A little belated in my post – saw episode 3 of the Apprentice last week and as usual it was well worth watching. Ultimately Ian got fired and I think it was the right decision. Kevin wasn’t too hot but anyway he got away with it. I think Simon is the strongest candidate – certainly on the boys team – and even Sir Alan said that he thought he shouldn’t have been in there.

The highlight of the episode for me was when Ian was running low on supplies and decided to send out half pizzas to make his supplies go further. The first customer to receive his half pizza immediately picked up the waiter on the fact, to which the waiter confessed that the chef was running low and was cutting the pizzas in half! The reaction of the customer was just great

I’d never EVER want to swap places with one of those guys (or galls), but as this episode was about food and cooking, something close to my heart, I couldn’t quite believe it when they were buying frozen supermarket pizzas to sell in a restaurant. The boys really didn’t have a clue when it came to costing it all out, they deserved to be trounced.

I missed last weeks’ episode which was apparently very good. Last night the teams were given the use of an industrial laundry and about 15 hours to solicit, wash and return as much laundry as possible, with the ultimate objective of earning more than the other team.

The men had on their team an ex-army guy who had had experience of using the industrial machinery (what are the chance of that!) and broadly speaking they did well. The team leader came out of it well but I’m not sure if that was more chance than anything else; I think if he’d been managing the womens’ team he would have had a much harder ride.

The women were a shambles. I’m not sure the right person got fired in the end; she made the mistake of leaving her post when she was responsible for tracking whose laundry was who’s with the end result that they lost some of the customers’ laundry. Not good, but she cleared it with the team leader (Jenny) before leaving and also was being proactive in returning to the house to try and get the irons to ensure they could complete the job after the laundry had closed.

I would have said that the team leader was responsible and in addition she didn’t run the team effectively anyway, creating conflict where it wasn’t necessary.

Having said that.. Alan Sugar’s reasons for hiring are his own and it wouldn’t surprise me if she does well in the longer run.

I watched Delia on the telly last night.

Delia is known for her traditional English cooking and I’ve got one of her books which I have been using for the last 15 years or so. This latest series is a departure from her roots: she’s effectively trying to re-create her traditional style cooking but using pre-prepared ingredients, i.e. frozen mashed potato, mince and onions in a jar etc. The rational behind this is that she feels there is an audience out there who don’t have time to cook and don’t have the confidence to cook.

This is seriously flawed.

For the person who is struggling for time (3 kids and a business to run I should know) there are dishes out there that could be prepared quicker without trying to re-create a shepherds pie using frozen mash potato. Fresh pasta with a nice simple sauce, mexican wraps, a stir fry – none of these things takes more than a few minutes to prepare. If food is important there is always a way to find time; if on the rare occasions there just simply isn’t time then just make beans on toast, an omelette or anything simple.

For the person who lacks confidence, I actually don’t think Delia’s ‘recipes’ were simple or easy to understand. What was that (frozen) potato wedges, boiled eggs, olives and walnut sauce concoction?? It looked like something my kids would create if let loose in the kitchen and if I had a dog I think it would have turned it’s nose up.

The show was dated in it’s thinking and dated in it’s production. I felt like I was watching something from American telly in the sixties on the wonders of tinned/frozen foods. “Look how easy it is”. She fails to mention cost or nutritional value, both of which I can only imagine would suffer – not to mention taste.

I’m not adverse to shortcuts either, last night we had chicken baked in the oven in Campbells soup (chicken or mushroom is good) mixed with a bit of mayonnaise and served with rice and brocoli. It’s a really good, quick meal and tastes great. Tonight it’s baked potato with tuna and cheese, the kids love it. The difference is that Delia was trying to create her same signature dishes with shortcuts, and it just did not work.

All in all, absolutely dreadful.

I watched this last night – I respect Jamie Oliver for campaigning for things he is passionate about and generally find his stuff watchable. The programme last night wasn’t great Friday night telly, he’s not the best ‘presenter’ in the world and the subject matter was a bit forced down your throat (not literally thankfully). Hats off to him for trying, but I think he needs to be careful of alienating those who still anticipate a bit of entertainment in his programming.

Will I buy another cheep (ha ha) chicken or egg? Probably not, but then I’d already made that decision.

Oh yeah, and what was the thinking behind the compulsory boiler suits/other relevant industrial clothing in the studio??

I just can’t believe that Same Difference got more votes than Hope, what’s going on?!?

SD are just AWFUL.

I actually quite liked Hope and thought that they had the most commercial potential of any of the entrants.

We’re now rooting for Rhydian – he’s got a great voice, seems like a really nice guy and blazes his own individual trail without a care, which we like. I don’t really see who his audience is though..

Tuesday night with Gordon Ramsey – this is a one of my current favourites.

I felt pretty sorry for the head chef in last night’s episode who pretty much got a trial by media – he seemed completely and utterly useless but didn’t really have much opportunity to defend himself.

I’m always amazed at how many obstacles the business owners put up – you’d think that considering their situation and the fact that they’d asked for help they’d be open to suggestions but it invariably doesn’t end up that way, where do they get these people from?