Food Boxes The Apprentice: You're Fired

I'm not impressed with any of you. This is a bloody shambles.

You didn't follow the money.

I've got two teams here and they're both rubbish.

You're fired.

You're fired.

You're fired.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

CHEERING

Good evening, good evening,

and welcome to The Apprentice - You're Fired.

I'm Rhod Gilbert.

This week, the candidates scrambled around in kitchens

to whip up at-home recipe boxes and pitch them to the food industry.

But as James brought his team's cooking demonstration to a close,

disaster almost struck when a fly got in behind Elizabeth's glasses.

A nice, presentable meal that comes together at the end.

Here to help us figure out who was Pret a Manger

and who was PRETTER off going home,

welcome this week's panel of Apprentice fans and guests.

Ad agency managing director

and confidant of Lord Sugar, Claudine Collins...

..Great British Menu judge and restaurateur, Andi Oliver...

..and comedian Ed Gamble.

Welcome to You're Fired.

CHEERING

How do we think it went this week, Claudine?

I loved the James and Elizabeth show - or rather the Elizabeth show.

I wanted to cry at the Jade and Joanna show -

but, actually, I thought that Graphene had it

-up until the point of the pitch.

-Andi?

It was... I mean, it was like they'd never seen food before,

which was extraordinary.

Is that what food's meant to look like?

-So fascinating and alarming.

-Ed?

I really enjoyed this week's episode,

but unfortunately I can't stick around long,

because Donald Trump's called me over.

-Guys?

-You see?

Isn't it funny? In the hands of a comedian, it gets a laugh.

We'll be discussing this week's cooking task in more detail

when we meet tonight's unlucky candidate, but first...

GONG!

In Apprentice News tonight,

Michaela wonders what Claude's bathroom looks like.

It could just be shocking.

James rewrites the lyrics to 12 Days Of Christmas.

Two salmon fillets.

Partridge in a pear tree. I know.

Karren pitches her idea for a new beauty trend.

Toe curling.

Joanna puts everyone's mind at rest as to how they soak the rice.

This first dish that we've got doesn't necessarily have PEE in it.

The girls are easily amused by some seat belts.

Look.

That's tonight's Apprentice News.

So, after dressing up as cracked pepper,

cracking eggs and cracking some cracking one-liners,

Lord Sugar decided the cracks were appearing in Bushra's performance.

Bushra, I don't think you've done much in this last nine weeks,

and it is with regret that you are fired.

Thank you, Lord Sugar, for this opportunity.

Please welcome Bushra Shaikh.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Hello. Hi.

Your family is up there somewhere, I think.

Where's family? Where are they?

There they are. CHEERING

I expect to see greens from you later on in the show.

-Bushra.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Hi.

Frazzled, fricasseed, boiled?

-I'm gutted. I'm so gutted.

-Are you?

-Yeah.

-AUDIENCE:

-Aw!

I shouldn't be here.

SCATTERED LAUGHTER

Bit more.

LAUGHTER

Did you think you fought hard enough in the boardroom?

Do you know what? I did.

I thought that I'd given it enough, I'd said enough.

I think Elizabeth had done enough to have gone.

Did you think she was going to go?

I did. I think there was a stage when he was talking to her

a lot more, that I felt like she was going to go.

Would you have liked to share a taxi home with Elizabeth?

Do you know what? I get on with everyone.

I would be happy to share that taxi,

but she would probably want to drive it.

LAUGHTER

"Shall I drive, driver? Shall I?

"Shall I drive, driver? Shall I just drive, driver?"

-Claudine, you know Lord Sugar.

-Yeah.

Why do you think Bushra went this week?

I think... I'm also gutted, Bushra.

I have to say that I kind of picked you from the beginning

as a strong woman, I could see you going far in the process.

You have gone far. But I think...

I don't know whether as time went on

you got a bit worn down by the process,

cos I saw less and less of you

rather than more and more leadership qualities of you.

I think that when it comes down to this final few people,

he has to look at the people that he thinks are real leaders

that he can work with.

