Episode 3 Instant Restaurant

Two rival amateur cooks are converting their homes into restaurants for one night only.

Also, if you could make sure that the glasses are polished.

They've been given just one day to pull it off

and a budget of up to £200.

-Hi.

-Hello! Head chef.

20 strangers will be judging the results.

Sorry. I forgot the parsley.

It's entirely up to them to decide how much, or how little, they want to pay.

Fire!

Cooked perfectly and the sauce was just unbelievable. Top marks.

It was the worst thing I've eaten!

If it was a restaurant, I'd have gone somewhere else.

So can the cooks deliver the goods?

And will either of them make any money?

Hello and welcome to Instant Restaurant,

where two amateur cooks attempt to create memorable dining experiences

for one night only.

Their guests then decide how much they think it's worth.

So can either of our cooks make a profit?

First up, 27-year-old Kim Willis.

By day, she pens romantic stories for women's magazines.

"Yet my heart went all of a flutter."

By night, she indulges an altogether different passion.

My love of food would have started when we were kids

and food was a huge part of what we did as a family.

And it's blossomed since moving into her converted chapel,

just outside Bristol, over a year ago.

I think when I moved in here is when I really started to try new recipes

and get into cook books and experimenting

and really fell in love with food.

So what's Kim seducing her diners with tonight?

The menu is probably 99% very British because I love Britain.

I love being at home.

But it's got a splash of inspiration from Thailand and Malaysia

thrown in for good measure.

Her rival is 25-year-old financial analyst Edgar Thomas,

who is mad about Chinese food

from the Sichuan region of south-west China.

I really enjoy cooking, travelling, generally food travelling.

And his globe-trotting has turned him into a tea connoisseur.

Over 5,000 different teas come from China.

The Chinese keep these teapots for their whole lives.

They keep them almost like a pet,

so they nurture them through their lives.

It sounds a bit weird that I collect teapots!

A little potty, maybe!

And, clearly, so is his dad,

as he's letting Edgar turn his Bristol home into a Chinese eatery.

The food we're cooking today is traditional Sichuan food.

We are not altering any of the dishes to make them any less spicy.

We are not cutting back on any of the garlic or ginger

which some British people find hard to palate.

We are keeping it as traditional as possible, really.

But this challenge is about so much more than just pleasing palates.

With two helpers each, Kim and Edgar

must convert their homes into fabulous restaurants

with just the right atmosphere to whet their diners' appetites and loosen their purse strings.

Kim's keeping it simple and hoping the combo of her flat

and her cooking will be enough to wow her guests.

I want to show off my flat

and the old Wesleyan chapel building, how beautiful it is, show off my culinary skills.

To help her, she's keeping it in the family with sister, Tammy.

Hopefully, we'll be so prepared that we will be able to actually

engage with the customers a bit and not just be tied up in the kitchen.

And brother, Jay, will be holding the fort front of house like a real life romantic hero.

He is dashing and should be able to charm the pants off anybody.

Might be really nice, easy going, lovely people who enjoy food, or they might be an absolute nightmare!

Let's hope he's still smiling at the end of the evening!

While Jay is taking his role very seriously...

..over at Edgar's, his brother, Nico, is taking a more laid-back approach to the night ahead.

I'm just taking a short break,

so I'm fully relaxed for greeting the guests this evening.

Nico's work will come later, really, when he's serving all the guests.

So I'll let him off at the moment.

Cor, what a nice boss! Can't imagine many chefs being so lenient.

Completing the team is Edgar's girlfriend, Charlotte,

sous-chef and kitchen prompt.

I'm sometimes his memory as well,

to remind him of things like rice

which, sometimes, we forget to make.

Hopefully, he won't tonight, as his simple communal dining theme

is totally reliant on a top-notch dinner.

What we're really trying to achieve is to get the guests eating the food

and concentrating on the food and not the decor

or the ambience of the restaurant.

We want it to be just about the food.

Both cooks have been given an allowance of up to £200.

Edgar's decided he can manage on a frugal £62,

so he will have to take just over £6 from each diner to break even.

Kim decided she needed just over £30 more,

so she must top £9 a head to cover her costs,

but she's had more than an instant restaurant on her shopping list.

Everything I am wearing is new and I have a dress to wear later.

So I've spent, how much was this top?

£20, £25 and tonight's dress was £65, so that's...

..We're talking £120 on clothes.

