, that didn't work for me, let's just totally change it."'

And that's, you know, that's a brave...

..brave decision to make after you've spent a lot of money

to go in and go, "It doesn't work, let's just change it."

I'm not happy with the white tablecloths.

I'm going to look at different structures.

I've seen a couple of different finishes.

After he's seen the decor, Tim moves on to the service.

He wants to see how his new waiters are serving Aiden's food.

The new waiters have been practising their service style for two weeks.

Why is it called beer can chicken?

The actual can itself is put inside the chicken.

Baby pink fir potatoes with artichoke and...

Fed on beetroot juice for two days.

Tim wants a service style that feels casual and welcoming...

And I'll leave you with the smell of the soup.

..but is actually tightly scripted and rehearsed.

See, where was the conversation? I want the conversation.

I want the theatre as it's happening.

-So sorry.

-Go back. The conversation starts from the table.

I want that casualness.

Right, so the conversation starts now.

As you pick it up, "Right, what we've got here is..."

..here guys is, um,

a very famous dish with Aiden, as seen on The Great British Menu.

-You've got your prawn cocktail...

-Leave the things on there

until you've finished.

You've got your prawn cocktail with the passion fruit dome as well.

Whoosh. And then, job done.

Down with the card.

Right, set that tray, let them take it. Off you go.

-Foie gras.

-Yeah.

Palm sugar, cherries and pistachio.

And we've just put some freeze dried cherry over the top, guys.

Fantastic.

You see the way that Aiden did that then,

he's almost passing comment and I quite like that.

And you've got to make sure that all the descriptors on these,

what we don't do is just literally read out the card.

So if you want that, I can get that.

Soil of the sea and oxtails.

Serving two oxtail consommes with beetroot flavoured oysters

on a bed of dry ice flavoured with sea water is a complicated business.

LAUGHTER

And then we have our...

-Hey, hey.

-There we are.

What you should be getting is that lovely sort of sea water smell, OK?

So what we've got there is a sea and saltwater reduction we've added.

OK, fantastic.

There's a weakness in articulation. There's a nervousness there.

All that needs to be drummed out

and the only way you drum that out is through repetition

and ensuring that people have a very tight mandate to work to.

You've got to script it, send them home,

they've got to come back and be tested on it by rote

as if they're learning a play and this is a Shakespearean play.

That's how complex it is.

Once they understand the script right, now ad-lib.

That's when your personality comes into it

and that's when the fun starts to happen.

It's about the critics and the inspectors when they come.

That's who you train them for.

You know, that's the level they all need to be at.

So that, you know, we don't fall foul. Yeah.

At The French, Simon has returned from the Lakes

with ingredients from his farm.

Look at the size of them, they're massive.

Simon gave me the bag and said, "Be careful, they're nettles."

I put them on top of the trolley then lent on the bag.

They are mighty big stings as well.

They've had a full two days off, hopefully that's going to reflect

in everyone full of beans this week and ready to rock, really.

Two come in for the ten course.

Salad gone on one.

Three weeks after opening,

there's no sign of inspectors or journalists.

But there is one very important diner.

Aiden's days from opening, but he needs to check out the competition.

Just like any other customer.

We're both at the same level, or we both want to be at the same level.

But it's just a different product.

No, I'm not surprised by any of it at all.

The food itself is, is pretty much textbook Simon Rogan.

It's pretty, it's exactly what I expected.

I thought Simon was going to do something different for Manchester

but it's not, he's doing exactly what he does

and he's delivering a great product and I'm not worried about it at all

because it's a totally different product.

And at the end of day, it's a plate of vegetables,

but by Christ, they taste good.

Our cooking styles are like chalk and cheese, so obviously over the years

Aiden has had a very precise,

'classical style. He's worked for some very, very good chefs

'and he's garnered a great reputation for himself,

'so you know, he's always had a certain style. I understand'

he's going a little bit off piste

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

Two ox away on eight!

