Turning culinary disasters into chefs of tomorrow.
Kitchen Criminals is a BBC television series in which top chefs John Burton Race and Angela Hartnett are given the task of travelling the length and breadth of the UK, looking for Britain's worst cooks. After selecting the 20 worst, the amateur cooks must undertake a series of cookery challenges until only one contestant from each team is left. The 2 remaining contestants must then cook a meal for 3 top food critics.
John Burton Race and Angela Hartnett are holding auditions across the country to find the nation's worst cooks. This time they're in the north of England. Chefs John Burton Race and Angela Hartnett were scouring the UK to find kitchen sinners in need of salvation. The first audition took place in Manchester, where Angela and John discovered it really was grim up north in the cookery stakes. They demonstrated how it should be done with a spiced French toast and a lip-smacking prawn dish.
John Burton Race and Angela Hartnett are holding auditions across the country to find the nation's worst cooks. This time they're in the Midlands. Angela and John headed to Birmingham to find those guilty of culinary misdemeanours in the Midlands. Angela showed how to make a classic Italian dessert, while John whipped up a French-style main course salad.
John Burton Race and Angela Hartnett are holding auditions across the country to find the nation's worst cooks. This time they're in London. Angela and John were in London on the lookout for kitchen criminals. They put the capital's worst offenders back on the straight and narrow with a lesson in simple cookery. John proved that pancakes are not just for Shrove Tuesday, while Angela showed how quickly you can make a stir-fry from scratch.
John Burton Race and Angela Hartnett are holding auditions across the country to find the nation's worst cooks. This time they're in the South West and Wales. Angela and John were in Bristol, searching the West Country for crimes against cooking. Angela went back to basics with a master class in poaching eggs, while John attempted to convince cider drinkers about the merits of a beef and ale stew.
John Burton Race and Angela Hartnett, two of the country's finest chefs, are locked in battle, scouring the land to find the country's worst cooks. They are on a mission to turn these Kitchen Criminals into Kitchen Heroes to prove that anyone can master the art of cooking. How will John and Angela respond to the applicants in Glasgow, who produce dishes such as an eggshell omelette with a human hair garnish? The contestants have to follow John's example of creating the perfect omelette and Angela's dish of pan-fried salmon marinated in lime and spices. It was Scotland's turn to undergo questioning by chefs Angela Hartnett and John Burton Race, as the final audition came to Glasgow. John demonstrated a classic omelette, while Angela showed how to liven up a fillet of fish.
Top chefs John Burton Race and Angela Hartnett have scoured the country to find the nation's worst cooks. The challenge now gets tougher as both chefs have to try to turn Britain's terrible cooks into Kitchen Heroes. Ultimately, John and Angela each have to find one protégé to represent them in the final challenge, cooking a first class meal for three of the nation's leading food critics. So their teaching skills will need to be exceptional. It was day one of John's boot camp and he was taking no prisoners - whoever showed the least promise would be kicked out of the kitchen. The focus was on cooking with poultry, but who'd be chickening out of the challenge? The schools health advisor who can't cook, the panel beater who lives on mushy pea sandwiches, or the Bristol holistic therapist who lets her 17 cats nibble on her diet of crisps, cheese and burnt offerings?
The nine remaining contestants had had their competitive spirits ignited, but one of them would be sent packing. They were learning to cook steak, but one of them would be having a beef by the end of the show - would it be the mum of three who's desperate to cook good food for her children, the former body builder whose hot water and smash tuna bake shocked John at the auditions, or the mystic cook who hoped her psychic powers would ensure that she stayed in boot camp for another day?
The Kitchen Criminals' cooking tasks are to try to perfect John Burton Race's pork escallops on buttered spinach and his roast pork with rhubarb compote. John attempted to put his eight remaining offenders back on the straight and narrow with a lesson in cooking with pork. But who left the boot camp? Was it the former fencing champion who likes to improvise with John's recipes, the personal trainer who has a love of Marmite, or the high-flying City career woman who admits she has it all?
John Burton Race demonstrates how to prepare a delicious dessert of poached pears with chocolate sauce and the classic French treat - profiteroles with vanilla cream. Unlikely as it seemed earlier in the competition, some of John's team actually showed promise as they tackled some classic desserts. But the outcome of the show was not sweet for one of the contestants - was it the youngest member of the team who was keen to learn to cook so that he could be independent, the Leicester man who admitted he'd never even heard of profiteroles, or the feisty Warrington cook who wasn't worried about standing up to John who swallowed a bitter pill?
After recruiting Britain's worst cooks, top chefs Angela Hartnett and John Burton Race have been tasked with transforming the nation's Kitchen Criminals into Kitchen Heroes. It was the final day of John's boot camp and the pressure was on for the six remaining contestants fighting for a place in the final five. This time they had the challenge of a three-course meal to prepare, and it was the contestants' friends and family judging their efforts in a blind tasting, and ultimately deciding who made it through to the final.
