Big Chef Takes On Little Chef
Screening as part of The Great British Food Fight, in Big Chef Takes on Little Chef , Heston Blumenthal takes on the challenge of turning around the fortunes of the troubled but iconic roadside restaurant chain Little Chef. You may have seen him chatting on one of the adverts.
He is tasked with redesigning the menu and interior plus training the staff at the Popham Little Chef branch in Hampshire. If he succeeds, Heston’s vision will be rolled out to every Little Chef in the country.
Little Chef is a British institution, with 180 roadside outlets all over the country but the restaurant chain has been experiencing difficulties and in 2007 it had to be saved from financial collapse. Now in its 50th year, Little Chef is in serious need of creative inspiration.
Really though can such an innovative chef more used to serving up £200-a-head meals and known for £100 cook books in addtion to bacon-and-egg ice cream and snail porridge turn around the fortunes of a much-loved but tired British brand? Can Heston make the British public fall in love all over again with Little Chef, and with classic British food in the process?
The first episode Heston goes on a fact-finding mission to one of the Little Chef restaurants before he meets Little Chef boss Ian Pegler for the first time. Heston is apparently horrified to discover that the Little Chef kitchens don’t use pots and pans, relying on microwaves to heat up and cook all of the food. Unsurprisingly Heston wastes no time telling Little Chef bosses that he intends to scrap the entire menu to start from scratch, the start of an “at-times-volatile relationship”. Volatile but great TV I imagine.
Heston only has one month to create a new menu, which will be trialled at the Little Chef branch in Popham. British favourites with some elaborate twists are promised to appear – like lamb thyroid hot pot with oysters, and smoked salmon and scrambled eggs cooked in Lapsang Souchong tea. Rather too ‘out there’ I imagine!
I for one am rather looking forward to following the series. Episode 1, of three, is on Monday 19 January at 9:00pm, Channel 4.
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