That's all right cos you'll make plenty of profit to pay for your clothes.

Yeah, the clothes I can wear again - I can't eat it twice.

Is it a dress, Kim? Or is it a top?

Ah, well, a girl's got to look at best

and she splashed her own cash on her instant restaurant wardrobe.

So it's a battle of an authentic Sichuan-tasting menu

versus classic Brit tinged with Malaysian flavours.

Each cook will be judged by ten hungry strangers.

I'm concerned they'll tear me apart.

They're all bringing their appetites and their cash.

Let's knock 'em for six, eh?

And if either Kim or Edgar fail to impress,

they could be heading for a loss.

Mmm, Kim's on a charm offensive.

-Kim, the head chef.

-Head chef.

Really impressed when we came through the door

and then up those stairs and you've suddenly got the split-level dining area.

More than expectations, I think.

It does actually look like a little cosy restaurant.

Jay's pulling out all the stops.

Smooth!

Over at Edgar's, the knock of the first guests

sends him scuttling back to the sanctuary of his kitchen.

And Nico springs up from the sofa.

Welcome to Chengdu.

If I could just take your drinks, I'll pop them in the fridge. Lovely.

I didn't notice the decor particularly.

No, neither did I. It was quite pleasant.

'Just OK, really.'

If I had walked into it as a restaurant,

I may well have walked back out.

Oh dear.

Not quite the response Edgar was hoping for

but Kim's got off to a flying start.

It will be interesting to see how Jay and Nico shape up.

There's an awful lot riding on those two.

But, for now, it's all about tempting the diners' taste buds.

Time for the starters.

In the hope of romancing her customers' palates,

Kim's offering them a choice of brazen brie soup with cranberry toasts,

or chargrilled peach and prosciutto tart with balsamic dressing and watercress.

I chose the soup because I think vegetarians have a bit of a bum deal

and I wanted them to have something luxurious and sexy

and I chose the Parma ham dish through experimentation because I love Parma ham.

The tart sounds tasty.

I'm struggling to think what the brie soup would look and taste like.

I'm sure it'll be nice.

Well, we'll soon see, Edgar.

Just after lunch, Kim started grilling peaches

for her tarts with a watchful eye and more than a little trepidation.

Every time that I've done this peach chargrilled thing,

I've burnt them because I get really impatient

with the fact that the chargrill lines don't show up for ages.

I'm like, "Come on! I'll do something else."

And I come back and it's smoking.

So I'm being really vigilant today about making sure that I do not let them burn.

OK, some of them have successfully burnt,

like this one, which won't go on a tart.

After rescuing enough peaches from incineration, Kim arranged them on

a home-made pastry with prosciutto, creme fraiche, mustard and honey,

ready for baking to order.

I know it's good food. It's probably not like some people might do lobster and crazy,

difficult combinations of food, but this is what I like to eat,

so it's got a lot of love in it.

-What's that?

-That's the brie.

-It needs liquidising.

-Cool.

I know it looks really lumpy but you strain it so the skin comes off.

Oh, right.

Mmm! Her second starter - the artery-furring soup

featuring brie, garlic and herb cream cheese AND cream

was started in the afternoon, ready to be served with cranberry toasts.

Kim's not just cooking but serving as well.

But is she spreading herself thinner than her Cranberry topping?

Ah, sorry! Forgot the parsley. I knew I would!

Hello, fellas.

-Hi.

-Who's who? Which is which?

-We're going to share.

-That's very clever.

-Well, one each. OK. Bon appetit.

-That's good.

-Huh.

I hope they're going down well.

I have no idea. It all got a bit... panicky towards the end.

I should try and listen for feedback, shouldn't I?

That's actually quite nice.

-Hmm.

-It's very nice.

-Very nice. Very good indeed.

But behind closed doors and out of earshot,

what do the diners really think?

We kind of cheated. We had one of each

and we sort of ate half and half.

I started with the tart and it was well executed.

The pastry was really thin, nice. Sometimes it's stodgy.

The prosciutto was quite crispy, so it was good but not too crispy.

The peach was well-cooked.

My starter was the ham and the peach tart.

-Tart.

-And then...

Ooh! They're a bit frisky.

Yes, which was really nice.

I think there was some balsamic dressing and stuff with the salad

and, yes, it was lovely. It was nice.

Peach is just really different.

I found peach interesting -

quite sweet and different.

Kind of not expected and that was a really nice flavour.

