1
Personnel
1993-01-28
The premiere episode serves primarily to set up the series and introduce the main character, Gareth Blackstock, a master chef with an obsessive drive for culinary perfection, no friends or outside interests other than his wife Janice, and remarkable verbal talents used primarily to creatively abuse his unfortunate staff of assistant cooks, although he is perfectly prepared to give the same treatment to waiters, management, suppliers, bankers, and, occasionally, customers.
As the show opens, Gareth is shown verbally lacerating his kitchen staff as ""easily the most bone-idle bunch of useless toe-rags I have ever encountered in any kitchen anywhere. You are sloppy, lazy, half asleep, late, and, at the moment, only giving about 12 1/2 per cent.""
Gareth is then shown with the restaurant manager who insists that he must reduce his staff to save money. He replies that the staff is dedicated, superbly efficient, and already impossibly overworked and underpaid. Gareth announces he is quittin
6
Rice and Peas
1993-03-11
Gareth's father, who left the family when Gareth was a child and has never been close to him, stops by the restaurant. He makes fun of the French high cuisine style of Le Chateau and taunts Gareth into declaring a special 'Jamaican Cuisine' day.
That's trouble because Gareth, although raised in Jamaica, is trained in European and particularly Franch gourmet cooking and doesn't actually know how to do Jamaican dishes. He is forced against his better judgment to turn to Everton, who has cooked in a family Jamaican takeout restaurant and knows the food. Everton helps Gareth prepare the Jamaican menu, but refuses to tell him the secret ingredient for his Uncle's famous dumplings, the mainstay of the family restaurant.
Gareth's father stops by for the Jamaica Night at Le Chateau only to announce that he won't be eating there, but is going to a local curry house instead.
A Bird in the Hand
1993-12-24
Gareth and Janice are worried over Le Chateau's high expenses. Janice complains about the prices of Mrs Courtney, the herb supplier. Gareth dismisses Mrs Courtney with his usual shower of abuse. They also decide to open the restaurant for Christmas, which requires purchasing numerous turkeys for Christmas dinners. A frantic search for the best turkeys available leaves Gareth and Janice lost in the middle of Wilts, where they get caught off the road in a rain storm. They hope for rescue when they see someone walking through the fields, but their hopes are lowered when it turns out to be Mrs Courtney, whose boyfriend owns the turkey farm, still furious at her treatment by Gareth. Eventually they agree to buy the turkeys at a price even more excessive than what they've been paying her for herbs. The purchase proves to be wasted when their main Christmas party cancels and is replaced by a group of vegetarians.
