Gordon Ramsay’s Future Food Stars
BBC1, Thursdays, 9pm ★★★
The last time Gordon Ramsay created a new TV format – Gordon Ramsay’s Bank Balance – it was cancelled after one series. To be fair, he was taking the risk of hosting a game show that had nothing to do with food or cooking. But it was so complicated, it became quite stressful to watch.
Now, Gordon is back with another new format, and this time, you’d assume, it’s more within his comfort zone because it is food-based. It’s basically
The Apprentice for foodies. So, Ramsay is the Lord Sugar figure (minus the awful “jokes”), and each week he sets tasks for 12 up-and-coming food and drink entrepreneurs, competing to earn an investment of £150,000 of his own cash in their business idea. And, just like The Apprentice, the gaggle of competitors has to include boastful doofuses like Amit, who says, “When it comes to true Indian food, I might just be the best.” As for Jamie from Macclesfield, he can always get work as a Noel and/or Liam Gallagher lookalike if his mussels business doesn’t float.
‘Things get off to a truly bizarre start’
Things get off to a truly bizarre start when Gordon decides to arrive for his first meeting with the contenders by jumping from a helicopter. Clad in his wetsuit, this seems to be Ramsay’s not-so subtle way of flagging that he’s more James Bond than Alan Sugar. Then the first challenge is for the entrepreneurs to leap off a cliff. What’s the connection to their foodie ideas? Well, there is none. It’s just that Gordon wants to see how they handle pressure. Subsequent tasks do have more to do with food, mostly, but the show never shakes off the initial feeling that everything that happens is a total contrivance. Just like The Apprentice, then.