8.8/1053 votesLoading...#1 - The Big Cheese
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 2/25/1993
Gareth is busy perfecting his salmon mousse to prepare for a visit to Le Chateau Anglais by celebrity chef and gourmet Albert Roux. At the same time, he is trying to find a source for unpasteurized stilton cheese. His search leads him to an encounter with the local police, when he learns that the farm where he found the cheese is also growing marijuana, and selling it to an employee at Le Chateau. Gareth assumes that Everton is the culprit, but discovers that his assumption was incorrect.
Director: John Birkin
Writer: Peter Tilbury
8.5/1038 votesLoading...#2 - England Expects
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 10/27/1994
Gareth is invited to a cooking contest in France. He's forced to use English ingredients and needs English wine.
Director: N/A
Writer: Peter Tilbury
8.4/1039 votesLoading...#3 - A Bird in the Hand
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 3/18/1993
No description available
Director: John Birkin
Writer: Peter Tilbury
8.4/1031 votesLoading...#4 - Masterchef
Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 10/13/1994
Everton makes a partridge terrine that is so good, Gareth has to put it on the menu. The chef of Le Chateau doesn't like it all that Everton's star is rising.
Director: N/A
Writer: Peter Tilbury
8.3/1037 votesLoading...#5 - Fame is the Spur
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 3/4/1993
Gareth does interviews with journalists and agrees to have a documentary filmed in the kitchen to publicize the restaurant. When Everton accidentally releases some live crawfish, Gareth's vigorous and obscene rant is caught on film, drawing further media attention.
Director: John Birkin
Writer: Peter Tilbury
8.3/1040 votesLoading...#6 - Rice and Peas
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 3/11/1993
Gareth's father, who left the family when Gareth was a child and has never been close to him, stops by the restaurant. He makes fun of the French high cuisine style of Le Chateau and taunts Gareth into declaring a special 'Jamaican Cuisine' day. That's trouble because Gareth, although raised in Jamaica, is trained in European and particularly Franch gourmet cooking and doesn't actually know how to do Jamaican dishes. He is forced against his better judgment to turn to Everton, who has cooked in a family Jamaican takeout restaurant and knows the food. Everton helps Gareth prepare the Jamaican menu, but refuses to tell him the secret ingredient for his Uncle's famous dumplings, the mainstay of the family restaurant. Gareth's father stops by for the Jamaica Night at Le Chateau only to announce that he won't be eating there, but is going to a local curry house instead.
Director: John Birkin
Writer: Peter Tilbury
8.2/1058 votesLoading...#7 - Personnel
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 1/28/1993
The premiere episode serves primarily to set up the series and introduce the main character, Gareth Blackstock, a master chef with an obsessive drive for culinary perfection, no friends or outside interests other than his wife Janice, and remarkable verbal talents used primarily to creatively abuse his unfortunate staff of assistant cooks, although he is perfectly prepared to give the same treatment to waiters, management, suppliers, bankers, and, occasionally, customers. As the show opens, Gareth is shown verbally lacerating his kitchen staff as ""easily the most bone-idle bunch of useless toe-rags I have ever encountered in any kitchen anywhere. You are sloppy, lazy, half asleep, late, and, at the moment, only giving about 12 1/2 per cent."" Gareth is then shown with the restaurant manager who insists that he must reduce his staff to save money. He replies that the staff is dedicated, superbly efficient, and already impossibly overworked and underpaid. Gareth announces he is quittin
Director: John Birkin
Writer: Peter Tilbury
8.2/1044 votesLoading...#8 - Beyond the Pass
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 2/4/1993
After Le Chateau Anglais is forced into receivership, Gareth and Janice prepare to buy the restaurant. To make the purchase, they have to sell their home and car, as well as meet with a banker to arrange a loan. Janice's fears that Gareth's notorious temper will be unleashed on the banker prove justified.
Director: John Birkin
Writer: Peter Tilbury
8.2/1041 votesLoading...#9 - Subject to Contract
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 2/11/1993
Chef's plan to buy Le Chateau is stalled by inability to sell the house. A sentimental conversation about living in the house turns into an argument between Gareth and Janice when Janice finds out that Gareth remembers exactly what she ordered the night they first met in a restaurant but can't remember what she wore. The kitchen is in disarray when Everton loses a band-aid and thinks it might be somewhere in the food he's prepared. The purchase of the restaurant moves forward again after an article about the house in a local publication brings in new buyers.