'It's going to be a lot different to what we're doing'

so you know, brilliant, if people come and stay at the Manchester

for two nights, one night with me and one night with him, brilliant.

Adam.

-Those first two you gave me were cooked to

-BLEEP,

-yeah?

I don't want to see shit like that, yeah.

Nice radish like that, not like that, yeah?

Aiden's budget means

his staff have been able to rehearse his dishes long before opening.

Come on!

Simon's chefs are learning on the job

and Adam Harper is finding it hardest.

Butter, butter.

You can't walk away from this on the burner.

The burner is very hot, the butter will burn.

You got beetroot on your fingers?

-What, chef?

-You got beetroot on your fingers.

All that shit is coming through this cloth, yeah.

'One day I've got to walk away from this restaurant a bit more'

and I've got to be 100% confident

that the team I've got in here are absolutely bang on the money.

So at the moment, the people that are not doing what they're told

and making all these mistakes are prolonging my involvement here

when I've got lots of other things to be getting on with.

So they'd better shape up quick or else they'll be out.

Just getting it right. I want to get it right.

And that's the only bit that's annoying me

cos I've not been 100% and I know I'm not and they know I've not.

11.

Before service,

Simon set aside a larger piece of veal for Aiden's table.

Adam has mistakenly sent it out to another customer.

It's the one I told you to specifically keep, so...

Could I have some sorrel and a sauce, please?

HE SIGHS

I tell you, I don't know why I bother.

Simon wanted to make sure Aiden got the best.

When... When I ask you to do something, yeah,

when I specifically ask you to do something, I expect you to do it.

I don't want any excuses.

I will give you all the benefit in the world, yeah, I will help you,

but when you do not do what you are told

when I specifically tell you to do something,

you won't be working here for very long, yeah?

-I did that for a reason and now you've

-BLEEP

-me up, yeah?

Soon as you gave me that veal earlier, I knew what you'd done.

At the end of the day, I gave you two packets of veal,

I said, "Cook these for that table." I haven't got it. Yeah?

-And that really

-BLEEP

-me off.

There's only so much I can take, yeah?

Failed at the last. Disaster.

And it's just like people not doing what you...what you tell them to,

that's the thing, that is the thing.

I cannot stand it,

cannot stand such a clear instruction and they do not do it. It's just...

It's one of the biggest bugbears of my life.

-Hello, mate.

-Leave these people alone, will you?

-Hello, mate, how's it going? You all right?

-All right?

-How's it going?

-Good, yeah.

-Pleased to meet you, John Branagan.

- All right. - Thank you.

You've come to a mad house!

You've got this to come, mate, you have. Yeah.

-You've met Dan, haven't you, you met Dan?

-No, I haven't no.

-Dan.

-Pleased to you meet you. You all right?

-Not bad.

-Yeah, this is Adam.

-I've met you before, haven't I?

Yeah, yeah. Was it all OK? Did you enjoy it?

It was great, yeah, fantastic.

Is this it? You all day, is it, in here?

Pretty much.

Although they're both after the same thing,

the two chefs have very different budgets behind them.

Simon has inherited an old kitchen.

Aiden has one costing nearly a million.

But the realities of life in them are the same.

-Tough few days.

-Has it?

-Yeah.

As I say, you know, we've taken a few duds.

We've had a couple of walkers, just not up to it.

-But the others, this vision of this... yeah.

-Yeah.

-And then reality smacks them in the face.

-Yeah.

"This is not what it's meant to be like!"

LAUGHTER

Getting nervous, are you?

I am yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Be honest, like, I am, yeah, of course I am, yeah.

I must admit, I was... The first day we opened here I was pretty nervous.

I didn't know why but I really was.

I really, really was, yeah. I was really cacking it, like.

-See you, mate.

-Good to see you.

-Cheers, mate.

'I probably know how Aiden feels.

'It's a massive, massive project he's taken on.'

They're spending loads of money, he must be under loads of pressure,

you know, but they've... they've made their bed now,

you know, they've come out and said exactly what they want to do

and they're going to have to deliver it.

