Recent articles
Ian couldn't bring himself to say, or even spell, the word 'loser' but last night he became one after Sir Alan fired him from The Apprentice.
Ian and Kevin were equally useless - in fact, if we'd been Sir Alan we think we would have fired both of them.
It was always going to be between this pair as soon as they got into the boardroom. Simon was there too but it's obvious Sir Alan has a soft spot for him, however, he's clearly going to have to do more than 'cut up onions' over the coming weeks to remain in his favour. Expect Simon to be appointed teamleader in a task very soon.
Bank Manager (and Matt Lucas lookalike) Kevin was quick to volunteer for the position of head chef because he's eaten in Italian restaurants - not the best of qualifications for the job. The alarm bells started to ring when he struggled to name the ingredients for a carbonara and wanted to charge £4.95 for a bowl of soup 'because that's what it costs in Guildford'.
Pouty Ian struggled to manage the team - he began the task by going round the guys and asking them to give him their commitment (Raef gave 110% as usual), but by the time they opened the pub kitchen for business he had lost any grip he ever had on them. He sulked in the corner after Kevin decided to give the team a pep talk and later denied this had ever happened in the boardroom.
Ian had managed to keep his head down in previous weeks and avoid Sir Alan's scrutiny but as team leader his flaws were exposed. We don't think Kevin will go very far in the competition either, unless running a kitchen is the one area in which he lacks expertise. We doubt that.
So, what about the girls? We had been expecting fireworks between Lucinda and Jenny following last week's boardroom showdown but it never happened. Jenny wisely kept a low profile this week and it was Claire, an early favourite of ours, who stood out in the girls' side - for all the wrong reasons. Claire seems to have some issues with being managed and clashed with teamleader Sara, who in all fairness seemed to do a pretty good job. Also, anyone else notice that Claire never takes off that pearl necklace? She even had it on when she got out of the shower? What's going on there?
Let us know what you thought of the latest task. Would you have sacked Ian? Or did Kevin deserve to go? Have you got any favourites to win the series?
Comment on this article
Please sign in to add your comments.
User comments
Have none of these people ever eaten in a Pub or do they know the cost of shopping. A simple reference to the prices charged in their local eaterie would clearly given them a reference to the sort of Profit Margins that this trade earns. Even Sir Alan got it wrong. If you buy for £1 and sell for £2.50, that is a margin that would immediately that would certainly kick off a HMCE investigation. They require at a 4 times multiplier. One of my local pubs here (Nth Essex) sells a "Half Pint of Prawns" for £4.75. Even at the purchase price in the Dunmow Tuesday market, this is a NINE times multiplier.
Posted by: waltershuttle on Thu Apr 10 12:53PM | Report abuseI think SImon did a splendid job and di not deserve to be in the boardroom as did not Kevin. Poor mis management, poor pricing, no structure, no chain of command, no time element points to piss poor Project Management. Kevin is a soft target and should not be used as a scape goat. Watch the whole episode and you see Ian passing the buck to others at every occasion. In the real life the Head Chef does get involved in supplies and pricing but in this situation the project manager had to put the PROJECT together and price effectively, market effectively and provide a PLAN to work from. Itwas a case of handing the tasks and letting everyone get on with it without a check in place. Kevin is a weaker candidate in the series but owe him his fair dues he got stuck into it, he never confessed to being a Chef but did the job took the flak but got the "functional" job done. Ian was useless and if he was in charge of my IT Systems, I would change as he's the type of guy who does not take project ownership and that is very crucial. On the girls side I think Claire is a sabotaging little bitch who needs to get highlighted for this. You should not try to sabotage your own project or bring the morale down. She's playing a devious game, deception and deceit is not what Sir Alan is looking for, entrepeneurial showmanship is what he's looking for. Claire hates being under control.
Posted by: ibrar_rahim on Thu Apr 10 12:53PM | Report abusei think that kevin and Ian were idiots and should both have been fired because they just didn't know how to admit that they were wrong in nearly evevrything they did. Ian tried quite afew tactics in the boardroom; sucking up to sir Alan, blaming everything on Kevin, and then lying about everything good anybody did. im not saying that Kevin didn't deserve to be blamed, though; he blamed Ian anyway and he denied having ever wanting to be chef, and said that he was told that he had to do it. he did his fair share of sucking up too.
Posted by: elize.sinka on Thu Apr 10 12:54PM | Report abuseI could not believe what I was watching!!!! - why make everything so complicated! it is completely clear to me that this years applicants (except for Alex & Simon) have no life skills whatsoever. Two fantastic pubs - full of history - they could have used so many traditional / rustic recepies / menus to entice the locals, but instead did the total opposite. What were they thinking. Sir Alan must by now be realising that with the (i think) 3rd episode we really are scraping the barrel.
Posted by: alex4read on Thu Apr 10 12:55PM | Report abuseIan was pants; should not be on the show, very poor calibre leadership skills. Kevin was not a great cook but he got stuck in, fair dues to him. Simon is a team player through and through but no one listens to him as they think they are better than him. Not true the man has a back bone, shear determination and business acumen, someone I would defo employ.
Posted by: ibrar_rahim on Thu Apr 10 12:56PM | Report abuseI agree Ian was useless and should have been fired. Shame though, the only bit of eye candy in the programme!
Posted by: anastasiap on Thu Apr 10 12:56PM | Report abuseWrong decision two times in a row... I'm beginning to lose faith in Sir Alan and its only week 3. Kevin should have got fired to his incapability of knowing exactly how many tomatoes to get.
Posted by: unsa_48 on Thu Apr 10 12:56PM | Report abuseBoys are allright, Ian was shit but Claires a two face caniving bitch
Posted by: ibrar_rahim on Thu Apr 10 12:57PM | Report abuseIan was hopeless - delegated everything and wasn't in control. Watching Kevin discussing the tomatoes costings was like watching an old sketch from the Two Ronnies! He was very lucky not to go - he'll struggle managing the group I think. Its quite staggering how they make so many total cock-ups when planning these tasks. Nobody stands out much to me - think a few of the girls are hiding themselves a bit - hopefully Simon will do well as he's likeable and has at least got common sense. Jenny is hard work and Lucinda makes Paris Hilton look hard working!
Posted by: andylikesguinness on Thu Apr 10 12:57PM | Report abuseKevin was the only logical candidate for the chop! He virtually did nothing right, had no control, no leadership qualities, and made no effort to assess the cost of ingredients before pricing menue and building in profit. finally had no control over marketing costs. Gerry.
Posted by: gerrypars on Thu Apr 10 12:59PM | Report abuse