You'd think of apricots but you'd never think of peach.

So the tarts turn out peachy.

But what about the soup?

-Ah, it's really good, actually.

-Bon appetit.

-It was served with little, sort of, toasts.

-Jam on toast.

Well, it was jam on toast and that's the problem.

It tasted a bit sweet and a bit... just like jam on toast.

I didn't think I was going to like it but I was very, very surprised.

It was so amazing.

This is really good.

I like the cheesy flavour.

-But...

-Not in soup.

-I think it's got too much salt in it.

Hmmm. Yes.

Well, at least the tarts did the trick.

Over at Edgar's Chinese diner, he's taken the radical decision

of offering his guests no choice at all.

He's gambling on dishing up a marathon tasting menu.

Starting with the intriguing combo of mad hot chicken,

numbing Sichuan chicken, strange lotus root

and sour peppers with sweetness.

This is a classic Sichuan tasting menu

with lots of different taste sensations.

I'm pretty confident the guests will like it.

Strange lotus root? I like the sound of that, good collection of words!

But on the whole, the starters sound a bit...boring.

Mad hot chicken? Boring?

The first thing is cook the chicken for the starters.

Well, boring or not, Edgar's started his chicken dishes nice and early

by boiling both birds in water, ginger and spring onion.

And to spice up his diner's lives, the chicken will be dressed in

either chilli or numbing Sichuan pepper.

Within Sichuan cooking there is a concept called hot and numbing.

Where they serve a hot dish and a numbing dish together.

The numbing kind of counterbalances the hotness, if you like.

It's quite a nice sensation to have your mouth feeling slightly numb

and then put some really hot chillies in it.

It does work. It doesn't sound great, but it does work very well.

-Well, apparently it sounds boring to some people!

-So, what's next?

We need to do the dressing for the mad hot chicken.

Once shredded, the chicken was mixed with chilli,

oil, ginger, garlic, spring onions and red-hot pickled chilli paste.

-Is that hot enough?

-Yes.

-Sure?

-Yes, that's delicious.

It's hot enough.

Maybe this is what pepped up Nico.

Well, it does have a bit of a kick to it.

Yes. That's about perfect, I think.

You may be laughing, Edgar, but will your diners?

They've got some unusual ingredients to tackle.

Now I'm going to prepare the lotus roots.

They need to be prepared correctly, otherwise it can taste extremely bland.

As you can see it's very kind of beautiful kind of star, defined star shape in it.

It's got a very crunchy texture.

So once it's kind of dressed in a sweet and sour,

it takes on a little bit of the flavour of the dressing really.

The root's soaked in ginger and water for a couple of hours

and then spends another two hours in a vinegar, salt and sugar solution.

But will this exotic acquired taste entice his diners or put them off?

Time alone will tell.

Edgar's final starter, the sour peppers with sweetness,

are sliced bell peppers cooked in a traditional bamboo steamer,

before being mixed with sugar and salt dissolved in vinegar.

But before the diners can tuck into any of it, Nico heads out to set the scene and explain the menu.

If I can just have your attention for a brief moment?

Firstly, welcome to Chengdu.

The restaurant is called Chengdu after a region in south-west China.

Recently me and my brother Edgar who's in the kitchen went on a tea-buying trip to the region...

Scene-setting, tick. Menu explanation? Not really!

-Right. You need to go out there now and explain...

-Yes.

-Explain the small eats concept - they're having everything on the menu.

-OK.

Just briefly, there was something I forgot to mention.

You're probably thinking, "What am I going to have for a starter? What am I going to have for a main?"

-Well, you're going to have everything.

-Ooh!

Yes. Because in true Chengdunese style

we're actually going to have a tasting menu.

They call it "small eats" and you have little portions of lots of things.

Well rescued, Nico! Don't think the diners noticed a thing.

The service was superb. Really, really impressed.

He's enthusiastic, he's knowledgeable...and just wanted to talk to everyone.

So without further ado, I'll just go back to the kitchen and bring you some nosh.

Thank you very much.

This looks interesting. I can't imagine what that tastes like.

I never tasted lotus root before.

-Just interested in how I'm going to manage with these chopsticks.

-Never fear, madam. Nico is near.

The general idea is that you sort of perch them between your thumb and forefinger and use it like a claw.

It's more in the joints of your fingers.

But if it all goes wrong, then what I sometimes do is just take them like that.