Gary.

Listen, I'll call you back in a minute. I'm stuck in a lift.

John Branagan is the Living Ventures Chef Director

overseeing Manchester House.

Manchester House is up, isn't it?

He's been brought in to make sure

the dishes Aiden created in the development kitchen

can be delivered in the restaurant when it opens tomorrow.

One and a half minutes for one frog's legs, please.

Today, Aiden's team are serving 70 imaginary diners.

Service, please!

Nearly £4,000 worth of food is being served and binned.

One chicken, one squab, one pork, one Galloway rib-eye medium.

We've never opened this restaurant before,

we've never done this concept before apart from on paper, really.

So that's what it's for.

And it's something we always do, costs us a lot of money

but it pays dividends when people walk through the door

and we know what we're doing

and we're not tripping over our feet all the time.

And that's the purpose of it.

This is your beetroot and oxtail consomme

which we serve at precisely 50 degrees

as that's the best temperature for you to enjoy it at.

The pressure's on Aiden, not on me,

I'm just the eye candy in this scenario.

While John works his way through the entire menu...

Is it any wonder I'm a fat bastard?

..the waiting staff perfect their service

to 70 empty place settings.

This cheese has been made in our kitchen

and potato gnocchi as well.

Each dish now comes with a specific set of instructions,

covering its place on the table and its description.

So, burnt fennel linguini...

No, stop moving. Stay there.

Do it again. You've just put that tray in my face

-and now you've stood with your arse in my face, OK?

-Yeah, sorry.

-So, away from the table.

-Yeah, OK.

-Put yourself here

and the server will come to you and take it back out.

Hello, standing there. Salad ready for the turbot.

Come on. Sorrel.

It's the first time the kitchen has had to cook Aiden's food

in large quantities.

Try and time your salads so when I call for them

you're pulling your tongue out of the fire.

I want the customer to get a hot tongue.

Service!

This is your turbot fillet and you've got cockles,

turbot skirt and sea herbs in there as well.

Check on one langoustine, one frog leg, one lamb rack, one lobster.

Try and get your legs to stand up next time, guys,

your pigeon legs, yeah?

My ambition here is to cook food I've never cooked before.

Take it to a new level,

and that in itself is a massive challenge.

Aiden's food looks spectacular, uses obscure ingredients, but

it will all be for nothing if people in Manchester don't like the taste.

'I've spent my life eating food, so I must have some credibility

'and some understanding of what is being served on a plate.

'We spent a year just developing the menu.'

Before we even built the bloody place.

This was planned meticulously,

'100... we plan everything meticulously.'

I don't think it's hot enough, no.

It just took a long time, that, didn't it? To come out.

It was being plated before we...

-you know, the lobster?

-Before we went onto the lobster?

-Yeah.

-This one's medium rare, yeah?

-Yes, Chef.

Tim wants the restaurant to appeal to everyone,

so he's insisted there's a steak on the menu at £50.

It's very tasty but I can't say it's the best rib-eye I've ever eaten.

I'll be honest.

There's a bit too much chew on that.

Crisp on the outside, full of flavour and fluffy on the inside.

A little bit like me.

John has assembled a plate with all the ingredients he's not happy with.

I am finding it tough.

-I know it's kale but it's rather tough.

-OK.

-But I felt that on the back edge it's just...

-Not rendered enough.

Yeah, not colourful and rendered enough.

I felt the langoustine are undercooked.

These taste awesome.

The only issue I've got is,

30 seconds later, I thought they were quite uncrispy.

On the prawn cocktail, I know it's your signature dish

and what have you, but I find it really tart.

In fact, quite overpowering with everything else that's in there.

Aiden's last restaurant in the north west turned into a gastro pub

because he failed to find a market for his fine dining menu.

'One of my wife's concerns is...

'have I got the ability to, to be diplomatic to people?'

This restaurant and me in this restaurant

wouldn't have survived five years ago.

'I wouldn't have been able to put up with John Branagan.'

