Episode 8 Instant Restaurant

Two rival amateur cooks are converting their homes into restaurants.

It's possible to see vegetarians as people who knit their own lentils.

It's a slight risk, yes, but where's the fun if there's no risk?

They've been given just one day and a budget of up to £200.

I'm panicking, I'm panicking.

20 strangers will be judging the results.

How stupid am I on a scale of 1 to 10? 11.

It'll be entirely up to the diners to decide how much or how little they pay.

That was the nicest thing I've eaten forever!

It was really blurgh!

So, can the cooks deliver the goods and will either of them make any money?

Hello and welcome to Instant Restaurant.

Now, it doesn't matter how good a cook you think you are,

creating an unforgettable menu for paying strangers

has got to be the ultimate challenge,

but today's rival cooks are confident

they've got what it takes to pull it off and make a profit.

First up, Paul Tobin from Taunton,

a social worker, life coach, reiki healer and committed vegetarian.

I've been a veggie since I was 21, so that's 32 years now.

It was his reiki teacher who put him on the path to meat free dining.

He said, "Be a vegetarian, it makes your vibes better,"

and so I thought, "I can do that,"

but I suspect I was one of those people who...

Who would have become a veggie anyway.

He's on a mission to give his diners the veggie vibe

and pay top dollar for his fare.

What I'm cooking tonight is...

Is wholesome, but simple food

and I think that's what will lift it out of this misconception

that vegetarian food is in some way, well, like, weird.

Oh, let's hope the diners won't find it weird.

Paul's rival restaurant is opening its doors

at imposing Chipley Manor on the edge of Dartmoor.

At the helm is 58-year-old management consultant Andrew Strigner

and when it comes to food, he's keen on the classics.

Certainly my cooking tonight is very much

traditional,

but with maybe a couple of little surprises, I hope.

His passion for food comes from his Italian grandmother.

She was, in fact, a tailor but she was also a very, very good cook.

I think, really, she taught me to love food, as well.

And he's got his own idiosyncratic way of doing things.

This is basically my mind map.

Little roadmaps all the way around, you know?

I have a torturous and convoluted mind, but...

So I need a map sometimes.

Good luck with navigating that, Andrew.

I hope you don't find yourself up a dead end.

Now, Andrew couldn't be further removed from veggie Paul.

He's serving food with a face, a rich mix of seafood, duck and offal.

The nightmare diner for me is the person who's not going to try

anything that I've got on my menu, who says... Is going to say,

"I don't like fish, can't eat offal, won't eat offal,

"this is an awful menu you've got here."

That's going to be my nightmare diner.

But this challenge is about a whole lot more than the menu.

It's about creating the perfect restaurant experience.

Over to you, Paul.

Well, my restaurant is called Gilliegants.

Gilliegants is an old Somerset dialect word for cavorting

with the opposite sex, which seems a great name for a restaurant, really.

Yes, this innocuous suburban terrace is going to play host to Paul's frolic themed restaurant.

That could get the curtains twitching.

Inside, the decor has a certain rustic charm about it.

The chairs are odd. Four of them come from my garden.

I have a camping table for half of it.

It is certainly a rustic restaurant.

Over at majestic Chipley Manor

they're rolling out the full, formal dining experience,

starched linen tablecloths and polished silver.

The concept is really to the manor born.

We are lucky to, sort of, have and live in

what is actually quite an elegant, I think, house

and what we're trying to do is actually sort of bring this elegance across

in our presentation and maybe a little bit in the cooking, as well.

Both cooks can have two assistants to help them prepare for the challenge.

At Gilliegants, Paul's roped in next door neighbour Bethan

and niece Gayle, who's a little bit nervous.

I've sort of been thrown in the deep end a bit and I'm just like, "OK, I'll do it."

That's the spirit!

I've been asked to come and be front of house this evening.

I'm just going to give it a go,

hopefully give them a nice warm greeting

and make them feel quite comfortable and then help with the waitressing.

At his grand manor house, Andrew's counting on his wife, Andrea.

Wow! That looks fantastic.

Well done, well done. Super!

Yeah, I just want to create a nice atmosphere and a nice...

That group is enjoying just the evening.

And also pitching in is long time family friend Helen.

-It's a very good team.

-Thank you. Good team.

-Good team.

So, it's the battle of the full blooded lord of the manor

versus the New Age vegetarian,

so how much of their £200 allowance have the rivals needed to spend?