Out of the people left and the people in the boardroom,

I'm afraid he probably thought you had least contribution

than anyone else.

You know what? Thank you, Claudine.

That actually means a lot, because I think towards the end

maybe I was a little bit drained by particular characters.

That sort of showed itself on the task.

You can just say Elizabeth.

Andi, do you think the other two just fought harder?

Do you see that, as well,

that Bushra was perhaps slipping back a little bit?

I, I mean, they obviously all really fought for survival at this point.

I'm sorry that you went, cos I thought you were great, actually.

I thought you were really methodical and you were really careful about...

You had really good attention to detail.

I think that's important, no?

Well, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.

If Team Graphene are anything to go by,

you can't make a salmon risotto and talk at the same time.

Let's see where it all went wrong.

Well, Bushra, in my opinion, she has been standing back.

I don't think there's any point that I can say

that she's made a significant contribution.

What I thought might be quite interesting is to do,

like, footprints to represent the travel.

I just think something about that,

to me, says dog food.

I do feel that I could probably do the job

just with Pete, the designer.

That picture isn't completely gourmet,

I'm going to be honest.

What would you have done with it?

Bushra just says stuff

for the sake of saying something.

Just so she can sit on the fence with everything.

"Oh, I said that."

You put on this pantomime

with these lead balloon jokes.

We would have loved to have had

Captain Gourmet himself here today,

but unfortunately Donald Trump

called him over.

This was not professional. Forget all the jokes.

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, but you know what?

Not to me, to the audience.

LAUGHTER

Do you know what? It was a little bit funny. It wasn't that bad. No?!

-I don't understand it.

-I don't understand it, what does it mean?

Well, let me just try and redeem myself a bit here.

Look, the name itself was pretty bad,

so the fact that you were going to call it Gourmet Crusaders

had me a bit worried, so I thought, "You know what?

"Let's bring Donald Trump in, cos everyone talks about him

"and the majority of people don't like him."

So what I tried to do was have a bit of banter

in the pitch, just say, "Well, actually, Gourmet Crusaders

"is there to kind of cook, you can make a nice meal.

"You're actually not going to have a crusader,

"which is what he really wants, to kind of do his thing with."

Can I be rude, Bushra?

That hasn't helped at all. LAUGHTER

-I'll give you that one.

-Not at all.

I'll give you that one.

-ED:

-Where did Captain Gourmet come from?

He'd not been mentioned for the whole of the task,

and then suddenly Captain Gourmet popped...

Is he like Captain Birdseye's snooty cousin?

You've got to go out of your comfort zone sometimes,

try something different.

I tried, it just didn't pay off that well.

But you were already dressed as a pepper pot.

How far outside of your comfort zone do you need to go?

-Oh, sorry.

-Was that the main reason they lost the task, the pitch,

do you think, Claudine?

100%, it was down to the pitch. I mean, the pitch was so awful.

When you go in... I mean, we pitch for business all the time.

You have to be likeable as well. People have to connect with you.

It just was so bad.

I mean, you were never going to win it on a pitch like that.

That's ultimately what they were voting on.

Andi, what makes a good pitch?

Well, I think authenticity.

You have to believe in what you're talking about,

the product has to mean something to you.

Also, if you're going to be on stage with a whole bunch of people,

you've got to feel like a team,

instead of these little disparate sort of groups of one person,

sort of just doing this terrible, terrible communication.

It was awful, actually.

Did they try too hard?

They tried to do stuff, and throw to each other, and over to you...

They tried a bit too hard

and they also didn't really believe in anything that they were saying.

Actually, the food...

Your food was better than the food from the other team.

Way better.

Well, it was before you cooked it.

The first time you cooked it, I thought,

"Oh, that looks quite tasty. It looks quite good."

Team Graphene's pitch may have been a curly toed culinary cringefest,

but at least Karren liked it.

Or did she?

Bushra and James dressed in giant salt and pepper pots,

so I think they felt that they had to be sort of funny and engage in...

But it wasn't funny and it certainly wasn't engaging.

Let's move on. Let's talk about the recipe.

