While I enjoyed watching the program I was annoyed every time I saw the unshaven face of the restaurant man. His appearance is more suited to an outdoorsy type program and not the personal cleanliness required of a place that sells food. As the inspectors and such like arrive on scene they are each seen presentable as to the standards required of the industry while the restaurant man looks like he slept rough.
3 Reviews
Helping restaurants start up
safenoe4 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
I've seen a few episodes of The Restaurant Man, and all credit to Russell Norman for giving much time and effort to support aspiring restaurateurs wanting to set their dream restaurant. One episode featured two best friends who set up a burger business, another a Nordic restaurant. One of the most dramatic episodes was the Il Padrino in Gravesend. It was a tug of war emotional battle between Russell and Tony, the patriarch of the Italian family wanting to set up a wood-burning oven pizzeria.
We even see Russell and Tony travel back to his ancestral home in the Italian mountains (such a contrast to Gravesend).
The Il Padrino episode may be one of the few The Restaurant Man episodes where the restaurant doesn't open by the end of the episode. At the end of the episode we see a postscript that "two months later the restaurant still hasn't opened". But the good news is (thanks to Google), the restaurant opened on 1 March 2014 thankfully and if the Trip Adviser ratings are something, it's quite successful.
The Desi Fusion episode, which was set in Coventry, was interesting. Unfortunately the restaurant shut down for various reasons.
We even see Russell and Tony travel back to his ancestral home in the Italian mountains (such a contrast to Gravesend).
The Il Padrino episode may be one of the few The Restaurant Man episodes where the restaurant doesn't open by the end of the episode. At the end of the episode we see a postscript that "two months later the restaurant still hasn't opened". But the good news is (thanks to Google), the restaurant opened on 1 March 2014 thankfully and if the Trip Adviser ratings are something, it's quite successful.
The Desi Fusion episode, which was set in Coventry, was interesting. Unfortunately the restaurant shut down for various reasons.
Unhygenic
spg200017 November 2016
I've just watched an episode where Russell Norman helped these people with their new restaurant. Throughout the show, there was up and downs for the restaurant people, but eventually things started to go well and a few months later, Russell Norman went back to the restaurant and he was happy that the business was successful. I enjoyed that show (I won't mention the name of the episode because what I am going to say next, was disappointing.) At the end when Russell Norman was doing a recap voice-over of the show, a scene showed a pair of hands with no gloves putting slabs of meat on a sandwich. That scene was disgusting, not to mention unhygienic. It makes me think how much of the scenes in the show were real and how much was made up? Anyone knows if you are dealing with raw meat to serve customers, you put on a pair of gloves. I think the show is edited and cleaned up so the scenes will make Russell Norman looks good. That is so wrong!
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