Well, Andrew's decided he must have £160 to make the right impression,

so he'll be looking for more than £16 a head to go into profit.

Paul's managed on £40 less,

so he needs to take £12 a head if he's to break even.

It could be a close call, this one.

But of course it's up to the diners how much they'll pay,

and if they don't like what they get,

our cooks could end up with nothing at all.

Each instant restaurant will be judged by ten strangers drawn from different walks of life,

but with one thing in common, an appetite for a good night out.

At Paul's restaurant the guests are arriving,

not that anyone's noticed.

At Chipley, the team are standing by

and the diners are greeted by Andrea...

Welcome to Chipley Manor.

And shown into the parlour for drinks and nibbles.

Oh, nice!

But at Gilliegants, after a ten minute wait,

the diners are still on the doorstep.

Apparently there are three couples, or three sets of two.

-Three sets of two.

-And one set of four.

Yes, we know, they're trying to get in!

Anyone going to answer?

-Hello.

-Hello!

-Now, have you been waiting long?

-No, really.

-No.

-You've not?

Oh, yes, you have.

Absolutely fine.

Oh, we couldn't hear a thing back there so I do apologise.

We waited rather longer on the doorstep than I would have imagined possible...

-It was funny though, wasn't it?

-..for a dinner party.

-I did find that amusing.

-Once inside it was very welcoming.

The lighting was nice, I liked that straight away and the colours. That was very welcoming.

-Yes. No, I agree.

-Nice warm colours.

Meanwhile, over at Chipley Manor all the guests have managed

to make it through the front door in time for Andrew's welcome.

I think this is going to be quite an interesting evening for all of us.

Away from the rest of the crowd,

the guests get a chance to tell us what they really think.

When we first arrived we were really impressed, the building's really nice.

When we walked in we thought it was really good.

-We did, yeah.

-We thought, "Wow, what a posh house!

"This can't be somebody's house it must be a hotel!"

Now they've decided to answer the front door at Paul's,

Gilliegants is filling up, too.

It was very friendly,

a bit small, but then their house isn't huge so that can't be helped.

I think I was expecting it to be tables of two, tables of four.

I wouldn't have said I walked in and felt it was a restaurant.

Well, all that Georgian grandeur at Andrew's seems to have made

a big impression, while Paul's eatery was a bit more homely,

but now it's all about the menus,

so knives and forks at the ready, it's time for starters.

Paul's hoping to get his guests gillieganting

with his choice of starters,

sweetcorn fritters served with a selection of homemade chutneys,

or goat's cheese and beetroot salad.

The sweetcorn fritters are new for us and we really like them.

Nice light introduction to the meal.

The goat's cheese and beetroot is a firm favourite.

It's a good classic combination.

Sweetcorn fritters, chutney?

That's OK, yes.

The goat's cheese with beetroot,

unusual combination, but I think that works, I think that works.

I'm going to do it myself and I think I've got competition here.

Well, we'll soon find out, Andrew.

Paul got cracking on his starters earlier in the day.

I'm just going to make the batter for the sweetcorn fritters,

so that's that in. What I'm going to add to this now

are some dried chillies from my sister-in-law's garden.

He shops the chillies in a rustic style and chucks the whole lot in the batter, seeds and all.

Oh, ho, that could certainly spice things up.

I'm hoping that people will find my menu adventurous.

It's not a fancy menu and I'm using the word rustic all day

in the hope that it covers many sins.

Well, that's one way of looking at it.

Next it's the beetroot for the goat's cheese salad

and assistant Gayle is in charge.

I'm just going to cut it really finely and it's...

It's really as rustic as that, to be honest.

There's that rustic word again!

I wonder what the diners will make of it.

-What we're looking at is five goat's cheese and five sweetcorn.

-Right.

-Wonderful.

-Well, half and half.

I'm feeling... Oh, yeah, I'm feeling quite cool about them.

That looks as though it's still not ready to turn over.

That looks as though it probably is.

That's perfect, actually. That's a nice one.

Well, the fritters fry in the pan, the beetroot

gets goat's cheese crumbled over it and then salad leaves on top.

Rather a lots of salad leaves!

The salads look marvellous, actually.

-That needs to swap over.

-What can I say?

Plating up the sweetcorn fritters,

Paul adds a dollop of rhubarb and apple chutney

and then a spoonful of lime pickle, and not much else.