Sarah was your project manager.

She put James and Elizabeth together in the kitchen.

Would you have made that decision?

No. I think what I would have done is probably split them up,

but in fairness, actually, I don't think they were that bad.

I think James tried to hold his own this time,

because he learnt, I think, from the way she acts.

Yeah. He didn't look happy when he was put with...

No, he didn't look happy at all. No.

He did not look happy. The thing is, I do feel for him, as well.

I did feel at that point, maybe if he didn't want to do it with her,

then he should have said something.

Elizabeth certainly looks like she can chop celery.

She can, can't she?

Is Lord Sugar looking for a broader base of skills than that?

I think chopping celery is quite high up on his agenda.

But, no, of course he's looking for something a bit more than that.

I think what he sees in Elizabeth

is she has such a huge amount of passion

and she'll turn her hand to anything and she's positive.

I think, you know, he values that in people.

James has got this thing that I now like to call the Elizabeth Vein.

Like, every time he thinks about Elizabeth or someone says,

"Would you mind going with Elizabeth?",

this vein pops out in the middle of his head.

She brow beats her way through everything.

People just bend to her will. She just eventually gets her way.

It's sort of a mixture between a Jedi mind trick and Reggie Kray.

I think if Lord Sugar makes her his business partner,

next year she'll be hosting The Apprentice.

Well, Lord Sugar has called this the Elizabeth show,

and it does seem that when it comes to...

Well, when it comes to absolutely everything,

Elizabeth does like to have a hand in it,

a finger in every pie and every risotto.

On this week's show, Elizabeth dazzles us

with her top secret recipe for burnt salmon.

Yeah, it's not quite there yet.

She wows us with her use of the most simple kitchen gadgets.

I'm just going to get my cooker to work.

And she teaches us her techniques

for running a relaxed and calm kitchen.

Put it down. Put it down.

-Do you want me to chop an onion?

-No, I'll chop the onion, it's fine.

Do you want me to chop it? Why don't I chop the celery?

Yeah?

Yeah?

Andi, food boxes are for a certain type of cook, I guess.

I mean, "mugs" is the word Lord Sugar used.

I guess it's for people who aren't great cooks.

It's really... I would say it's for people who want to learn to cook,

who want to get better.

People who are trying to be a little more adventurous in the kitchen.

They're not people who are just going to have a takeaway,

because they actually want to feel like they've made something

for themselves, and they're a bit independent

-and they can do something well.

-But they need a bit of hand holding.

They need a little bit of a mate next to them, just to say,

"Yeah, that's right, you're doing it right.

"Now move on to the next bit, on to the next bit."

How important is getting the recipe right, then?

Well, enormously. It's essential.

If you've given them the wrong recipe,

they're going to lose their confidence straightaway.

They're also not going to buy your brand again,

no matter what recipe you put into it.

Well, they went for a risotto.

I've never made a risotto, cos it looks like a faff to me -

and I quite like cooking, but is that...?

I actually thought risotto was quite a good choice, in fact.

When you made it...

When they made it the first time, it looked quite...

It came out OK. It wasn't... It was fairly decent-looking.

It looked a bit creamy, the fish looked all right on the top,

it looked like something that was absolutely presentable.

The good thing about something like risotto

is that you can use three ingredients and make something

really delicious and feel like you've really achieved something.

-So it was a good choice for that kind of audience?

-Yeah, for sure.

Claudine, in terms of the marketing, the concepts that they came up with,

the gourmet, the healthy eating, did either of those

feel like they would grab you on the supermarket shelves?

Both of those concepts actually have both got legs.

I mean, they're both good concepts.

How they were translated was a different matter.

So, Natrofuel.

I mean, it was a cardboard box.

I mean, that's all it was.

Exactly.

I mean, it looks to me like...

You know when you order something dodgy off the internet,

I imagine, Ed, is that what it looks like?

I have to say, if I ordered something dodgy off the internet

and then opened it up and it was the components for a chicken curry...

I'd be very disappointed.

We can see the other team's here.

