The Restaurant: Cheerful Souls Michele and Russell win partnership with Raymond Blanc

Tonight it was announced that Michele English and Russell Clement from Colchester have won the opportunity to open their own restaurant with the backing of one of the most influential figures of the culinary world, Raymond Blanc.

Along with Alasdair Hooper and James Knight-Pacheco they were the finalists of the second series of BBC's 'The Restaurant' having already seen off the competition from seven other couples. For their final challenge the two couples found themselves catering and serving a five course meal to forty passengers on a moving train. But this was not any old bog-standard British Rail sort of train, despair of commuters throughout the land, it was the Venice-Simplon Orient Express no less - at least it was the UK leg of the Orient Express route, a sedate four hour trip through the Garden of England.

Michele and Russell decided to play safe with their menu, but added a couple of extra touches which were much appreciated by the passengers, especially the pink grapefruit sorbet - no mean feat when it was being served from a kitchen with no freezer. The carefully chosen table gifts, all in keeping with the theme of 'Garden of England', also went down very well. For some reason they took the rather odd decision to serve only white wine to accompany their meal, a decision which did not please some of their passengers, nor indeed Raymond Blanc himself when he paid a surprise visit to their carriages.

For once Alasdair and James showed that perhaps they really could work well together. They were a bit more adventurous with their menu, taking the attitude that the Orient Express implied luxury and decadence. It was just a pity that the risotto was cold and overcooked and the lobster thermidor rather chewy and unappetising. Their copious supplies of wine and port were well received, as was Alasdair's well chosen and presented cheese plate, but the tacky disposable cameras were perhaps not such a good choice.

Back at Le Manoir Raymond Blanc pondered over whether he really wanted to be constantly pushing them on if he chose Alasdair and James as his winners, or whether to choose Michele and Russell and push them to be more adventurous. In the end he chose the more polished couple Michele and Russell who had never produced any complete disasters and had shown throughout the series that they were willing to listen and learn and strive to do better.

Let us wish 'Bonne Chance' to the new partnership between Raymond Blanc and Cheerful Souls Michele and Russell.

Discuss The Restaurant in our Forum