No garnish, no nothing.

Rustic, you see?

With presentation, I am not very good.

I cannot do the fine part of it at all.

Oh, dear. I hope that won't be a problem with your diners.

-Sweetcorn?

-Yes.

Thank you.

Presentation wasn't that good.

It would have been good to have had a little bit of greenery with it

because it all just looked the same colour, rather dull on the plate.

It probably doesn't look as attractive as it could do,

but I'm sure it'll taste very good.

When they came my first thought was,

"Whoa, look at the size of the plate compared to what I'd been given,"

but actually they were really tasty.

I'm not sharing this, it's too nice!

Any bleats about the beetroot and goat's cheese salad?

When it came it looked superb.

It was beautifully presented and it tasted as good as it looked.

I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised.

That's very nice.

If I'm honest, I'm a meat eater.

I would have never have eaten that before

-and having chosen that and eaten it, yeah, really nice.

-Yeah, look.

-Oh, that looks...

-Empty plates!

That looks wonderful. We're doing well.

-And with comments of, "That was lovely!"

-Wonderful.

-That was lovely.

-That's really music to my ears.

-Good.

The fact that the plates are coming back empty makes me feel wonderful, actually.

I feel really good about that. It feels like we've got something right.

So, a pretty good start for vegetarian Paul,

but what's carnivorous Andrew got in store at Chipley Manor?

For his starters he's offering a choice of pan-fried duck liver with a walnut salad,

or a hearty seafood cocktail packed full of prawns, monkfish,

smoked salmon, crab, calamari, scallops and langoustine all smothered in Marie Rose sauce.

That's a bit of a mouthful! I hope his diners have got big appetites.

Living in South Devon close to Brixham,

fish and my seafood cocktail is a fantasy of fantastic fish.

And again we've got farming country, beautiful duck

and what better than duck liver as a starter? Fantastic.

This sounds like a man who really knows how to cook.

Let's hope so. Just an hour before his diners were due Andrew

began making the Marie Rose sauce for his fantasy seafood cocktail.

Mine is slightly different.

It's slightly sweeter, more refined, yes, of course.

First stage, mayo. Normally a labour of love

where the oil is usually slowly whisked into the egg yolks...

Just make sure we've got no shell in there. That's absolutely fine.

-Unless you're Andrew, in which case you dump it all in at once.

-Right.

Add a dollop of tomato puree,

oh, and another dollop just for good measure.

A bit more, a bit more, bit more.

Nice and... Nice and deep.

And give it a quick blast.

Unconventional, but how does it taste?

Pretty good.

Perfect!

Well, we'll take your word for it.

But his starters have left Andrew with an awful lot to do at the last minute.

Once the diners' orders are in

he's got to cook the duck liver for one starter

and saute some of the ingredients for the sea food cocktail, as well.

The langoustines, prawns and scallops all hit the pan

and are then piled on top of cold ingredients.

Nice big langoustine poking through.

Then topped off with the Marie Rose sauce.

Isn't that a dainty dish to set before a king?

Yes, but I'm not sure you've got any royalty in the dining room,

and fiddling about with all that sea food means the duck livers

have been lingering in the pan for quite some time.

I hope it's not overdone.

And when it comes to plating up,

Andrew believes in being a hands on cook.

-OK.

-Two sets.

-Good.

-That's it?

-That's it.

-All right.

-Thank you.

The cocktail was for the lady.

Yes, please. That looks lovely. Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-Enjoy it, yes.

-Thank you very much, that looks lovely.

So, does Andrew's cuisine match up to the opulent surroundings?

For my starter I had a seafood cocktail, which I'd order in lots

of different restaurants, but this one was blurgh.

It was really blurgh. The whole thing.

All it tasted of was blurgh sauce.

The sauce is rather... I don't really know what the word is.

Will "blurgh" do?

It's not very pleasant, shall we say?

And, just generally, the taste wasn't too great.

It was just like a really rich tomato sauce

with lots of olive oil in it

and that really overpowered everything that was in there,

and the whole thing was odd.

Oh, dear, the seafood's nosedived, but what about the duck?

I had the duck liver and it was all right,

but I thought it was a bit dull to be honest.

It was a bit dry, the liver, and the little garnish of salad

could have done with some dressing to make it a bit more interesting.

And the presentation really did nothing at all for me

because I thought that eating, first of all,

was all about the smell and the visual

and none of those two worked for me

and the taste didn't work for me either, I'm afraid.