This is Gourmet Crusaders. There's a lot more going on

-on the packaging, at least.

-Yeah.

I'll come on to the name a bit more in a moment -

but were you happy with the gourmet idea?

Yeah, I think it's a really cool idea,

because gourmet you can even make into healthy eating,

as well, if you wanted to, as well.

It just encourages people to cook with ingredients

they maybe don't use at home or have at home.

They will end up expanding what they eat, as well.

I think it's a good...

There was some debate about healthy eating and what it meant, Andi.

It means different things to different people.

Can a chicken curry be healthy?

To me, I would think, "Yes, of course it can,

"if it doesn't use anything particularly unhealthy in it."

But there's not a vegetable in it.

What did you make of the healthy eating?

Healthy eating would normally include vegetables,

just as a sort of base, sort of starting point, really.

I mean, the best bit was the teaspoon of yoghurt.

What is that?!

For me, that is one of the highlights of the series.

Watching Michaela and Harrison trying to decide...

I mean, have they ever...? Let's have a look at it again, please.

Can we remind ourselves? I really enjoyed this bit.

I have no idea what to go in at, to try,

so let's just try something dead small.

Put that in and just see if it will help with...

If you've ever cooked a meal in your life, that's madness, isn't it?

It was like having fish and chips or something and then thinking,

"How can we...? Let's put one mushy pea on this

"and see if that makes a difference."

I think they were thinking yoghurt's healthy.

Well, so put more of it in, then.

You weren't keen on the Gourmet Crusaders...

-Yeah, that's right.

-..name.

-No.

Sarah sort of overruled you. Should you have fought harder?

I think I did give it... I did tell her enough, I think.

But obviously she said I hadn't.

Being PM, it always comes down to you,

so you have to make that choice, whether you change it

or whether you keep it. She did stick by it.

What did you make of the Gourmet Crusaders name, Claudine?

I think it was such a shame, actually,

that you didn't fight harder, because it was a terrible name.

You came up with World Gourmet Kitchen.

Something around that would have been much better

than Gourmet Crusaders.

You're right, she just cut you dead,

but I wanted you to kind of fight more.

It's not a great connotation to have with anything.

Crusaders sounds like war, it sounds quite expansive,

British Empire. I don't think it would help, Bushra,

with your suggestion of adding an umlaut to it.

That seems to make it slightly more of a problem, I'd say.

Yours was the neat little passport stamp, that was your idea.

-The footprints were perhaps a little paw-like.

-Yep.

Human footprints don't make me think of dog food.

-They looked like paw prints.

-They did look a bit like paw prints.

What weird dogs have you people got?

Let's talk about some of the other candidates.

Did you get on with Harrison? How did you find working with him?

I did. I actually got on really, really well with Harrison.

He's just him. He's always himself.

He actually gives 100% in everything that he does.

He might have a different approach to things,

-but, yeah, I think he's a strong candidate.

-He was project manager.

Why do you think it took him so long to become project manager?

You know what? There was so many strong people there

that even if he wanted to be, he probably couldn't make it,

because there were just so many people who would just jump on it

and actually get it.

I just think, yeah, he just waited.

Also waited for the right task, maybe, as well,

that would maybe interest Lord Sugar at the same time.

Andi, across the whole task, he did quite well.

I thought he did quite well.

There was a certain connection he had when he was doing the pitch

that was quite relaxed, because he believed in what he was saying.

That's the key to those things.

If you believe what you're saying,

you can get people to believe anything, clearly.

He didn't overdo it in the pitch.

No, he was quite relaxed, laid back,

he just sort of put the facts out there and talked about it

in quite a gentle manner,

so he didn't oversell, he didn't undersell.

It was cos he believed himself.

Yeah, he was project manager this week, Claudine,

but a lot of the time he did seem to be slightly influenced by Michaela.

-Slightly influenced.

-Slightly influenced.

-Yeah.

I don't think he was brilliant as a project manager,

because, as you say, first of all, Joanna had said, "Yeah, I can cook."

When he said, "OK, well, I'll go on to the branding,

"you can do the cooking."

