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Anyone been watching this? I've found it surprisingly interesting, I thought Heston Bloominwhatshisface would be a complete cock but he actually seems a reasonable bloke and willing to dispose of his ideas which aren't going to work.

I can't help but think the Chief Exec wants him to make some stupid menu so it's a disaster and he can say the Little Chef is great after all. Unfortunately Heston isn't playing ball.

I saw the first episode, is the second out yet?

It's on now and concludes tomorrow. You've missed most of it but ch4+1 magic will take you there.

Second is on now.  Little chef bloke is a prick stuck in the 1980 business speak.  Last episode tomorrow.

4OD will suffice.

I don't think I ever heard the term 'blue skies thinking' until yesterday. I'm now going to incorporate it into my conversations at work and see if anyone calls me a wanker to my face instead of behind my back  8)

I couldn't stand that guys wank business talk  - 'Blue sky thinking', fuck off cock.

We posted that within 2 seconds of each other, impressive.

i saw yesterdays, i'm about to piss of chubbs and watch the second now

Does Chubbs share the television with the computer. Will you interrupt his WoW playing by watching the programme?

I just cant believe they copied his menu!

I watched both. Been rather good. I think the business people were hoping for him to come in, sort out a few fancy bubbling odd icecreams or something and then just use it as a big marketing ploy. Heston seems to want to come in and sort out a proper rebranding and up in actual quality.

Heston's chef number 2 bloke comes across as a right smug twat though.

Both of them.

Let me assure you that it is up to date business speak.....i had a manager a few years back...what a prick...i reckon he was marooned at an airport for 6 weeks once and read every fucking management book you see on display in the local WH Smiths....what a cock.. :doh:

'Whats the size of the prize?'

'Let me help you to help me'

'You have to be in it to win it'

...........as much as a knob the chief exec is Mr Big chef is just as bad thinking he can get anybody to stop on the A303 at Popham and nosh a Calves tongue hot pot with smokey chocolate ice cream....and his chefs got shitty when no fucker wanted their grub..

Sky plussed the one tonight to see tomorrow.....Very good viewing... :nod:

The best I ever heard was "I'll leave you to stir that around your mental wok".

i am a massive advocate of "touch base", i think i might try to encorporate "fly this one up the flag pole" tomorrow.

the show was interesting, like most i was waiting for heston to come across and a wanker...the only thing to suggest he indulges too much is his strange hand/mit that appeared in the second show.

i like how much talking into it anne was given to go to popham, it's almost as if it was scripted!

Oooh, just watched it. Dramatic!

That corporate cock is really smug.

I don't think the corporate dude has properly considered the potential synergy between existing business models and the Heston marketing advance.

His 'instant chemistry' was like me and my ex boss..........oil and water...

And he was a Leicester fan....made me hate the cunt even more!

I don't think he's blue sky thunked his public perception after this has been aired.

This has been quite good watching.  It's seemed blatantly clear from yesterdays that the Little Chef big wig was a tosser who was going to use this as a big marketing ploy.  Fair play to Heston for effectively going for a more basic upgrade, trimming the menu etc rather than trying to contine bringing in his normal style for under a tenner, which would never work.

I can't help but think a few things though:

a) Little Chef customers, the few there are, are thick -"If it ain't broke why fix it?" asks one customer clearly not up to date with the recent stint the company spent in administration before having to shed a load of restaurants

b) Little Chef staff are amazingly loyal

c) Little Chef staff seem to be just as thick as the customers - "They won't eat that, I know what the customers want" - well clearly not because you have less of them than ever before and your company is dying on it's feet.

d) Big Wig goes to show that it must clearly be Not What you Know etc

e) Heston's food in his place looks quite tasty, I might try and save up for that

f) Even I was startled at the lack of "cooking" that goes on in these places.  I'm not blind to the world and realise pre prepared food is often used these days, but to not have a pot to cook in, let alone piss in, is shocking.  I swear they used to "cook" in Little Chefs years ago.

g) Litte Chef is a dead company walking, and the more I see of them, the more I feel it will benefit the country as a whole.  I feel sorry for the staff's clear loyalty, which is great to see, but labradors are loyal and I wouldn't want them cooking my food.

I also noticed how the boss was completely different in front of the Board. "That's exactly what we were looking for" when in fact the ideas were more simple than before which were not crzy enough.

I want a taste Explosion

Maybe Heston could try TNT in place of peppercorns?

Or put a lot of laxatives in his food.

The staff loyalty thing was quite surprising. I wonder how much they screwed the representation by giving more screen time to the opinions of people who have worked there for a long time.

I feel bad for the camp manager dude who's life dream seems to have been to work at little chef, he seemed quite proud of it. Must be hard to realise that your goals in life have become looked down on by so many.

I have no idea if they ever used to "cook" anything in little chef, but it's the classic example of keeping staff costs low yet having some consistency by removing all skill and thought from the job.

Are the staff costs low though?  most of the restaurants seem to have little armies of them trying to find something to do.  I started off liking Camp Manager, but he's turning out to be far too stuck in his ways, probably part of the overall problem.