It's so wrong.

Oh, that's dive bombed, too, but Andrew remains unruffled.

OK, but... You know, you can't please everybody. Never mind.

What a shame.

All those gorgeous ingredients and hard work down the pan,

but there's still two courses to go,

so Andrew could turn things around.

In contrast, Paul's flavours are really doing the business

but his presentation isn't up to scratch,

so can he add a flourish or two to his mains?

At Gilliegants Paul's offering a choice of homemade tagliatelle

with fresh Somerset pesto, or mushroom Pan Haggerty,

an old English dish of potato, mushroom and onion,

topped with cheese and served with roasted root vegetables.

These two dishes really sum up my approach to food.

Locally resourced, good quality products, simply...

Simply prepared, give you a great taste.

The tagliatelle with pesto,

yes, but a bit simple, I think, for a restaurant main,

and the Pan Haggerty, I love the mushrooms, love the idea of it,

but I think, again, that would be an accompaniment

and not actually a dish in itself to me.

Well, Paul thinks it is

and set to work on the Pan Haggerty in the afternoon.

It's basically layer upon layer of potatoes, onions and mushroom.

Well, the wow factor for a dish like this I feel is in the...

Is in the taste. It does a long time in the oven.

It's...

It's unusual. It tastes wonderful.

So I'm hoping that that will be enough

to bring a smile to people's faces.

Well, if his diners were expecting posh nosh

they're in the wrong place.

I hope he doesn't lose out when it comes to pay up time.

Right, I'm going to just stick that in the oven

on the bottom shelf and leave it at that, actually.

For his Somerset pesto he's using rocket instead of basil.

Interesting, but, hang on a minute, that's not home grown salad!

It does actually come from Portugal.

This has been brought by road, I would imagine.

I'm 'fessing up to it straight away before we go any further.

So much for locally sourced dishes!

The other key ingredient is garlic, rather a lot of it.

The pesto also gets a glug of rapeseed oil,

which is locally sourced, and then a whiz in the blender.

Gosh, that is lovely, if I say so myself.

At 4.30pm he starts making fresh pasta.

It's a lengthy process, so after kneading, resting and rolling it,

his plan was to cut it after his diners had received their starters.

Sounds like that machine could do with a good oil!

Something's happened, it's too dry.

It's just not being picked up by the machine

as I'd have expected it to be.

So much for me saying, "Oh, you can do it earlier." That's it.

But eventually the pasta plays ball and he can get it in to boil.

This is the part that I'm really worried about

in case I overdo the pasta, but it's in the hands of the gods.

No, Paul, it's in the hands of ten hungry diners,

and chef's beginning to feel the pressure.

If you put that down over here, look, I need to drain... Just drop it in.

Just... No, just drop it in. Just leave it in, honestly.

I need five plates on the table ready for this.

And I need...

I need to be coherent.

I'm panicking, I'm panicking.

I'm realising that I have more plates,

but they are packed away somewhere

and I forgot to bring them out. How stupid am I?

On a scale of 1 to 10? 11.

-I would be worrying if it went smoothly.

-Absolutely.

So, don't you be worrying.

Once again he's keeping it simple, rustic even.

A plate of pasta with a dollop of pesto on top.

No seasoning, no garnish.

But Bethan's tidying it up a bit.

His other main course, Pan Haggerty, simply needs to be plated up.

But that looks pretty damn good.

I think your guests will be the judge of that.

Hunks of roasted root veg and what have you got?

Ha-ha, rustic, that's what!

So, how's the pasta faring?

When it first came I was like, "Yes, fresh pesto, it's going to be lush."

And I smelled it, I was like, "Oh, that smells amazing."

When I first tasted it, it was so garlicky and I'm not a fan.

I'm really sorry, Paul, but, not...

I'd rather go to Tesco's.

I could have easily cooked that myself at home

and wouldn't have felt it was special enough to have had in a restaurant.

-There you go.

-Thank you very much.

Oh, is the Pan Haggerty too homely?

I don't eat a lot of veggie stuff.

I kept lifting up the slices of potatoes

looking for a great chunk of meat inside, but it didn't happen!

Well, it is a vegetarian restaurant, sir!

It didn't hold together very well as a meal. It didn't...

The layers separated and didn't stack well,

but the flavours were good.

I think, with a little more attention to detail,

it could come up to restaurant standard.

