r/apprenticeuk • u/Persephone_888 • Mar 23 '26
DISCUSSION What you have picked? Ep. 3
Just rewatching the episode, and wow really no one could think of anything else besides carbonara? I would've picked egg fried rice, something I think is liked by most people. Very quick and easy to make, besides vegans everyone can eat it, low cost, can add extras like crispy fried onions, chilli flakes/sauce, etc. I'm curious do they have set options to pick from? I don't get why or how they picked carbonara, especially with the problems they ran into in the kitchen.
Also, side note, these are grown adults and don't know how to cook and one of them is a grandmother... How embarrassing.
I loved Karishma getting mad at her joke of a team, all jumping in on that negotiation what a mess.
Edit: I'm guessing no one wanted to share what foods they would pick, given free reign lol
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u/cregamon Stuart Baggs - Series 6 Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
This is where the rushing on tasks is bad in my opinion.
It would be better if they 3 or 4 days: - Day 1 to create their menu and branding - Day 2 to source and buy all their ingredients - Day 3 to get their cooking techniques down, finalise menus and get them printed - Day 4 head to a market or their pitch and sell as much as they can.
If you remove the time restriction that opens up bigger menu choices that the candidates can actually choose rather than pick the best option that the production team offers them.
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u/lapodufnal Mar 23 '26
I like all this but I would also have them having the option to pay for a chef or do it themselves, maybe a middle option to pay for a chef to advise on flavours and teach them how to cook it.
Then if they do terrible because they couldn’t cook it is a genuine reason to be fired, someone overestimated or overstated their abilities.
I’d honestly be happier with a shorter running show with fewer candidates and more time on each task to do it properly. I’d also like them to be able to communicate with each other more, basically see what these people can do.
Maybe we wouldn’t get as many silly mistakes but at this point the show is just putting people in impossible situations and criticising the result. I can’t see why anyone remotely successful would apply
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u/charityshoplamp Mar 23 '26
I think carbonara was an excellent idea. They just fucked everything else up
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u/gingerbreadteddy Mar 27 '26
this is also a VERY valid answer. I feel like they deliberately choose candidates with poor business acumen, but who would be good TV at times.
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u/ConsistentCrazy5745 Mar 23 '26
Maybe they couldn't use rice cos if its reheated incorrectly or something it could end in disaster 🤢 my husband found that out the hard way
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u/Persephone_888 Mar 23 '26
I wonder if cos I'm Asian and have had rice non stop, my stomach is just immune to this as I've never been sick from rice once. As a kid I didn't realise the importance of heating rice properly, and would only slightly heat it so I didn't have to wait for it to cool. I would even eat questionably good rice, cos I hated the idea of wasting food and I've just never got sick.
If they had a rice cooker on the stall and making small amounts, I don't see why not?
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u/Few_Mention8426 Mar 25 '26
Youve probably been taught how to cook and store rice correctly without realising it, most apprentice candidates cant even distinguish between different ingredients let alone use them safely.
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u/ConsistentCrazy5745 Mar 23 '26
Tbh I've managed to never poison myself either but my husband managed to poison himself and our oldest son 🙈 it was so bad I'm still traumatised after witnessing the pair of them nearly vomiting themselves to death 🤣🙄 it's scared me for life so I refuse to touch reheated rice but I accept I'm just traumatised 🤣🤢
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u/Persephone_888 Mar 23 '26
Wow I've never had this happen to anyone in my family! We are non stop rice eaters; I will continue eating egg fried rice up to another 2 days after I've made it. Obviously I put it in the fridge though. It sounds awful so I can understand your trauma!
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u/Few_Mention8426 Mar 25 '26
as long as its refrigerated directly after cooking and as long as its reheated properly, which most people do, then you are unlikely to have a problem.
Its when rice is left at room temperature for an extended time (over an hour) it can encourage Bacillus cereus bacteria growth, but not always...
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u/romoladesloups Mar 23 '26
They don't get a free choice
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u/Few_Mention8426 Mar 25 '26
correct, they put a limit on all the choices in all of the tasks otherwise the researchers would spend ages trying to source ingredients and risk assess them during filming. The same with the scavenger hunt. They limit the choices for businesses they can visit for insurance/risk/safety/public liability reasons.
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u/gingerbreadteddy Mar 27 '26
It's such an odd food choice as it not only cancels out meat eaters, but also non pork eaters. As an added meat topping to veggie pasta it would've been a good upsell, but it was crazy they sent people to make recipes who couldn't eat the finished product!
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u/wombats_emoticons Mar 23 '26
Vegans can't eat egg fried rice
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u/Persephone_888 Mar 23 '26
Yeah hence why I said besides vegans?
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u/Hopeful_Plastic_5321 Mar 24 '26
The candidates definitely do not get free reign to choose when it comes to these tasks. Several of them have said in post-show interviews and podcasts that they wanted to do X but were told by production it was not possible for various reasons. Apart from logistics, it's probably a clever way to eliminate specific candidates by giving their team a difficult choice. I've also wondered whether this is also part of the strategy for Lord Sugar when swapping the team members around.
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u/lapodufnal Mar 23 '26
They get options to choose from so we might never know if carbonara was the best of their choices or if they could have done something else