Oh, he's good!

Unlike his pupil.

But will Edgar's hot and numbing creations fire up his diners?

-I love the lotus root.

-Yes.

It was just something I'd never ever seen before.

Just sliced through. You know, you can see, like, the parts where the water would go through

the root and everything. So just, yes, I'm a biology teacher. I think it's the biologist in me.

-It didn't look very appetising, but it had a fantastic flavour to it.

-And the texture was good.

I came in it blind, I suppose.

The only hot Chinese that I've ever had is my ex-missus about 15 years ago.

Oh, thank you. But can we just stick to the food, please?

Very, very impressed. Very impressed. I thought the starters were very good.

Nice mixed bag. You know, what an introduction.

Well, it looks like Edgar's insistence on nothing but authentic is paying dividends,

and that strange lotus root went down particularly well.

But there are another seven dishes to his tasting menu.

So I do hope his diners haven't peaked too soon.

And Kim's brazen brie soup wasn't to everybody's taste. So, can she redeem herself with the mains?

Kim's offering a choice of her speciality,

coconut and lime curry with organic chicken, pineapple and asparagus

served with okra, or lady's fingers.

Or roasted butternut squash, parsnip and goat's cheese

on garlic-infused Portobello mushroom with maple syrup,

toasted nuts and seeds and home-made sun-dried tomato bread.

Both the main courses are just a medley of all my favourite things thrown together

and I think the diners would be mad not to love them.

There's a lot of big flavours in the mushrooms. I'm not sure if they're going to be overpowering, maybe.

The curry sounds nice.

But pineapple and asparagus?

Well, Kim did call his mad hot chicken boring.

Mid-afternoon and sister Tammy was busy dicing butternut squash and parsnip for the vegetarian option.

After roasting them in olive oil, she then added goats cheese,

ready for it to be served with the mushrooms.

These are the portobello mushrooms with garlic butter on them

and I'm just going to grill them for a bit,

so that then 10 minutes before serving we can just

add the roasted veg to them and grill them a bit more.

Accompanying this dish will be sun-dried tomato bread freshly

baked in the traditional way, in a bread maker on a hallway floor.

Ah, hello, beautiful.

Look at you.

-Wow!

-What can I say?

Lovely! Now, best to leave that to cool somewhere you won't forget it.

Having baked her daily bread, Kim puts her lady's fingers together and prays that her diners will like it.

Well, she does live in a chapel.

The okra tends to quite, like, burst open and then it just looks rubbish.

So...as long as it's all got a little bit in there...

I might use my fingers.

Then, that's fine.

And the recipe calls for a messy style.

So, it doesn't matter if it sort of spills out and stuff.

I should have just had a hot caution on the okra on the menu so people don't jump in there.

Although I suppose they wouldn't order the curry if they didn't like hot food, would they?

No. That would be silly.

Having stuffed her okra, Kim takes a tea break,

but with only two hours before her diners arrive, she hasn't started her second main yet.

The other main is the chicken curry.

-Mmm.

-I might...Now I'll do the asparagus.

But apart from that I don't really want to pre-do that too much.

No. But you know if you really wanted to be on top of things,

-you could do the curry without the chicken.

-Yeah.

-But then it's just a load of coconut milk just sitting there.

-Getting all the flavours in it.

Yes, I want it to that, but don't need it to do that for three hours, I don't think.

-No.

-I'm with Tammy. But as this is Kim's signature dish,

I guess she knows what she's doing and will presumably pick exactly the right time to start cooking.

Which as it turns out,

was a tense 20 minutes before her guests arrived.

The sauce is a richly flavoured mix of home-made curry paste,

tomatoes, pineapple, lime juice and lashings of coconut milk.

And probably a bit of love thrown in too.

Well, would you believe that loads of people want my curry?

And I've got seven curries and three squashes. So I'm delighted!

Don't count your chicken curry before it's cooked, Kim. Or tasted, for that matter.

Sorry, mains for table 1. When you're ready.

Ah, good. Table 1...

These are my stuffed okras.

They only take a few minutes. It tastes really good.

It's got a kick to it.

But that's what I wanted. Yes, it's got a definite kick.

Oh, I hope the guests get a kick out of it.

-It's going to be...slightly sharing. I'll get you some more cutlery. Thanks.

-Thank you.

It looks very good. It looks very good.

With the curries lined up and ready to go, Tammy starts

plating up the veg option and is determined no-one goes hungry.