I probably wouldn't have been able to put up with Tim Bacon. Um...

He would have, I think he would have overwhelmed me.

'But now, you know, I'm a much calmer person now.

'I'm in a position now where I appreciate what they do.'

After nearly 12 months' preparation and £3.5 million spent,

Manchester House will see its first guests arrive in 24 hours.

At The French,

the kitchen has lost its seventh member of staff in six weeks.

Junior chef Jamal has failed to turn up for work.

He may just be ill.

But I need people, especially now, I need people I can rely on.

I know it's long, tough hours and it's not nice

and all this kind of stuff, but for each person that goes,

you know, it only gets tougher for the ones that are left, doesn't it?

-That's Mason. Oh, no, it's Miles. Mason.

-Mason.

Just look out for anyone Scottish tonight.

Yeah. Oh...

Got a feeling. That feeling.

With the kitchen understaffed,

Simon is still expecting a national food critic at any time.

We need to sort that out as well.

Welcome to The French, everyone. Have you been before?

Waiting staff have been told to look out for anyone suspicious

dining alone.

Unknown to Simon and the staff,

the critic has been and gone.

It's only when a tweet comes through that Simon realises.

-That was him.

-Eh?

Yeah, that was the one on his own, then, weren't it?

Oh.

Get Camilla.

They should be able to recognise Giles Coren.

HE SIGHS

Do you know who the one was?

Did he have black... Michael, did the one have black curly hair?

Thin guy, yeah, that was Giles Coren.

Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear.

How could they not spot Giles Coren?

The one was Giles Coren.

-Never met him before.

-It's Giles Coren.

He's only, like, the most... one of the most famous critics going.

Bit embarrassed we didn't actually notice who he was, though.

Giles Coren is the restaurant critic for the Sunday Times.

A good review could put Manchester on the map.

We had Giles Coren.

'Food is happening in London, you can't deny that.'

This is hopefully going to try and change things.

It will never be as strong as London and never will be.

From a business point of view, this will generate bookings.

Shortly after,

Giles Coren's verdict on The French appears in the Sunday Times.

Ooh.

Where is it?!

"I'd walk to Manchester barefoot in the rain for one more mouthful

"of the chopped raw rib-eye of ox in coal oil."

And he lives in London. That's a long way.

"Likewise, an extraordinary salad of early spring offerings

"from Rogan's Cumbrian poly-tunnels."

"White and olive paintwork inside is like something out of Oscar Wilde.

"The lobby is vast and sprawling like something out of Dubai."

"It's a wonderful restaurant, one of the best around."

Yeah, I did good. Score - eight.

Yeah, good.

It's a winner, really, innit?

If we'd stayed as The French as was,

would we have actually ended up in the Saturday Times,

Giles Coren coming in and doing an interview? No, we wouldn't.

Eight is a good start.

It's an amazing start.

Yeah, very pleased.

I'm always cautious. You know? Yeah, I'm pleased.

That's when all the hard work starts,

cos obviously The French has arrived now, eight out of ten.

It's not the new boy any more,

so that's when all the hard work starts,

when you have to keep up your standards and be on top of your game

cos there's always, always someone there to try and shoot you down.

Always someone there to try and say, "No, you're not."

So it's a different type of pressure now.

Pressure getting there, now it's the pressure to keep the standards up.

But the success has come at a price for junior chef Jamal.

He's made an unexpected return after a two-week absence.

-So what happened?

-God knows, I don't know what happened.

If I knew what happened, then I'd be able to explain it.

Just had, like, God knows, breakdown, and then that was it.

I went to the hospital. They said it was due to I weren't eating right

or sleeping or anything, but God knows what it was.

Jamal has been told to work in the hotel's banqueting kitchen,

rather than return to The French.

We couldn't have him back in the kitchen.

He'd let us down, no matter how much undue pressure he was under.

He was good, but at the end of the day,

you're only as good as what you can hack.

When you walk out, you've gone.

You've gone, that's it, sorry, but you've gone.