Today's fish-themed boot camp sees some progress in the kitchen, but also some disastrous setbacks. Things won't be going swimmingly for one contestant - will the lap dancer who'd never touched, let alone eaten, fish until she came to the Manchester auditions, the career woman who turned up with a soggy victoria sponge, or the army careers adviser whose cremated sausage and lentil dish left the chefs retching be going home today? It was Angela Hartnett's turn to whip her kitchen criminals into shape at boot camp and, drawing on her Italian roots, she began with a lesson in making pasta. But who was saying 'arrivederci' at the end of the show? The successful doctor who offended Angela when he turned up with a ready meal at the Birmingham auditions, the drag queen from Northern Ireland whose attempt at spaghetti bolognese made Angela gasp, or the career woman from Nottingham who turned up at the Birmingham auditions with an inedible cheese soufflé?
Angela Hartnett demonstrates a delicious Italian dish, Lamb Parmigano with Salsa Verde and a roast of Rack of Lamb with Ratatouilleto, to her hopeless cooks. The remaining contestants got a masterclass in cooking lamb, French and Italian-style. But who was the black sheep of the show? The air traffic controller at ease directing planes but a mess in the kitchen; the Essex career woman who horrified John and Angela at the London auditions with her steak pie, mayonnaise and ketchup sandwich; or the pensioner who, at 73, is trying for the first time in his life to learn to cook?
Angela Hartnett prepares two fish dishes - a mixed Seafood and Fish Stew and Sea Bream with Fennel and Dill Salad. The fish-themed boot camp saw some progress in the kitchen, but also some disastrous setbacks. Things didn't go swimmingly for one contestant - would the lap dancer who'd never touched, let alone eaten, fish until she came to the Manchester auditions, the career woman who turned up with a soggy victoria sponge, or the army careers adviser whose cremated sausage and lentil dish left the chefs retching be going home?
The task for the Kitchen Criminals today is to re-produce Angela Hartnett's simple Orange, Chicory and Chicken Salad and delicious Plum and Almond Tart. One of the kitchen criminals was showing signs of redemption and another who failed miserably on Wednesday appeared to be back on track. But Angela had to lose one of her team - the student who dismayed the chefs with a pool of milky liquid and noodles claiming to be macaroni cheese, the feisty Essex lady who refuses to be broken and the Northern Irish charmer who lives off pre-packaged salads were in the running for a return to the cookery cooler.
The contestants' friends and family judge the food on the final day of Angela Hartnett's cookery boot camp. They are taught to prepare an asparagus salad with Parma ham, halibut with grapefruit vinaigrette and an raspberry shortcake, before the guests will decide who goes home in a blind tasting session. And then there were five... On the final day of her boot camp, Angela sets her team members the challenge of cooking a three-course meal for their own friends and family to judge in a blind tasting that will decide who makes it through to the final stages of the competition.
Angela and John have each got five cooks left on their teams. Both chefs will have to send the person with least potential home at the end of the day so they're putting real pressure on them. Each chef had five team members remaining, but both had to lose one of their aspiring cooks. The pressure was on as they searched for protégés to represent them in the final test, cooking for three food critics. Their first task was to cook a mackerel dish without guidance from their mentors, then they attempted to master the starters that had been chosen for the final menu.
The remaining four contestants prepare duck breast with honey and spices before John Burton Race and Angela Hartnett send home the person with the least potential. The experts also demonstrate the main course they expect their chosen protege to cook in the final on Friday. John was disappointed when one of his best hopes for the final made a mess of a duck breast recipe, then both chefs watched as their teams tried out the main courses chosen for the final. How did the aspiring cooks cope with the technical difficulties of the dishes?
John Burton Race and Angela Hartnett oversee the remaining six candidates preparing chocolate mousse as the award-winning chefs step up their search to find a protege for Friday's final. The two tutors also demonstrate the desserts they expect to be prepared in front of food critics at the end of the week, before having to send one of the students home. It was Angela's turn to be disappointed in one of her most consistent performers, who let her down when making the relatively simple Chocolate mousse. Then it was time to learn to make the dessert course for the final menu, before two more contestants headed home.
The remaining four hopefuls head to a professional kitchen to practice cooking the three-course meals the food critics will judge in the final. Angela Hartnett's pair tackle salmon and scallop ravioli, while John Burton Race's team master red mullet nicoise, followed by chicken with morells and leeks. The hosts then each choose one recruit to represent them tomorrow. It was time to select the two recruits for the final. John and Angela put them through their paces by sending them to work in a professional kitchen, where they had to prepare the full three-course menu that would be presented to the critics in the final.
John Burton Race and Angela Hartnett's attempt to reform some of Britain's worst cooks reaches its finale. Under restaurant conditions and with no help from their mentors, the finalists must create the three-course meal they have designed for the nation's leading food critics. Last in series. Laura Vaughan, a lapdancer from Liverpool, and Harjinder Chaggar, an A & E doctor from Coventry, were the finalists in the competition, with Laura representing Angela and Harj as John's protégé. Both had come a long way since the auditions, when Angela and John were horrified by the pair's 'signature dishes' - Pot noodles for Laura and a ready-made fish pie for Harj. Their determination and willingness to learn helped them to become accomplished cooks and their final efforts impressed the food critics.