The food has not looked as brilliant as...

As it, say, would do in a real restaurant.

I have to say it looks very, to use that overused word of mine, rustic.

But it's fine. It's working.

If they're enjoying it, I'm happy.

Will Andrew's diners be happy with what he's got in store?

He's serving pan-fried red mullet with home-grown veg from the garden,

or braised oxtail in Napoli sauce made with tomatoes,

olives, capers and anchovies all served with homemade pasta.

I love oxtail. It's fantastic.

Underrated. Everybody I know loves oxtail, they just never eat it.

Give it a little fantasy, a few olives, a little bit of tomato

and it's a fantastic dish.

As a vegetarian, you might be expecting me to turn round

and to be critical of this part of the menu. I'm not.

I think everybody has their own choice.

Both dishes require a great deal of expertise

that I'm sure Andrew has.

Diplomatic to the end, Paul,

and we'll soon see about that technical expertise.

Mid morning and Andrew was searing the oxtail

and waxing lyrical.

I think it's one of those forgotten dishes, really,

that old English cooking that my mother's mother used to do

and even my mother used to do.

And oxtail is one of those dishes.

On the other hand,

I'm giving this a sort of Mediterranean style also,

because I'm going back to the other grandmother as well, who's Italian.

Taking his cue from that Italian heritage, he'll slow cook the meat

in a rich tomatoey Napoli sauce until the meat falls off the bone.

So that has been in the oven now for about two hours

and it's just coming off the bone beautifully.

And I'm now going to make nice tidy little parcels of it

and to do that, I'm using...

caul fat.

This is what they call sometimes caul fat,

sometimes they call it the veil.

Whatever you call it,

it's the membrane surrounding a cow's internal organs

that Andrew is using to hold his oxtail parcels together.

I hope his diners have got the stomach for this sort of thing.

Apart from, you know, keeping it tidy,

the veil is actually going to help keep it all moist,

as that membrane there is just going to sort of seal it,

seal it all up

when I come to actually get this the final sort of roast off.

I wonder if it will be fatty?

Oh, now he's gone all Italian again,

making fresh pasta to accompany the oxtail dish.

I'm making my own pasta

because I think if you're going to a restaurant, it's a bit of a cheat

to actually have something thrown at you out of a packet.

Any fool can do that.

To get the thin sheets needed for tagliatelle,

Andrew breaks out his pasta machine.

Did everyone in the West Country get one of these for Christmas?

How long have I been making pasta? Crikey!

Certainly as long as I can remember.

I can't remember having learnt.

I remember doing,

but not learning.

That is just super!

Benissima! Perfetto!

Let's hope it's as perfetto as it looks.

As the starter plates are cleared from the dining room,

the oxtail and caul fat concoctions go in the oven to finish cooking.

Now Andrew can turn his attention to the fish.

What I've got here is red mullet fillet.

It's coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs,

ready to be cooked in hot oil.

But it's slow going, with the fish hitting the pan

20 minutes after the starters were cleared.

Not that Andrew's worried.

Funny enough, I'm quite surprised at how I'm doing here.

You know, I thought I might be in more trouble than I actually am.

I wouldn't speak too soon, Andrew.

There are some very hungry and pretty restless diners out there.

We've just been discussing

how we've been waiting for our main courses for over an hour now.

I've gone past the point of hungry.

I'm just a bit cold and a bit tired, now.

If this was a restaurant, I'd have walked by now.

But in the kitchen,

Andrew and his team are still taking it at their own pace.

Yeah, we could have been a bit faster, but, you know,

everything's together, this is the main thing and that's my main worry.

In the dining room, things are going from bad to worse.

The waitresses haven't been around.

It's beginning to rumble, definitely.

Another five minutes, I think we'll go looking for the chef, so...

We're just ringing to say try not to let Sophie stay up,

because we've only just had our starter.

Sweet dreams, Sophie. Mummy could be some time.

Do you think I should apologise for the wait?

Er...you can do.

You can say is there anything... Is there any issues at the moment?

Yeah.

That's a definite yes. It's been an hour since they finished their starters

and one hungry diner is reduced to retrieving the pre-dinner nibbles!

There you go. Do you want crisps or nuts?

-I don't mind. What would you like?

-You can have some nuts.

I'm very sorry for that.

But we'll start laying the plates out and, yes.

Cooking the food?

