Michel Roux's Service 7-8

Decision time is looming and Michel brings his trainees back to London, to test their developing skills on some very special guests. Bespoke private dining is a growing phenomenon where wealthy diners pay for the restaurant experience to be tailor-made for them.

Gok Wan, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Diarmuid Gavin have been personally chosen by Michel for their love of eating out and for their very different menu requests. Split into three teams, each catering for their very own VIP, Michel wants his trainees to go head-to-head. But charged with planning every aspect of their guests' evenings, from table decorating through to choosing the menu and matching, the trainees will be under the spotlight like never before.

To prepare them for their intimidating dinner parties and the intensity of intimate service, Michel takes his trainees to one of the biggest days in the polo calendar, the Royal Windsor Cup.

When the evening of the bespoke dinner parties arrives, some of the trainees struggle to cope with the added responsibility demanded of them. On his own monitor in the kitchen, Michel sees enough to know that some of his trainees are ruling themselves out of the running.

 

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After eight weeks of intensive tuition, Michel's trainees reach their final hurdle. For their last challenge, he wants them to take over service at his own two Michelin-starred restaurant, Le Gavroche. Established over 40 years ago by Michel's father and uncle, Le Gavroche is famed as the restaurant that kickstarted the British food revolution.

Booked in for the special lunch are 50 leading restaurant professionals, some of whom have helped train Michel's charges over the previous two months. With the input of these expert judges, Michel will finally make his decision: which two of his trainees have the most potential and should be awarded the life-changing scholarships that will launch their careers in high-end service.

To prepare his trainees, Michel sends them to work with the man whose judgement he respects more than anyone else's in the industry: his father Albert Roux, currently guest chef at the Gatsby Club. Gatsby goers will pay up to 3,000 pounds for lunch and the trainees must serve these guests under the watchful eye of Albert and his old lieutenant, Silvano Garaldin, maitre d'hotel at Le Gavroche for 30 years and known as the godfather of British service. Back at le Gavroche, the trainees prepare for their last lunch service as a team.

BBC2 * 2-3 February 2011 * 2 x 60 minutes

 

Michel Roux's Service 5-6

Michel Roux is on a personal mission: to take eight young people who have never considered a career as front-of-house restaurant staff, and prove to them that it is an industry that can change their lives. In just two months, he wants to take his trainees from the high street to the high end - learning skills that will enable them to take over service at his own two Michelin-starred restaurant. Ultimately Michel will choose the best two trainees and award them life-changing scholarships.

To test his trainees, Michel sets up their very own pop-up restaurant in the exclusive surroundings of the Kensington Roof Gardens in London's West End. He designs a special menu that will demand that they learn new skills; beef and lamb will be carved at table. Dover sole must be filleted. And dessert consists of crepe suzette that must be flambéed in front of the guests. The 60 guests who are booked for lunch are no strangers to fine dining. Food bloggers, restaurant critics and industry professionals, they will provide a robust test of the trainees' new skills.

To prepare them for the challenges ahead, Michel takes his charges to some of the most established restaurants in London. Under the guidance of head carver Gerry Rae, they are taught to carve and fillet cuts of meat at Simpsons on the Strand. Working with Simon Girling, restaurant manager at the Ritz, Michel's charges are taught the speed, judgement and finesse that goes into preparing crepe suzette. With a pan and burner, the trainees learn the correct proportion of brandy, orange juice, zest and sugar that go into making this iconic dessert. The Ritz standard demands that a crepe take no longer than four minutes to prepare. Any more and one guest will have finished their dessert whilst another is still waiting.

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With the trainees nearing the final straight, Michel decides they are ready to take on the spiritual home of fine dining - Paris. With less than six weeks' training behind them, he wants his seven protégés to run service at a two Michelin-starred restaurant that has become a Parisian institution: Laserre. Without any help from the expert resident waiters, Michel's team will take over lunch service for some very special customers.

To prepare his trainees for this massive step up, Michel takes them on a detour to Reims, the capital of the Champagne region. After learning with master sommelier Ronan Sayburn, the trainees must try to show who has the best nose, the best understanding of how the wines are produced, and who can recommend the right champagne to go with the right canapé. Not only is Michel looking to see who to choose as his sommeliers in Paris, he is ultimately looking for one of the two Academy of Food and wine scholarships on offer to go to a trainee sommelier.

In Paris, the trainees work with regular mentor Fred Sirieix at a top hospitality college. Meanwhile, Ronan Sayburn gives Michel's chosen sommeliers a crammer course on some of the wines the restaurant will be serving.

BBC2 * 26-27 January 2011 * 2 x 60 minutes

Men of Rock

Deep Time

Iain Stewart follows in the footsteps of the founding father of geology, James Hutton. This Scottish rogue was a profound and original thinker who, 250 years ago, overturned ancient beliefs about how and when the world was formed. His ideas clashed with those of the most eminent scientist of his day. Lord Kelvin was determined to prove Hutton wrong.

 

Moving Mountains

Iain finds out how gung-ho geologist Edward Bailey discovered Scotland was once home to super volcanoes. And how unsung hero Arthur Holmes solved the mystery of what makes continents move across the surface of the globe.

 

The Big Freeze

In the final episode, Iain finds out about daredevil scientist Louis Agassiz, who first imagined the world had been gripped by an ice age. Plus, the story of humble janitor James Croll, who used the planets to work out the natural rhythms of the earth's climate.

 

BBC2 * 13-27 January 2011 * 3 x 60 minutes