Director: John Birkin
Writer: Peter Tilbury
8.2/1037 votesLoading...#10 - A River Runs Thru It
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 9/8/1994
Le Chateau is in desperate need of new personnel and Gareth stumbles upon the name of a chef he once ate at. He decides to visit him.
Director: John Birkin
Writer: Peter Tilbury
8.2/1032 votesLoading...#11 - A Diploma of Miseries
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 9/29/1994
Janice arranges for Gareth to appear on a popular television chat show (talk show in American), whose host is a fan of Gareth's cooking. Gareth's remarks about her on the show leave Janice furious, and Gareth is forced to stay temporarily at Everton's apartment. Gareth makes up by having an apology to Janice broadcast on the show.
Director: N/A
Writer: Peter Tilbury
8.1/1037 votesLoading...#12 - Do the Right Thing
Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 9/22/1994
After an argument with a health inspector, Gareth goes with Everton and Janice to buy game birds from a poacher. After buying the birds, Gareth is stopped by a policeman. He is certain they are about to be arrested, but instead the policeman tells Gareth he can provide birds and other game animals at a lower price. A salmon Gareth buys from the policeman is tagged and traced to Le Chateau by a warden from the National Rivers Authority.
Director: N/A
Writer: Peter Tilbury
8.0/1034 votesLoading...#13 - Private Lives
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 10/20/1994
Gareth has to spend the entire day sorting out the private lives of his staff.
Director: John Birkin
Writer: Peter Tilbury
7.8/1030 votesLoading...#14 - Paris? Jamaica?
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 12/30/1996
Gareth is at a cross road. He must decide whether to accept Rochelle's invitation to join her in Paris for the weekend or to fly off to Jamaica to try to patch things up with Janice. Gareth foolishly relies upon the advice of Everton to help him make a decision on his future.
Director: Dewi Humphreys
Writer: N/A
7.7/1035 votesLoading...#15 - Time Flies
Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 9/15/1994
Janice is late and tells Gareth she may be pregnant. The revelation sets off inquiries into the cost of private school and other child-related expenses. Janice and Gareth discuss bringing in outside investors for Le Chateau to ease their own burdens. Meanwhile, Gareth is working on perfecting a signature dish, Ouef le Chateau Anglais.
Director: N/A
Writer: Peter Tilbury
7.6/1023 votesLoading...#16 - Lessons in Talking
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 12/9/1996
With Janice having moved out on him and with talk of divorce in the air, Gareth takes his temper out on the diners when Cyril has made a policy decision that Gareth should mingle and chat with the diners at La Chateau Anglais. This is decidedly not what Gareth would prefer.
Director: Dewi Humphreys
Writer: Geoff Deane
7.5/1026 votesLoading...#17 - Love is in the Air
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 12/16/1996
The arrival of Gareth's father is not the tonic he needs to help him overcome his failed marriage. Especially when he brings along his new, very attractive and very young, girlfriend.
Director: Dewi Humphreys
Writer: N/A
7.4/1027 votesLoading...#18 - Gareth's True Love
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 11/25/1996
What changes at La Chateau Anglais! Gareth has to transfer ownership to a loudmouth named Cyril. Savanna is a new American chef in his kitchen. Janice really turns Gareth's life around when she decides Gareth loves the restaurant more than her and leaves him.
Director: Dewi Humphreys
Writer: N/A
7.4/1031 votesLoading...#19 - Rochelle
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 12/23/1996
Gareth meets up with a childhood sweetheart when a wedding reception is held in the restaurant. This just further complicates his already precariously balanced emotions. A romantic evening between Gareth and Rochelle is interrupted by Janice, who has some very surprising news to share with them.
Director: Dewi Humphreys
Writer: N/A
6.8/1030 votesLoading...#20 - Reeny/Renee
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 12/2/1996
When Renee, Cyril's spoiled daughter arrives at the restaurant, Gareth is forced into letting her help out in the kitchen. Everton is smitten by Rene and will do anything to keep her from being removed from her position
Director: Dewi Humphreys
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Chef
Every episode of Chef ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Chef!
Sharp knives and even sharper tongues! Meet Britain's finest, most short-fused chef, Gareth Balckstock.
Genre:Comedy
Network:BBC One
Best Episodes Summary
"The Big Cheese" is the best rated episode of "Chef". It scored 8.8/10 based on 53 votes. Directed by John Birkin and written by Peter Tilbury, it aired on 2/25/1993. This episode scored 0.3 points higher than the second highest rated, "England Expects".