With his guests reduced to snacking,

Andrew is at last on the home straight

with the pasta going into the boiling water.

-Just hope for the best now.

-Just to hurry things along a bit,

Andrea gives the potato salad to go with the fish

a generous glug of olive oil.

That should be absolutely fine.

Fish.

An hour and 23 minutes after the starters were served,

Andrew finally begins plating up the main courses.

First the fish, then the oxtail.

-Is it done?

-Yes.

Right.

It's been languishing in the oven for over an hour.

-I hope it hasn't gone dry.

-Do you want this with that or not?

-No.

Hallelujah!

Exactly an hour and a half after polishing off their starters,

the diners can finally tuck into their mains

and they're so relieved, there's even a round of applause!

-Enjoy it.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Enjoy it.

It's cold!

Yours is cold, is it? Mine's hot.

I had the oxtail for my main.

After waiting an hour, you expect something pretty special

and unfortunately, it wasn't really that special.

With the main course, I thought this would be the dish

that really pulled it back, because the first course was appalling

and I was really looking forward to this,

but absolute failure, I'm afraid.

-No.

-I can't eat any more.

Whoops! Well, maybe the fish dish is better.

The fish isn't too bad.

-The potatoes...

-They're cold!

-Cold.

Cold and I don't like them at all.

There was some potato concoction which was absolutely disgusting, I'm afraid.

Apart from the fact it was cold,

it was in some kind of congealed...

I can only assume

it was supposed to be a sauce, but tasted horrible.

The actual fish itself was OK.

I had the red mullet. I mean, I ate it

because I was pretty hungry,

but if it was that cold in the restaurant, I'd have sent it back.

The potatoes that it came on

I didn't really get on with.

Again, they weren't that warm.

Not a bad flavour,

but some of them were undercooked too, so that was a problem.

Well, at least one person seems to be happy, just not the right person.

That was a good one.

What's that?

-Vegetable.

-That's OK, good. Fine.

So, reactions on the plates -

actually, most of the plates look fairly clean at the moment.

I am quite pleased with that.

Poor Andrew! "Horrible!" "Disgusting!"

Not exactly what you want to hear about your culinary labours of love,

and his diners look like they were on the verge of mutiny!

He's going to need nothing short of a miracle with his desserts,

and Paul is still getting stick for his lack of finesse,

so can he deliver the wow factor with his puds?

Well, Paul's relying on a three-shot extravaganza.

A chocolate shot,

and a seasonal sorbet of apples with a slug of apple brandy.

Or raspberry stacks made with orange, shortbread and cream.

Sorbets I adore and I will make them every chance I get.

The raspberry stack is a bit of a wild card, really.

I think his puds are fantastic.

The sorbets sound good and I love the idea of the raspberry.

I've got problems, haven't I?

You could have a point, Andrew.

Paul's prep began with the rich chocolate mousse

for his triple-shot dessert.

Just going to add all of this chocolate.

Chocolate is melted in warm cream and then gets a splash of brandy.

I shall use I would have probably thought that much to begin with,

which is a reasonable amount.

Then I think I'm going to have to taste it. Life is hard!

Hmmm...

What do you think, Paul?

I think it probably needs a bit more brandy, actually, to be honest.

-Oh, go on, then!

-God, I sound like I know what I'm talking about!

Paul slops his luxurious mousse into the glasses

in what he might proudly describe as rustic.

I love that word.

I think rustic just means, well, yes, it's...

it covers part of that slapdashness.

Slapdash! Oh, perish the thought(!)

I'll put these in the fridge and then that part is really over.

Next the homemade apple sorbet.

Two dozen Somerset apples go into the juicer.

Icing sugar is added and it all goes into an ice cream maker.

40 minutes later, and hey presto, it's done its stuff.

So I'm just going to try this and see what it's like.

It's not bad, actually.

Next, Paul's raspberry wild card.

He's delegating the coulis to assistant Gayle.

The first task is to blitz the raspberries in the blender.

I could probably fit one more in.

Rather a lot of raspberries, by the look of it.

What I might do now is just add the other ones.

Are you sure?

Gayle, is that all of them? Because we don't coulis them all.

Why?

We need some whole ones.

-Yeah. Oh, no!

-No, we'll just rescue these.

-Just stop this.

-Yeah.

-We've got a huge coulis now.

I'll have to go out and get some more.

-Yeah, don't worry.

-We've got a huge coulis.

