Big Chef Takes On Little Chef

[Bennett]

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!

[axs]

Oooh, just watched it. Dramatic!

That corporate cock is really smug.

[flammableBen]

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

[THE FLASH]

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!

[axs]

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

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

[RobertT]

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.

[Simon Pieman]

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.

[RobertT]

I want a taste Explosion

Maybe Heston could try TNT in place of peppercorns?

[Simon Pieman]

Or put a lot of laxatives in his food.

[flammableBen]

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.

[RobertT]

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.

[flammableBen]

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.

[Bennett]

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

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

[Saxondale]

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. 

[THE FLASH]

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'.