Michaela then piped up with, "Well, I think you should come with me."

Because I think she didn't want to work with either Jade or Joanna

because she knows they're difficult.

She thought, "I'll have an easier time with Harrison

"and he'll do what I say."

When they got in the kitchen, she kind of went,

"Well, I've never made a chicken curry before."

You think, "For goodness' sake." He was quite adamant,

"Hm, I'm not sure chicken curry really is healthy."

"Yeah, we'll go with chicken curry, then, Michaela."

Harrison may have been project manager, but at times,

he didn't have a Michel Roux.

But he certainly wasn't always in control.

Michaela, from what I understand,

you were operating Harrison like a ventriloquist.

-MICHAELA:

-I'm absolutely bouncing.

One of the other things that we're throwing out now

was Root Flavour.

We need to be something, like, in the mind.

Use, like, all your worldly knowledge

and think of a different word for mind,

but try and keep it along those lines.

We had a few issues, which was unfortunate.

Do you know what, though? This is seriously,

this is the biggest opportunity of your life.

We're so far on in this. You need to put whatever this is behind you,

because if I lose because of this, honestly, I'm going to be fuming.

I'm absolutely bouncing.

Claudine, Joanna and Jade working together this week.

I use "working together" in the loosest possible...

-It was terrible.

-Like a poorly oiled machine.

It really... It really was. They obviously wind each other up anyway,

so why you would put them together is beyond me,

but I think that Joanna...

The problem is, Joanna actually has some good ideas,

but because she's quite whingey and negative,

no-one really listens to her.

They kind of brush her aside.

Jade is so forceful that Joanna just didn't really have a chance -

but I would never have put the two of them together.

There was a lovely moment where Jade said, "Come on, Joanna,

"think about it, it's food, it's for the mind,

"it's for the mind, it's food.

"Food mind."

Well, it's certainly better than Joanna's

suggestion of Root Flavours,

which sounds like a name for a terrible blues musician.

Andi, you're the food expert, Root Flavours,

could you see where she was going with that?

Well, you know, none of the ideas were good at the beginning.

Jade had said to her there's no such thing as a bad idea,

say anything, throw it all out there, we'll bounce it all around.

Absolute nonsense.

Can I just say, Jade?

If you are watching, there are such things as a bad idea.

Food Mind is one.

Joanna seemed bizarrely obsessed with this Root Flavours idea.

You don't think it's a bad idea?

I just... I'm just not really sure where it was coming from.

It's not that it was a bad idea, I just think it's a starting place.

She didn't seem to be able to get anyone to bounce back,

do you know what I mean?

She just kept trying to reposition it and reposition it

and nobody was going for it, but she couldn't let it go.

Have you ever worked with people you don't get on with, Ed?

Not including this show.

I mean, I'm self-employed, I'm a stand-up,

so it's mainly me getting on my own nerves, frankly.

I'm actually on a second written warning.

I might let myself go next week.

It's not a euphemism.

I've got you there, Rhod, it was.

Sarah was project managing Graphene. The team lost,

but were you impressed with her individual performance this week?

Well, yes and no. I think that she's very professional, very calm,

very considered.

She doesn't get involved in arguments,

but I was disappointed

that she didn't listen to Bushra's point of view.

She also, in a very subtle way, did what she wanted to do.

Yeah. She reminds me of you, Ed, a lot.

Very calm, considered, efficient.

You know very well that that is not true about me at all.

You're lucky that I made it here in trousers, quite frankly.

No, but she absolutely said

that you hadn't come up with the bit on the box,

the stamp bit on the box, and you clearly did.

I just thought that that wasn't very fair.

I've just got to add that Sarah and I

genuinely work really well together

and she is actually a really, really nice girl.

She is very good at what she does,

but she's also a tactical game player.

You've come into this process.

I guess people do have that up their sleeves. She did.

Well, Bushra, unfortunately, as you know,

Lord Sugar won't be investing in you,

but he does have this advice for your future.

Now, Bushra has a very interesting business.

It's a ladies' fashion business.