Kim thinks I've made these mains too big but...

I always think with vegetarian mains that you should make them

a bit bigger than meat because there's no...meat in them.

Sorry for the delay, guys. Who's having what?

The three of you are having curries?

-You're having that.

-Yes.

-And you? Yes.

-I'm having the other one.

-Oh, sorry.

-I've got a wobbly tower of rice...

-Kevin, the butternut squash.

-Sorry. Be with you in a second.

Oops! A bit of sloppy service there and things are sliding in the kitchen.

-There you go.

-Thank you.

Other two curries just on their way.

We forgot to serve the sun-dried tomato bread with our veggie main.

Which was on the menu and...I haven't heard anybody say anything but I 'm sure they...

I thought that you'd made an executive decision that it didn't go that well.

Well, to be honest I was thinking it's all a bit too dry.

There's no soft things. Really it doesn't go.

But that's not to say it wasn't on the menu and should have been an option.

Mmm. I wonder if the diners will notice what's missing?

I was really, really happy with my main courses. I loved my curry, how it looked.

It had asparagus shooting out of it and the rice worked, which I was really pleased about.

It was a disaster, if I'm honest.

I'm sorry, but it was the worst thing I've eaten in some time.

It was just like a big bowl of coconut milk

with some rubbery chicken. I felt really disappointed.

And the rice was overcooked.

And lady's fingers are disgusting.

My main was the curry. I don't know, it was really lovely first tasting,

but as you get down I kind of thought...

Mmm. I've tasted too much of the lemon now.

You know, kind of, I think the portions size was too big.

But yes, it was lovely. Nice chicken, it was just a little bit too much.

Mmm. I can never have too much chicken.

I chose the chicken meal.

And I was a bit surprised

that it's kind of like mixed flavours, like everything together.

The asparagus I just didn't get. I think the rice was a bit overcooked.

Then I tasted a little bit of Petra's food and I think

it was nicer and I should go for the veggie stuff.

The combination of butternut squash

and the nuts and goat's cheese was amazing.

Despite the mixed reviews, when the plates come back they're mostly empty.

-Ah! They ate it! Eaten. Eaten.

-Ooh, I wouldn't look too happy, Kim. Remember that bread you forgot?

Well, one of your diners didn't.

That would have made it nicer and maybe garlic butter or

something to savoury it up, but no,

it could have done with bread. That would have been nice.

We completely forgot about it until it was too late.

Bit of a shame. But, you know, at least it wasn't the major part.

It was just going to be on the side.

And nobody asked for it.

So that's something.

That doesn't mean it wasn't missed

and that curry might cost you dear

when it comes to the final reckoning.

But can Edgar fare any better? Just another six dishes lined up,

I hope the diners have got the appetite for this Sichuan feast.

Next up on his tasting menu, twice cooked pork, hot and spicy big fish, pork fried beans with special

old vegetables, sea spiced aubergines, pickled ginger spinach, and finally, a simple chicken broth.

Again, this is about sampling lots of different flavours and textures.

The twice cooked pork is a Sichuan classic and one of my favourites.

I've never cooked a hot and spicy big fish before.

I'm hoping the guests will like it as it is a spicy dish.

I don't really like Chinese food so am quite glad that I'm at my house.

I expect Edgar is too.

Before the twice cooked pork was cooked once,

he was grappling with belly pork - a good, cheap cut.

A Chinese favourite, really.

They do tend to like the more offally parts of the meat.

Well, they might, but will the diners?

Will be cooking the pork for about 25 or 30 minutes so it is just cooked this time.

It was then cooled for a couple of hours, sliced thinly and will be wok fried at the last minute.

As thin as possible, but try and keep the slice together as far as possible.

Just looking to crisp it up, get the fat melted

and then we'll be adding the flavours to it shortly.

That includes sweet bean paste, fermented black beans and a dollop of chilli paste alongside

beans with preserved vegetables and yet more chilli

in the sea spice aubergines and the pickly ginger spinach.

Enough heat to melt some diners' memories.

Which one was the mains because we've had five or six courses, haven't we?

I wouldn't put a bit of fat like that on a plate with a couple of pears.

However, it's very nice.

I'm not sure some of the guests appreciated it as much as I would have

or the Chinese would have but, you know, that's fine.

The Chinese love the belly pork, the skin, the gristle and all those little bits.

