Jamie Oliver wants to give one of his students the opportunity of a lifetime. My aspiration
is that this place could be doing 10-14 grand in a year. Over the past five years
he has been taking unemployed kids without hope, and training them to work in kitchens.
But he's always had a dream that they would one day run their own restaurants.
Now the first of them is about to get the chance.
Jamie's found a pub for sale in rural Essex but he's not buying it himself.
He's giving the combined profits from his training restaurant Fifteen, and his latest
book to a charity, the Fifteen foundation, in return he hopes they will agree to buy the pub.
He takes charity trustee Nick Jones to see it. Yeah y'know it's a fairly big car park,
I mean actually this is a very big car park. The winning student will keep any profits
but they will have to pay the charity rent, so Jamie needs to convince the trustees the
pub can be successfully transformed. Something which we can build on, something... Nick Jones
runs an international restaurant empire. Real potential I mean, I drove into the drive here and
sort of immediately said no, you know I think it's so important that when you go to a place you get a
little tinge inside you know, because that's what the customer is saying... Yeah but if all this had
like nice stones and it was painted a different bit of colour. I like the chimneys, I like the
tiles already, it's big enough you got parking, if it was planted up some nice big planters...
Jamie needs to teach his four students what it takes to run a restaurant business
fast. He invites them to his Essex home. Anyone that can make a successful food
business is a genius because it is so hard to make money and so incredibly easy to lose money,
because the orifices for losing money are wide... they're everywhere, they're all over the place.
And the place you want to get to for making money is a skinny one and quite a long way away.
Spending on ingredients is a bastard. The average is about 30 on the plate. Your second big cost
is wages. 15 percent we spend on overheads, do you know what overheads are? Yeah just like the
lights, electric, and gas... Just someone not turning off the light keeping the tech running
and stupid stuff like that... Yep, but it's more ridiculous I mean... overheads, cling film,
tin foil, chef's hats, chef whites, I mean it goes on and on forever. And then once you've
got to that point, 17.5 goes to your VAT man. Your mission is to make sure that what's left in
this bowl is significant otherwise you might get left with nothing. So how do you feel about that?
Yeah there's some dinner for you. What I need to do is turn you from an employee into an employer,
which is what one of you is going to be in the next five to six weeks. They will gain experience
and be tested in a crash course in the restaurant business. Back in London, the training is about to
begin. Aaron lives with his girlfriend Nicky and their kids in a tiny council flat in West London.
Winning the Cock could transform all their lives.
When we move out of London you're not gonna have mum around the corner helping you out,
bailing you out, when you're in the [ __ ] or for a babysitter or whatever you know what I mean?
You're gonna be in the middle of nowhere where you don't know nobody.
Leah's five and Molly's nearly two, you know they're my world, everything.
And it's a reason why you know I wanna fight for this restaurant, there's a reason
why I want to name the restaurant after them you know what I mean it's,
you know, everything I do is for them now. I mean one minute he wanted to be a postman,
then he wanted to be a fireman, like he used to change his mind all the time and I used
to get very very stressed out with him. Before Fifteen came along actually I was a gravedigger.
This afternoon, the training and testing begin.
First challenge is for each of them to take over front of house at Nick Jones's busy Electric
brasserie. First up is ex-gravedigger Aaron who will have to organize a team of waiters,
the seating and the serving of demanding customers. Hello there you all right guys?
Everything okay? You all right for drinks? I think this will be a huge learning curve today, you know
people complaining about food, people complaining that they want a table now, not in half
an hour they don't want to wait you know, staff turning up late for work, chefs not turning up...
anything that can possibly go wrong. What's happening at the
front door Aaron? Are we running a waiting list? A waiting list? Are we running a waiting list
of tables... Um, have we got a waiting list? Uh yeah, just two people.
Two people. But you need to know that we're running a waiting list
and if you don't know that you don't know what's going on. After just a few hours of training,
Aaron is in charge of four waiters.
He struggles to organise them and ends up waiting the tables himself,
but quickly spills orange juice over a Prada jacket, and himself. Ah [ __ ] hell. You look
after the customers that's all you've got to worry about. Yeah we get this mopped up. What are you
doing? I said to you, you keep doing everything yourself. I can't just pull someone out my ass,
you know what I mean? Well pull them aside and say this is what I want you to do I want you to do
this I want you to do this, people in the right places alright ((Yeah))? You're not communicating
with any of your staff you need to tell them what you want them to do. Bear with me one minute we've
got a lot of bookings so I'll just find out. Here it's too busy for someone of my experience.
Bring me back in a couple of years I might you know, stand a chance, but right now...
Taz is next running front of house.
A little bit nervous but I'm okay. You can't actually comprehend it
until you're actually on the floor and see the masses of people coming through.
Immediately she's come onto the floor, first thing she did even without telling
she actually made her presence known, she went around to every single table so she could get
familiar with what stage the restaurant's at so she's got an understanding of where we are.
John is down to the final four of Jamie's students competing to win a pub.
Before he goes to work in front of house of The Electric he visits his mother in the
tiny cottage where he grew up in Ireland. They're going to be another 20 minutes.
John's parents are separated and he was brought up by his mother.
Yeah, I am. So, a bit nervous but um, it's going to be a bit of an experience.
John has made his mother gnocchi with mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and basil.
Very nice. So out of 10 what would you give it? 10. 10, really?
Despite being a top cook, on the floor John finds it hard to overcome his nerves.
Oh I'm shaking...! I think you can see John's
terrified, I mean he keeps saying he's having a really good time and his team's under control, but
I don't know he's really nervous he's really shaky with plates, he's really shaking with
his glasses and I think the reality is that this is such a major, major opportunity
that it's kind of starting to sink you know, it's not playing anymore it's the real thing.
Last is ex-joyrider Dennis. There we go ladies. You been out having a shop down the market today,
pick up some goodies? Yeah ladies are easy for me so you know what I mean?
Dennis does better than Aaron, but the staff worry he is over confident. Bob's your
uncle, [ __ ] easy, was made to do this work.
It's the end of the first week. Owner of The Electric, Nick Jones,
has had feedback on how each of them has done. How did Thasanee do here? Well when I first met
Taz I was pretty impressed with her because she comes across very well, she's confident,
she speaks her mind. She can be over-bossy at times and over-demanding and I think she needs
to learn to tone that down. What about Aaron? Well I like Aaron I mean I got a bit of a soft
spot for Aaron, I mean he's... I mean that doesn't mean he's my choice to run the Cock.
I think Dennis is a great geezer isn't he, which is probably
a great advantage in many ways and a great disadvantage in other ways. John, Rallaghan.
Well John I think, you know he's a charming guy, but I think he's got a way to go. Right. Have
never run a restaurant before in their lives and if you, I think if you ask any sane person who
were gonna be investing in this project, you would say put the money in a bin and burn it because
you know, the pain will be less because... What than giving it to one of these four? Than giving
it to one of the four. So how about it should we get the money and go burn it or?...