Mijn restaurant

Last year I was totally hooked on the tv reality show "Mijn Restaurant" (based on the Australian 'My restaurant rules'), especially when the contestants in Leuven were often nominated yet won their restaurant in the end.

This year the started restaurants are located in different cities so neither my ex-home town Ghent or my current hometown Leuven is participating. This allows me to watch with a little more distance than last year, yet I am so hooked again. Jan clearly doesn't enjoy it as much as last year (when he could only see one out of 2 shows due to his London-Leuven commute) and thinks 3 hours per week is really an overdosis. He is so visibly frustrated by the many many blunders that these new restaurant owners are making, but to me that's part of the charm.
Let's face it: there's only 2 competitors this year that really stick out and the others aren't playing in the same league. But if the show would only be about Sint-Truiden and Kortrijk, it'd get a bit boring no? It's a tv show after all, so I don't mind some nagging, stressed-out, blundering couples.

So far the show seems to follow the line of expectations:
First restaurant closed again was La Scène in Sint-Niklaas launched by the only couple who both couldn't cook and had to manage a chef while missing essential food knowledge themselves. Though both charming ever friendly optimistic people their lack of involvment was sometimes so painfull with Dominique preferring to stand behind the bar and observe and Ben needed to ask 3 times each time what was on the plate before he could go serving it to the customers.
And come on...a restaurant completely painted in black and bright red with plastic chairs...eeeek....not my idea of a top restaurant where you can have a cosy relax evening either!

So now Diest and Turnhout are competing against each other for closure. No surprise either since both got a lot of criticism from all critics coming by. Despite clear improvements they both are no match for Kortrijk and Sint-Truiden.
Rebekka and Deborah in Fleur Délice at Diest seem to serve ok, but no exquis food although they desserts suck. Whaahaa and then Murphy's law struck and when the Michelin critic was in the restaurant Deborah just snapped and lost her temper at him. Oh irony oh irony, way to go girl. In a toprestaurant you simply never can loose it, never have a bad day and certainly never ever go into discussion with your customers. sorry girls, I think you both could perfectly run a nice pleasant restaurant but you should not have the ambition to have a top restaurant. Know your own limits. Maybe if they focus a bit more on the new romance of Rebekka and the sous-chef, they'd be able to get some sympathy votes :p. Hihi.

Wendy and Chris at 't Gerecht from Turnhout get mostly in the picture for their constant nagging as a couple. While Chris has culinary experience, he never seems to convince the critics and takes all criticism with such an incredible defensive stubborn attitude that he becomes so annoying and arrogant. Wendy on the other hand has gained a lot of self-confidence and starts to run the serving more firmly . She realises very much that the need to step up in order to keep in the race.....so she nags Chris constantly which only makes him more stubborn. Hilarious, annoying and a bit tragic at the same time. Sorry to say but they don't deserve to make it either.
So for this nomination I don't really care who wins or who loses as....the next nomination the other one should loose anyway so it should only be 2 weeks postponing of their ultimate fate as they'll run up against on of the favourites. (and please let us not vote for the underdog for once).

And then the final should be between the 2 favourites: Bigarreux in Sint-Truiden run by Ann and Tom and Claudio and Gaël from Dell Anno in Kortrijk since they get so many praises from all food critics. Claudio comes from a culinary family and has truly gained a lot of experience in top restaurants. Ann also seems to run her team firmly as a chef with a lot of confidence.
And half of the Flemish woman seem to fall for Tom's charmes (and ignore completely the fact that he is gay) whereas the Tom is also a dream for the waiters in the competing restaurant Dell Anno :p. Gaël's pretty face and Claudio's Italian charm also give them a lot of fans who couldn't care less whether they can run a restaurant or not.

Aaaaah it's still going to be so interesting. I don't get an overdosis with those 3 hours a week :-). And in the mean time Jan and I amuse ourselves as to critic each other meals on texture, pallette of taste, dressing of the plates, ...I think Jan should win ;)