I'm not so keen on the pork but I like the aubergine and the green beans.

The pickly spinach he is coming in for some unwanted attention.

If you're talking about the spinach, enough said. Cold and slimy.

-Yuk!

-The spinach is coming back.

A lot of people didn't eat it.

I'm not sure if that's just because they had a big main course... So...

Perhaps it might be something to do with the industrial quantities of tea.

Being a connoisseur, Edgar is serving no less than six speciality brews.

It's Bai Lin Gong Fu.

We just call it red tea.

A lot of people often think that red tea is rooibos,

in fact, it's a really different bush.

I find it quite difficult to get excited about teas.

-Do you?

-Yeah, it's very easy to drink.

And while the diners discuss the finer points of tea, Edgar launches

into his first stab at dish number nine, the hot and spicy big fish.

The secret is not to overcook the fish. Nice and crispy on the outside but soft on the inside.

A couple of minutes on each side.

But being such a kitchen slave is leaving some of his diners neglected.

The host, we didn't really see. To me the service has been poor. They haven't been attentive enough.

Oh no! Has Nico lost his golden touch?

Or has he just got lost altogether.

Where the hell is my brother?

Nico has some ideas on how we can cut the fish up so I'll leave it for him to serve as well.

But there's no sign of him anywhere.

Can you go and have a quick look for him?

If it was a restaurant I'd have maybe just thought, this isn't for me and gone on to somewhere else.

In spite of Nico's absence, Edgar ploughs on with a sauce of soy,

specialist vinegar, ginger, garlic and yep, more chilli.

A couple of minutes later, Nico finally appears to dispense his wisdom.

Have you thought how to serve it?

Perhaps put it on some plates?

Oh! I think Confucius just got a rival!

What would I do without him?!

At least he can help with a bit of a last minute fish bone surgery.

Okay. Then we'll just

take the backbone off.

In China, they would actually eat this.

But today we're not going to eat it, we going to put it in the bin.

It makes you wonder how Edgar would cope without him, doesn't it(?)

Here we go!

OK, the fish is served.

We tried to fillet it as best we can, but there may well be

a few small bones so you might have to pluck them out.

They look like some pretty big bones to me.

So, has it got them hooked?

Everyone thought, brilliant, main course. Let's go!

Then, by the time we got to the fish it was a bit like... Oh, there's more.

And we ran out of rice as well.

There wasn't any more so it would have been nice

to have some more rice with the fish.

At least Edgar remembered it, even if there wasn't enough.

The fish was very, very good. Very, very good.

Nicely seasoned, nicely cooked. Very, very nice.

Cooked just perfectly and the sauce was unbelievable.

For that, yes, top marks.

But there is yet more to come.

A simple chicken broth - dish number 10. Hang on in there, guys!

The Chinese always have soups within the meal as a palate cleanser.

They all is very simple, like this.

They rarely have meat or fish in them.

It's usually a simple broth just to help the food settle.

But I'm not sure what the diners will make of it.

The soup was a bit of an odd thing because it was bit miso-brothy

anyway so, why is that at the end? You'd expect it at the start.

With 10 dishes down and only one to go, how's Edgar feeling?

Pretty happy. I think we're through the hard part.

Mixed reviews for Edgar, although his fish seems to have been a hit, and well done to the diners for

getting through 10 dishes on that marathon tasting menu.

Now, Kim's curry was not as special and she hoped it would be, but there

is still everything to play for as we tucked into the deserts.

Kim is serving apple and blackberry crumble with home-made vanilla custard.

Or pot au chocolat

with raspberries and white chocolate flakes.

Crumble, had to have crumble.

I've been eating crumble since I was zero.

Chocolate option - you can't go wrong with chocolate.

-Everybody loves chocolate.

-They are great puddings.

The chocolate is great and apple and blackberry crumble is one of my favourites.

Six hours before her guests arrive, Kim was busy making her

pot au chocolat - a calorific concoction of chocolate,

eggs, sugar, milk and cream but with a fruity twist.

I've put raspberries in this to kind of

dilute the intense chocolate-ness of it. I think that on its own it's

a bit too much of a chocolate hit, but if you get some of your five a day in there,

then you can justify all the chocolate!

Mm, I like your thinking, Kim.

Mid-afternoon and she was putting her special crumble together

with muesli, amoretti and cinnamon

mixed with a secret ingredient, fudge.

A nice idea so long as it's not served red hot.

