Ramsay's Best Restaurant

Ramsay's Best Restaurant is a television programme featuring British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay broadcast on Channel 4. During the series restaurants from all over Britain competed in order to win the "Ramsay's Best Restaurant" title. The initial 16 restaurants were selected by Ramsay from a pool of some 12,000 entries submitted by Channel 4 viewers.

Ramsay's Best Restaurant
Title card
StarringGordon Ramsay
Narrated byGordon Ramsay
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes9
Production
Running time60 minutes (episodes 1–7)
130 minutes (episodes 8–9)
Production companiesOne Potato Two Potato
in association with
Optomen
Release
Original networkChannel 4
Original release14 September (2010-09-14) –
9 November 2010 (2010-11-09)
External links
Website

In the first stage of the competition, eight pairs of restaurants representing the same type of cuisine were pitted against each other, with winners progressing to semi-finals, and then the final. Although originally announced as a 12-part series,[1] the series had nine episodes aired between September and November 2010.

In the grand final broadcast on 9 November, the competition was won by Casamia, a Michelin-starred restaurant based in Bristol, with Prashad, an Indian Gujarati vegetarian restaurant from Bradford, finishing as runner-up.[2]

Format

In the elimination round, two restaurants are chosen from each category of cuisine and subjected to three tests:

  • Thirty diners are brought to each restaurant, and all order their meals at once. Every guest needs to be served a complete menu in two hours for the task to be successfully completed.
  • An undercover diner (either Simon Davis or Sarah Durdin-Robertson) is sent to each restaurant, to review the food and service. The undercover diner is intentionally difficult, to evaluate how the service staff and the kitchen respond to customers with out-of-the-ordinary demands and problems.
  • The chefs from each restaurant prepare a dish using a main ingredient of Ramsay's choosing, and serve it to twenty guests, including their front of house staff and VIP guests, at the Restaurant Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea, London. Ramsay then samples the dish from the final challenge, and decides on the episode's winner.

In the quarter-finals, each team is evaluated by an undercover diner on the quality of their food and service; Ramsay eliminates four restaurants from the eight semifinalists after reviewing the undercover diner's findings.

In the semi-finals, Ramsay, Angela Hartnett, and Simon Davis stop by unexpectedly at each restaurant to enjoy a meal (in some cases, with a 90-minute time limit), evaluating each restaurant on service and food quality. He also recruits a second party of people to dine at the restaurant at the same time, to see if the service and food provided is the same for all customers. Each restaurant is then given restaurant space in North London, £2000, and a guided tour of Ramsay's favourite markets for fresh ingredients. They are tasked with decorating and operating a temporary "pop-up" restaurant for an evening, where guests pay what they feel the meal was worth. Ramsay eliminates two of the four semi-finalists on the experience and food of the pop-up restaurants.

In the finals, the two remaining restaurants cooked in Petrus, Ramsay's central London restaurant, for a variety of guests that include chefs and staff from previously-eliminated restaurants. They are tasked with producing a full three-course meal that demonstrates their passion for cooking while Angela Hartnett, Simon Davis, and Sarah Durdin-Robertson supervise them from the chef's table in the kitchen. Through sampling of the dishes from each course and consultation with his guests and the chef's table, Ramsay selects the winning restaurant.

Episodes
  WIN
# Original airdate Viewers Cuisine Restaurants Location Website
1.14 September 20101.85 millionItalianCasamiaBristolcasamiarestaurant.co.uk
MennulaFitzrovia, Londonmennula.com
2.21 September 20101.91 millionIndianPrashadBradfordprashad.co.uk
Brilliant RestaurantSouthall, Londonbrilliantrestaurant.com
3.28 September 20101.57 millionChineseYu and YouBlackburnyuandyou.com
KaiMayfair, Londonkaimayfair.co.uk
4.5 October 20101.54 millionBritishThe West HouseBiddendenthewesthouserestaurant.co.uk
The MilestoneSheffieldthe-milestone.co.uk
5.12 October 20101.69 millionThaiMango TreeBelgravia, Londonmangotree.org.uk
Nahm JimSt. Andrewsnahm-jim.co.uk
6.19 October 2010N/AFrenchLa GarrigueEdinburghlagarrigue.co.uk
Winteringham FieldsWinteringhamwinteringhamfields.co.uk
7.26 October 2010N/ANorth AfricanAzouHammersmith, Londonazou.co.uk
MomoMayfair, Londonmomoresto.com
8.2 November 2010N/ASpanishFinoFitzrovia, Londonfinorestaurant.com
El Pirata De TapasNotting Hill, Londonelpiratadetapas.co.uk

Finals Results

  Winner

Quarter-finals Semi-finals Finals
Casamia Casamia Casamia
Yu and You
Nahm Jim Fino
Fino
Azou The Milestone Prashad
The Milestone
Prashad Prashad
Winteringham Fields

International Version

An American version of the show was produced in the United States under the name Best New Restaurant premiered on cable network Bravo from 21 January until 1 April 2015. The host was Tom Colicchio.

References
  1. Plunkett, John (15 September 2010). "TV ratings - 14 September: Ramsay's Best Restaurants watched by 1.5m". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
  2. "Gordon Ramsay names Casamia in Bristol best restaurant". BBC Online. 10 November 2010. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
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