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.

It would have been a travesty for any of the three remaining couples to have to miss out on the latest 'challenge' so it was only fair that they were all given the chance to participate in a masterclass

It isn't enough to run a successful restaurant, can you express your concept into a cookbook that will satisfy the buyers of the three largest booksellers? And can you do that in under two days?

From takeaways to fine dining, the challenge for our restaurateurs took them from one extreme to another.

Airline food is always a challenge, but it's much more of a challenge to three couples given the brief to devise and prepare a three course meal and serve it up to fourteen first class passengers on a jumbo jet.

After being given half a pig with instructions to sell as much of the carcass as they could and leaving as little wastage as possible, the three couples who had performed worst at this task found themselves facing the latest challenge and fighting for the survival of their restaurants.

People who have never seen The Restaurant might expect a food show like many others, focussing on dishes, ingredients and buying the right sort of tablecloth. But The Restaurant is much more.

What happened to the viewers' favourites, the 29-year-old twins Jess and Laura whose enthusiastic commitment and competence saw them win several “Restaurant of the week” awards for their Green and Brown restaurant?

Married couple Jeremy and Jane Hooper won the first series of The Restaurant and the chance to set up their own restaurant.

There are three very different TV programmes currently showing, each of them fronted by a Michelin star chef and each of them aimed at the young professional or gifted amateur chef whose dream is to open his or her own restaurant. There the similarity ends.