But before the puds hit the table, Jay shuffles centre stage

to woo the diners and hopefully their wallets.

That must be the queen of clubs and this must be the queen of... What?

S-spades.

Have a look.

APPLAUSE

OK, now, you all pay the full amount.

Who knew Derren Brown had a twin?

It was quite relaxed

and Jay seem to be having fun as well so that was good.

He made a great trick with cards.

It was really funny.

It was brilliant.

In the kitchen, Kim is trying to create an equally magic home-made custard.

I've done the custard as often as I've done the crumble because I wanted it to be a home-made custard.

It's so much nicer and

the addition of the vanilla pod gives it that delicious kick.

Mm! Looks good.

Very happy.

It has little specks of vanilla in it.

I've just tried it and it is absolutely delicious, really creamy.

Look at you, you perfect little beauty!

I expect some people will say the crumble is a boring option but

everybody loves crumble and it is a staple of British diet because it's so good.

I don't think that a little bit of burn on the side is bad

because it's just come right of the oven.

It shows it has just been in the oven, doesn't it?

That's fine. Let's just get rid of the burnt stuff.

Just removing a few bits of burnt muesli.

I'm not worried about the burnt muesli, it's the molten hot fudge lurking beneath it.

-Crumble.

-Sorry.

Crumble for you.

Great!

Sorry. That's hot! Ah! Ah!

Whoops!

Fire!

Fortunately, Jay conjures up a cure.

Sorry for your burnt experience.

If this is a condolence, this is on the house.

-Thank you very much.

-Please accept.

OK. What do we do?

Don't let it stick to your tongue. Just soothe it gently. That's it.

We had visions of him, sort of, mending himself with the ice

and then getting that stuck to his tongue and we'd have to prise it off, force-feed him some crumble.

Anyone else need crumble first aid?

LAUGHTER

Hopefully, the chocolate pud will prove less hazardous.

I think I'm salivating! LAUGHTER

Could possibly be a bit richer.

But there's quite a lot of it, so maybe it's a good thing that there's not.

Lovely little chocolate cigars, which are harder than they look.

So yeah, very good on those.

Very smooth and...yeah. Fab.

That is delicious, isn't it? >

LAUGHTER

I wasn't very keen on the crumble,

unfortunately, I didn't like the custard and...

I didn't like at all.

Didn't like the custard?!

At least it didn't take the roof of your mouth off.

I think we dealt with it well.

We went to the rescue, made it funny, and now he'll have a memorable night.

-So yeah, really pleased.

-I'm glad. >

He's glad. He's so pleased.

It all went fine.

At Edgar's, the diners are finally on the home straight.

It's dish number...11.

Jasmine tea jelly with passion fruit

and a drizzle of lemon and honey sauce.

It's not very Chinese, but it's a good way of using the jasmine tea,

and it's a great palate cleanser at the end of a big meal.

When he gets to the puddings, you're supposed to be all excited, and...

jasmine tea? Woo-hoo(!)

Well, she's obviously not keen,

but it might be very welcome after all of Edgar's fiery dishes.

And this little number is Charlotte's domain.

It's nice and refreshing and light at the end of the meal,

as it's jelly. We're really proud of it, as we invented it ourselves.

We've been experimenting with various different ways to do it

over the last six months or so,

and I think we've perfected it now, so...

yeah, it's really nice.

The recipe is simple enough -

jasmine tea with sugar and just enough gelatine for it to set.

Hopefully.

45 minutes later, and...

That's looking like it's still a little bit liquid.

This could be a problem, guys. LAUGHS

-He's over-reacting.

-The jellies haven't set!

Aargh!

We've got a number of hours before eating them.

I guess if it all goes horribly wrong

there's a reasonably good takeaway we could get some dishes from!

Hopefully, it won't come to that.

OK, so, I'm just taking the jellies out of their moulds now,

and popping them on to these plates.

So after eight hours in the fridge, do we have jelly?

Or just chilled tea?

Ohh...looks a bit wobbly!

It's going OK...

They're not quite as smooth around the edges as I'd hoped.

I'm not sure whether it's the moulds or the amount of gelatine we used,

the amount of time they set for - not sure.

Maybe more practise required to get them looking smoother!

Aww, very pretty, with a nasturtium flower passion fruit

and a drizzle of lemon and honey.

But the true proof of a jelly is in its wobble.