Yeah. It's tricky to judge on the amount of staff. In the first one when he went in, there only seemed to be one person working in the kitchen, later on it increased a bit. I'm guessing that the completely automated cooking process of "put in microwave for x mins" and "this is how to lay out the breakfast" stuff in the cooking bible thing they showed in the first one at least takes away the need to have separate floor and kitchen managers/supervisors, who I guess would be higher paid.

Who knows though. All speculation really.

As far as the show itself, it's really just a mix of Jamie's Annual Heal Britain Mission and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (UK). Works quite well.

I wish Ramsay would do some more UK Kitchen Nightmares, one of the more interesting programmes on the telly, the USA ones are fucking shit.

and the USA ones invariably have dickhead americans crying over nothing.

whilst we're on wishes and gastronomy- i wish jamie oliver would die

The programme is quite good.  Like ben says it is just a mix of other ones, but Ive always found Heston and his food interesting.  Wish I could afford to go.  And why is he named after a services? 

Just to spoil the last show it would appear that he got his menu through at at least one place (camp managers gaff).  The menu is linked to here.

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2008/nov/28/heston-blumenthal-little-chef-menu

Id consider eating in little chef if that was what was on offer at all of them instead of the shite that they do serve up.  You would be amazed how many places do just buy in frozen foods.  Often you wont be able to get a blue steak as they come already cooked in rare, medium rare, medium and well done!   

When I worked in a restaurant in Bath (many years ago) I can remember being amazed that the 'chef' told the waiteresss that he couldn't do any more omelettes as they'd run out of the frozen ones.  I had to show him how to cook one with eggs!  Unfortunatly that is the mindset of a lot of these places though.  It has to be regulation unchanging, no imagination food.  Seems to be the difference between seeing food as fuel and food as an something more important than that. 

How often have you asked for a peppercorn sauce on your steak only to be told....'sorry we have run out'.

It is a very interesting program but they seem to be taking the piss out of Heston, knicking his ideas...using him purely as an advertising campaign for Little Chef....in the same situation I would have walked away.

Very interested in tonights finale.

that menu looks just the thing to bring them up to date - The services oop North (Cumbria, Tebay) are a great example of getting it right and they've been doing it forever!

Best breakfast in Britain can be found at Tebay services!!!  Get up at 6 ish, when driving up to Scotland, but stop just before you reach the promised land, for a beautiful brekkie!!!  Fantastic.

Agree Jan,i wont stop in sevices down south at all now...pop into Marks and Sparks now and again,the services up north are alot better...my personal favourite is Westmoreland,to be honest i dont know how most of them get past health and safety.

Northern brekkies are great, especially if they have haggis available too, although the one I had in Glasgow (which had no haggis) was awful.

Well most of em grow there own Haggis...can usually see it on the knives and forkes,i had a nice brekkie this morn in woolwich...bubble and squeak with two poached eggs on top,different but nice.

I've got a theory that the manager dude isn't really the head of little chef at all, he's just some homeless man pretending. The real board of little chef have no idea that Heston is there sorting out one of their restaurants.

i wanna go on the musical toilet!

I don't. that looks terrifying

I had haggis for dinner last night, yummy.

I will await the 3 month review eagerly

i stopped at some services in france once, and they had this huge cooked ham with dijon sauce which they just cut asmany slices off as you wanted, served up with choice of veg and a lovely potato gratin - got the impression that the chef got up at 4, went to the local (EU subsidised) market, bought the produce he fancied having a go at that day, cooked it up and just charged 6 quid for it. bloody lovely, although the french wouldn't expect anything less, and if you tried it over here people wouldn't buy it unless it was wrapped in pastry and served with oven chips.

French service stations are fantastic. As long as you go to a big enough station you can always get a decent meal and it's usually reasonably priced too, love those places!

You have to pay some old lady to have a piss though...

German service stations are brilliant. Again, you have to pay to use the toilets, but you get a voucher with a barcode that can then be redeemed to the same value for any food/drink. Some of the toilets even clean themselves (seat and all!) once you're done.... mental.

What make KT?  Best haggis available down here, that I've found is made by McSwegans.  Perfection!

Were you wearing a German SS Uniform...?  Surprised they didnt massage your back whilst you were eating!

French food overrated......especially by the French except for bread and pastries....i'll concede on that!

Going for a tinkle ?

Well, has anyone been yet and what's the verdict?

Looked ok to me but I wouldn’t be going out of my way to dine there when for the same price you can get home cooked food elsewhere.

May pop in tomorrow....

Has it still only been rolled out to Popham?

i reckon so...

I went to The Fat Duck in Bray (Heston's restaurant) and it's an amazing experience - we tried the taster menu (11 courses all very small portions of off the head dishes e.g. lime and tea merengue cooked in Nitrogen at the table !!!) Very very expensive though so if you book be warned ! Worth checking out the fay duck website.
And yes the chief exec of Little Chef must have a little cock !