-Yeah.

Sorry, Paul.

When things go wrong, I think, "Oh, well."

And I've probably made a pig's ear of it more times than anybody,

so I'm the least person in the world

who can turn round and say anything about things going wrong,

-so we just push through.

-Oh, he's so laid back.

It must be all that relaxing reiki.

Unlike Chipley Manor, service at Gilliegants is certainly punctual.

By 8.30, Bethan's taking orders.

The raspberry stack.

And then Paul's plating up.

Shortbread biscuits get a rustic dollop of whipped cream

before the addition of those rescued raspberries,

and then another biscuit.

The apple and chocolate I feel is a bit of a wild card.

I'm not sure it'll work, but what the hell, you have to do these things.

It would work for me.

And as the triple shots make their debut,

it looks as though they're working for the diners, too.

Absolutely lovely.

-I know, this is what we were thinking.

-I want that.

And then we've got...

Oh, they'll be Gillieganting before we know it.

It looks pretty seductive!

Oh, my God, that's to die for!

Oh, yeah.

That is very good.

Well, it certainly seems that rich chocolate mousse has hit the spot.

That was the nicest thing I've eaten forever!

It doesn't get much better than that.

Wonderful news for Paul! And how are the raspberry stacks slipping down?

Well, thank you darling.

I'm having the raspberry shortcake.

It's really, really lovely.

Unfortunately, it was a bit melted,

but it actually made it easier to eat.

Never had anything like this before

and I definitely want it again. It is amazing.

11 out of 10 for that one.

Well, I was going to share with my husband,

but it was too nice, so I ate it myself!

Thank you very much. I'm still going.

Hmmm. I think I would be.

So, can Andrew win over his diners with his desserts?

He's offering a concoction of fresh berries, lashings of cream,

amaretti and cassis liqueurs known as a Chipley Cup,

or a Devon favourite, an individual cream tea.

Something you might expect at, well, teatime

rather than at the end of a very, very, very, very long dinner.

Everybody who comes to Devon has got to have a cream tea

and our Chipley Cup,

well, that's our house dessert and it always goes down very well.

Nobody turns it away.

I love the idea of the Devon cream tea.

I think it's a really original spin.

The Chipley Cup, all that cream and booze, I'd have gone for that one.

Well, let's hope the diners do, too.

The scones for the cream tea were made at lunchtime

and Andrew has a little variation up his sleeve, Greek yoghurt!

I didn't have any milk in the fridge

and I didn't have any cream in the fridge

and so I decided to use something else.

Nice improvisation, Andrew,

but isn't this going to be a bit too heavy as a dessert?

There is a slight risk, of course, yes, but it's not a...

not a huge risk. It's a slight risk, yes.

I'm not sure you can afford any risk, Andrew.

And where's the fun if there's no risk?

There's no fun, is there? And away we go.

Into the Aga.

No, not yet.

The Chipley Cups are made to order and the girls are in charge.

Out in the restaurant it's 10.30

and all the delays are taking their toll.

Someone's run out of time, if not patience.

-Andrea, I'm really sorry, but I need to leave now.

-Really?

Yes, I have to go home, because I have a babysitter for my daughter.

I have a Chipley Cup ready. I'll bring it in for you.

Well, I've got to drive to Oakhampton

and that's a 45-minute drive.

I'm very sorry for that. It will be here in a second.

Well, I need to go now. I'm sorry.

Shall we wrap it?

-Are you able to wrap it?

-We could try.

One Chipley Cup to go.

Do you want some almonds for that?

I'm not sure Andrew ever envisaged his fine-dining experience

turning into a takeaway.

I'm not sure the runaway is that keen on the takeaway.

-Bye, bye.

-Bye, bye.

It's been a strange evening.

Not one that I would want to repeat.

I have quite enjoyed it, bizarrely, because of the company.

The food has been appalling.

I have not enjoyed it at all.

I'm leaving with a Chipley Cup, which I tried to avoid leaving with,

but it was foisted upon me, I'm afraid.

Any chance of paying anything?

It's over four hours, actually, since we arrived

and we hadn't had dessert!

Says it all.

You wouldn't put up with that in a normal restaurant, would you? No.

OK, we get the picture.

Back in the waiting room - whoops, sorry, dining room -

the rest of the guests finally get their desserts at 10.35.

Please, someone say something nice!

It was the only thing that I've enjoyed all evening.

