[This is a bit late as I have been out the last two evenings and missed the broadcast. There is however Channel 4 Catchup]

Episode 2 - like all penultimate episodes - in a drama ended up looking like a disaster would strike. The relationship between Heston Blumenthal and Ian Pegler had hit rock bottom with an apparent impasse about the rollout of Heston's ideas beyond Popham. However since Episode 3 was in our TV guides it was clear that this was not the end of the story...

Episode 3 began with Heston admitting that it was vital for him to make a success of the Little Chef assignment

Little Chef is an iconic brand...it is part of the national fabric Heston

 However tellingly the Popham manager Michael expressed his concerns about the limitations of Little Chef staff.

We have never been taught to work like that - we're not chefs Michael, Popham manager

 What I had not previously realised was that Heston was not going to convert  Little Chef to working from just fresh ingredients but was going to keep a fairly large menu but with newly specified tastes for the mass suppliers. I was amused when the Fat Duck chefs were checking out the chicken and and said that they had asked for it to be browned but it tasted like Hawaiian tropic sun lotion. I must admit I have not ever eaten sun lotion but I imagine there was a coconut overload.

Clearly the world of mass food is quite different from the world of the Fat Duck. It must have been frustrating that some suppliers were only prepared to offer pictures of the food. Well, judging by so many food photos on packets a professionally photographed ready food looks so much more appetising than the real thing! Ironically, a Little Chef customer in episode 2 had complained about the lack of photos on the experimental menu. The much vaunted new way of cooking scrambled eggs did not translate to the factory with the initial samples very rubbery.

As well as make progress with the menu they needed to re-equip the restaurant. It exhibited much of what is the worst of this country: ripped furniture, curtains that were decorative but unusable (a bit like louvre shutters on many homes!), ancient uniforms with rips and old kitchen and bathrooms. Unfortunately this is the sort of impression that many visitors get of this country based on our airports, hotels and going out to eat without knowing the local good spots.

This is the thinnest piece of cutlery I have seen in my life  Heston

 As an aside, I recall my embarassment after starting work with the Munich office of a US company in the late 1980s when the European VP would invite us to a staff meeting in a hotel in the Heathrow area. The rooms looked run down, the food was boring & bland and served by demotivated, surly staff. So many British companies (especially in the 1980s and 1990s) sought to be profitable by cutting costs and quality to the bone. This is probably because so many businesses have been dominated by "beancounters"...but I have digressed onto one of my hobby horses again!

It is hard for staff to be motivated and to serve well if they are in a rundown environment.

At this stage the menu was not complete; however things began to look up. The steak and ale pie was not far off the mark - needing more ale and bay. The chilli con carne was described by Heston as the 'first tailor-made Little Chef dish'. However the next challenge was to train the staff to serve better. This is something that can still be improved a lot in the UK. So often waiters cannot answer simple questions on dishes, I have been surprised how many people cannot tell me the size of a wine glass when wine is sold by the glass. This is something that is consistently done well in the US where they invest more in training the staff on their menu.

The staff were duly taken off to Bray for training using the Fat Duck menu. The Popham staff clearly enjoyed sampling the food though with the exception of a waiter who did not want to try the smoked salmon.

Just the thought of it makes me feel sicky Popham waiter describing smoked salmon

 It was clear that the samping was enjoyed so much that the staff were not picking up the detail from Heston. However, it was a tall order to expect a detailed set of descriptions to be learned first time. I am hopeless at learning a lot of details off by heart.

However, encouragingly, the staff sat up that evening in their hotel to learn the menu. It was not clear to me whether they were actually working from the menu itself or from a more detailed cribsheet. Clearly you might get questions going beyond the menu description. However Michael did a good job in motivating his team to succeed.

He (Michael) is behaving like a restaurant manager Heston

 The next stage was a tasting session with Ian who clearly sees himself as a bit of a conneiseur. At a previous meal he had said "the aromatics of the mint dissipated very quickly" which sounds to me rather pretentious. However despite not liking mustard in his fish pie, he was impressed by the chilli.

The next thing was the hard discussion on price with Ian indicating a price ceiling of £9.99. This is where I think there was a lack of vision by Little Chef. Their solid (but slowly declining) faithful customers will probably want to pay the same price for a smaller but higher quality 'Olympic breakfast', however to be successful they need to fill their restaurants with customers who would previously never have bothered. I think business travellers or more up market leisure travellers would pay what they would pay in a good pub for an up market main course such as ox cheek in red wine sauce. Also we have some inflation...if £9.99 is an attempt to avoid double figure pound amounts that will not be sustainable for long. Last but not least the food quality should be much better than the M&S shop across the car park, the burger vans on the A303 and KFC.

Some of the recipes are 10 or 15% lower than the norm Ian The pricing process is key to the whole operation Heston

 The refurbished restaurant was duly completed with a more modern diner look and a 'blue sky ceiling' dedicated to Ian. Heston's touch was the piped music and coffee smells in the toilet. I must admit I am not sure of the value of that. If you walk past good food and coffee smells on the way to the toilet that is surely enough.

The real test was when 80 invited guests turned up. They were expected to arrive in phases but they all arrived at once with the food critics all sitting together. There were a number of real mistakes when serving for example a portion of chips got spilt over Heston's wife. The mentioned a "new way of serving chips", I could not make out what it was, but was it over-complicated? The journalists were clearly not going to be easily impressed.

It's fair to say that Little Chef is a British institution...but then so is Broadmoor Jay Rayner, journalist

 Anyway like many dramas there was a happy end with positive comments from the food writers

The steak and ale pie is ressonably priced Fay Maschler

 Even Heston's wife was proud of him - despite the chip spill. The one person to miss the re-opening was Anne England the pioneer of the new breakfast. When she visited later she was impressed too.

However the financials still left worries, but Ian ended up reassuring Heston

My worst fear...is that he will buy cheaper ingredients...the whole model falls apart Heston If there is any change, I will consult you first...is that fair? Ian

 So the Popham model is due to run for 3 months though I do not know when the period started. I hope that the new menu will be a success and that using better ingredients will pay off for Little Chef. I thnk both Heston and Ian have learned something in the process. I am still a little worried that they have not researched their motoring clientele or roadside competition enough but doubtless the programme does not show everything. It will probably be the best-speced ready food in Britain.