Season or anything?

Jamal lasted just one shift in the banqueting kitchen.

He's not been seen in the hotel since.

Restaurants are three times more likely to fail in the first year

than any other business.

With 3.5 million invested, Manchester House is a big gamble.

After 12 months' preparation,

the restaurant is about to welcome its first guests, invited friends

and business associates who can put the staff through their paces.

In a lot of ways, these will be our hardest critics.

It's your wife, general managers from around the business,

they'll be a bit sneery about things and looking to pick

and we don't want to give them anything to pick on. They need to go away and be wooed.

If we can woo these guys, we'll be well on our way.

In my eyes, this has been two years in the making, you know,

I'm as nervous as I've been since I was a young boy

and I'm very excited about it.

I feel very confident about the team that we've got around us,

you should all be very proud of yourselves, so let's do it.

All right? Thank you very much, cheers.

Go Team Manchester House!

We are hosts.

Our job is to start off the journey for customers.

-How you doing? Have you changed your hair?

-Yeah.

You all right?

Guests start their Manchester House experience in the tenth-floor bar

with views of the city, cocktails and appetisers.

-Table.

-Then it's downstairs for the start of their tasting menus.

We've got two...

We've got four guests in.

Very relaxed(!) Everyone's pacing like caged animals.

Come on, there, guys, yeah.

When the restaurant opens for real next week,

they will need to serve 90 covers a day to make money.

Tonight's diners are friends and supporters.

Next week it will be critics and maybe Michelin inspectors.

We're not really learning anything right now

because it's just fallen in slowly

and it's one dish every ten minutes and stuff like that

and you know, so the guys are not under any pressure in the kitchen.

The guys on the floor are under no pressure

so we'll try and force that a little bit.

Try and make it a bit more difficult for them.

To test the kitchen and the waiting staff,

all the diners are sent down from the bar in one go.

Check on, one frog leg,

one vegetarian potato and artichoke salad and oxtail and one chicken.

One lamb, one onion macaroni.

A beer can chicken and bass.

Get ready on eight pigeon, yeah. Scallops coming.

Come on, guys, hurry up, please.

Tray, tray, tray.

Hurry up!

Seriously, Nat, hurry up, mate, please.

We made it a lot more difficult than we needed to

and it's gone really, really well.

So I am actually really, really quite pleased.

I had the lobster, actually, the bistro.

Absolutely stunning, yeah, excellent.

A pleasant surprise, yes, been lovely.

Gorgeous!

Got rib-eye steak. We've got cavolo nero,

we've got onion mash, we've got char-grilled oyster mushrooms.

Something in a bone.

What can you say?

Beer can chicken, a lamb and a steak pie for Tim Bacon.

Hurry up, let's go, please.

Tim has spent over 3 million on Manchester House.

This is his chance to see what he's got for his money.

He's sitting on his phone and he makes notes as he does

right throughout the evening and then we'll all go home and wake up early

in the morning and see what's on the e-mail and find out the comments.

We're miles away from where we want to be,

but I also wouldn't expect to be there right now.

With the restaurant about to open,

it's time for Aiden to take centre stage.

'There's nowhere for me to hide. This is an open kitchen.

'I was lying in bed last night

'thinking, "I've bitten off too much, more than I can chew."

'Thinking, "I'm not going to be able to deliver this."

'Because we've driven that expectation by saying we want a Michelin star,

'so that level of expectation is just getting bigger and bigger.'

Deep down inside, that's what's keeping me awake at night.

One day all onions will be served like that.

What's the point in having a restaurant if it don't make money?

Next week, success or failure for the two restaurants

as they count the cost of opening.

Easily 200 quid.

Seven no-shows.

People who are just far too rude to actually cancel the table.

And Michelin announce their new stars for 2014.

We're pulling our tripe out and spending a bloody fortune in order

to bring something to Manchester that, you know, it should have.

Because there's talk about it

doesn't necessarily mean that they'll give it.

There you go. Full list.