It was really fresh, really light and had lots of alcohol in it.

Oh, bloomin' Nora!

Gordon Bennett!

Can I just drink it?

That I liked, which was the Chipley Cup, and it was delicious.

I think it's very good because there's no cooking involved.

And there's no olive oil in, which is absolutely wonderful so...

bottoms up!

Well, Andrea's Chipley Cups are clearly a hit,

so how's Andrew's interpretation of that Devon classic going down?

Surprisingly lovely. A little bit dry,

but it's the best course so far and I could probably ask for seconds

because you don't get very much, but it's lovely.

It's much better than the other two courses.

It's a little bit dry, but it's so much better.

Yeah, I'll give him a thumbs up for this, so happy at last!

Well, the Chipley Cups seems to have gone actually sort of splendidly,

in spite of the fact that I didn't put a finger on it!

The girls actually did that all by themselves.

Hooray, some happy guests!

But is one triumph with just nine diners

going to make up for everything else that's happened?

I have a horrible feeling that Andrew's chance of a profit

just disappeared like his diner.

But Paul's puds seem to have put his guests on a high,

but now it's up to the diners to decide how much or how little

they want to pay, and neither cook has any idea how much that might be.

Andrew spent £160,

but with one diner walking away and refusing to pay,

he's now looking for £18 from each of his other nine diners

to have a sniff of a profit.

The food was... The execution wasn't there,

but you could see the effort had gone in

and the ingredients and all that obviously cost quite a lot,

so, there we are, but the company was good, so not a total waste.

The food was very mediocre, but a great experience.

We came much earlier thinking it was going to be really nice

-and we ended up having a bit of a strange meal.

-I thought it was awful.

The problem is, of course, that we haven't really sort of done this together before and so we...

We were sort of, again, sort of tripping over each other,

-but not too badly, actually.

-No.

I think... I think we actually did quite well.

Well, you've got to hand it to him, he's confident if nothing else.

At Gilliegants Paul shelled out £120,

so if he's to go into profit

he must take more than £12 from each of his diners.

Night, guys.

-Night, everybody.

-Bye!

The meal was great and the desert was amazing.

I was a bit disappointed with the standard of the food, actually.

I expected a little bit more, to be honest.

It was a really fun evening, wonderful food and great company.

Night! Thank you.

I think we have made a profit. I think we've made £15 a head.

I think we've done that, if we've... At least we've done that in goodwill.

Andrew, Paul, you did it!

You fed people, they were happy, and you lived through it!

Did it at any point feel like you might not?

No, I think once we got started.

Once we got started it was OK.

Oh, what made you most nervous?

The whole thing!

-Is it going to be...

-Why did you do it, then?

I'm mad, I think.

What would you change if you did do it again?

Maybe speed up a bit?

Maybe speed up a bit, yes.

But then I quite like your cool, calm and collected, measured way.

It's the swan picture, really.

You know, the little legs underneath were going like mad, I tell you.

So, Paul, ten strangers in your own home. What was it like for you?

Quite hard to... To visualise until the people were in,

and then the people seemed very nice.

You're food actually was quite simple, the dishes.

-It was.

-But you pulled it off. Was that a conscious decision?

It was things that I'd cook anyway.

Again, I would cook for...

For that many people, you know, on a regular basis so,

you know, that's the sort of food I would cook.

So, the name that you gave your restaurant, tell me about that.

Gillieganting is cavorting between the sexes, really.

We are going gillieganting, so what better name for a restaurant?

-And they did gilliegant?

-Well, I imagine so.

From... From what I saw they did.

-So, a success.

-I think it was, yes, yeah.

All right, well, I'm sure you're both waiting,

-dying to know whether you actually made any money or not.

-Yes.

OK. So, I shall start with you, Andrew.

You spent £158, quite a lot.

You're diners donated 95.

You were minus 63!

THEY LAUGH

Was it worth it?

-Yes.

-Yeah. OK. Paul, you spent 121,

-and your diners donated 180.

-Good Lord.

-Which means you meant made a profit of 59.

-Brilliant.

-So, there you go, that's for you.

-Thank you very much.

-Well, done.

-Gosh, I didn't think it would be that.

I didn't think I would... I wasn't sure whether I'd break even,

-actually, but that was marvellous. Thank you.

-Well done, both of you.

Two great sports, thank you very much and thank you for watching

and I'll see you next time on Instant Restaurant.

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