OK, so here's the jelly. Notice how it wobbles.

It's a bit like two large...

-Wobblers?

-Jellies.

Excuse me, please!

-Can I have some tea, please?

-Yeah, sure.

How's the jelly?

-It's lovely after the... After the meal.

-Good!

The jelly on its own is just... really weird.

Can I just say, I'm thoroughly enjoying my jelly!

I like it, because I wouldn't eat like a proper, really thick...

If something was creamy or stodgy I wouldn't eat it,

-and this is quite refreshing.

-It worked well with the Chinese food.

I say, that's a bit of a success!

Now that is a wow factor.

But now it's time for the diners to decide what they're prepared to pay.

If they didn't like what was dished up, that could be nothing.

Neither of our cooks has any idea what their guests will part with.

But have they done enough to make a profit?

Having spent £93

on her Brit-with-a-twist menu,

Kim must take just over £9 a head to break even.

So what did her diners make of their evening?

The location was great, the service was really good.

Really good ideas for food, just not quite executed right.

I had a really nice evening, lovely company,

and the food was nice and the host was good.

The main wasn't absolutely...to my liking, it wasn't savoury enough,

but it was very nice. I loved being there, I loved the company and felt very relaxed.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere and they were a brilliant hostess,

and it was a really nice evening.

I thought you was going to say £10!

-No, no, no, I liked it.

-MOTORCYCLE ENGINE

Oh! Evenin'. Was that you, Amanda?

LAUGHTER Oops, pardon me!

Well, it sounds like they had a good evening!

Where am I?

Meanwhile, Edgar spent a frugal £62

on his authentic Chinese menu.

So he only needs his diners to cough up just over £6 each.

But will he pay the price for that endless parade of dishes?

I thought it was a meal of two halves.

The first half was absolutely fantastic, the starters and mains,

and then it slid down slightly.

The food was still tasty but it just lost something.

I thought the evening was great fun,

and the food was OK.

Great company, great ambience, fantastic food.

Really, really impressed. Can't explain how much.

He was really, really into what he was doing,

got me - a coffee fanatic, somebody who hates tea - got me into tea!

And for that, he's a legend!

I'll go with an average of £22 per head, I think.

Very optimistically!

Actually, I'm thinking more like £180.

Yeah, £180.

Edgar and Kim, what a night!

I was really impressed. You were both fairly ambitious.

Kim, how was it for you?

Erm, yes, it was probably a bit of an undertaking.

I was glad to have my brother and sister with me.

They definitely helped me stay calm, it was good fun.

What was the best part?

Eating it all afterwards!

Well, that's a first!

When everyone had gone we just ate the rest!

What I adored about you was you spent the same money on your dress

as you did on the food.

Yeah, yeah!

Are you hoping that will pay dividends?

I don't know what I was thinking! The dress was so short as well!

When I tried it on at home, I was like, "What have I done?!"

But I had to go through with it because it was so expensive.

-I don't know what I was thinking.

-Edgar, you didn't have a dress on.

-No!

-But you had your brother...

-Yeah.

-..to distract from you.

I thought it was hilarious the way that as soon as the guests came in

you ran into the kitchen, almost like you were terrified of them!

-I guess I was a little bit!

-I thought it was fabulous

what you decided to do, that massive great menu.

I loved watching the diners,

they were really out of their comfort zone with the menu.

Quite a risk? The right thing to do?

Yeah, that's part of the idea, really,

give them a proper Sichuan dining experience.

I wanted to keep it completely traditional,

I didn't want to compromise on the spiciness of it,

or any of the other flavours.

I'm sure you'd like to know whether you even made one penny.

Yeah? So, Kim.

You spent £93.24 on food, how much did you spend on your dress?

-About £69!

-But that was your own money!

We'll let you off!

-Your diners donated £211.

-Oh, my God!

-That's brilliant!

-Isn't it?!

-Cool!

Which means you made a profit of £117.76, so there is your cash!

-Thanks! I get to keep that?

-You do!

-That buys a lot of dresses!

Thank you!

And, Edgar, you spent £62.43,

your diners donated £214.50,

which means you made £152.08.

-So there you go! Amazing!

-Thank you!

He's already put it in his pocket. Did you see that?!

He's talking to me, pretending he's listening,

but he's just shoving his money in his pocket!

Guys, you've been brilliant. Thank you so much!

And thank you. We'll see you next time on Instant Restaurant.

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