She's very passionate, very intelligent,

but in this particular task,

Bushra got the pitch all wrong,

so my friendly advice to her

is try and work on her presentation

and pitching skills.

If she can add that

to the other business skills she has,

she'll go quite a long way.

-Work on the pitching skills.

-Yeah, of course.

You know, I've never, ever pitched before.

I've been really fortunate to do all of my deals, I'd say, over a coffee.

So, coming into this process, I've learned so much about pitching

and I will definitely be taking that with me, as well.

What was your business plan?

So I run an Islamic, faith-driven brand online

and I wanted to grow it.

It's clothing, fashion, all sorts of things like that.

OK. Fabulous. Lord Sugar made his decision,

but does our panel think it was the right one? Claudine?

I think, honestly,

James was quite lucky not to be brought back into the boardroom,

but based on the three that were in the boardroom,

I think he probably did make the right decision.

Andi?

No. No, I don't think he made the right decision,

because I thought that actually...

This is just based on this week, I thought you were methodical,

I thought you were honest, I thought you were straightforward,

and I thought you had a real connection

with what you were trying to do, so I think it was wrong.

I think it should have been Elizabeth.

-Ed?

-Based on this week, no, I don't think you should have been fired.

As a whole process, perhaps it might have been your time to go.

Also, I thought he was about to fire Elizabeth,

but then decided the quickest way to shut her up

was just to send her back to the house.

I think if she keeps talking, she could just win this whole thing.

It's time to find out what our audience thinks.

If you agreed with Lord Sugar, hold up Fired.

If you disagree, hold up Hired now, please.

Oh, that is... That's a tough one.

What do you think, Bushra?

I think there's more reds there,

but is that because I'm wearing red today?

It's red. It's red, I'm afraid.

Now, then, Lord Sugar said that you need to work

-on your pitching skills.

-OK.

We have got you something that is going to help you

in any pitch that you do in the future.

You did struggle a little bit with the jokes,

so we have got you your very own You're Fired Stand-Up Comedy Guide.

Advanced level!

We recognise it just does need a little bit of tweaking.

Look, this is the kind of thing you can expect inside -

"What did Lord Sugar say to his authentically cooked pizza?

"You're fired."

-That's the kind of great stuff.

-That's brilliant.

RHOD READS JOKES

Absolutely right.

That will keep them rolling in the aisles.

-That's brilliant. It's brilliant.

-That is yours.

-APPLAUSE

-Lovely.

Bushra, I hope you've enjoyed it.

You're a great sport. Thanks for coming on the show.

Let's have a look at your highlights.

I am a strong woman.

It's our last deal of the day.

Bushra always has a calming word

and she never seems too flustered by anything.

Gosh.

Look at the little one!

Yes!

Bushra knows what to say and when to say it.

Get out there and let's smash it.

The boys are going to lose.

CHEERING

That's probably just one obvious...

-ROBOT:

-You can show off too.

Bushra's really deep.

Like, really, really deep.

You wear the salt and I'll wear the pepper.

Yay!

Guys, I have to go.

Landscape, greenery, water stone. Bye.

Ladies and gentlemen, Bushra Shaikh.

CHEERING

Also, please thank tonight's Apprentice fans and guests -

Claudine Collins, Andi Oliver and Ed Gamble.

CHEERING

If you think you have what it takes

to be Lord Sugar's next business partner,

applications are still open to take part in next year's series.

Head over to...

..for more details.

Next week sees our candidates attempt to host

their own fashion shows.

Who will Hugo Boss it, and who will be left looking all Heidi Klum?

Your task this week is acting as fashion agents,

and then sell the collections at your very own catwalk show.

Testing, one, two, three.

Cue music.

Do I look catwalk?

I'm going to need my glasses on for this.

Do something like...

Work it. Work every bit.

Do you have a six pack?

They really don't appear to have learnt from their mistake.

Give us a grrr.

What that represents to me is amateur magician.

Gold ghost.

You want me to direct it, let me direct it.

Join me next Wednesday at 10 for more You're Fired. Goodnight.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE