The Best Episodes of Chef Season 1

Episode Rankings

1. #1 Fan Favorite
   

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   #1 - Personnel

   S1:E11/28/1993

   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

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   Director:John Birkin

   Writer:Peter Tilbury
2. 

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   #2 - Beyond the Pass

   S1:E22/4/1993

   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

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   Director:John Birkin

   Writer:Peter Tilbury
3. 

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   #3 - Subject to Contract

   S1:E32/11/1993

   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

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   Director:John Birkin

   Writer:Peter Tilbury
4. 

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   #4 - The Big Cheese

   S1:E42/25/1993

   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

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   Director:John Birkin

   Writer:Peter Tilbury
5. 

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   #5 - Fame is the Spur

   S1:E53/4/1993

   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

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   Director:John Birkin

   Writer:Peter Tilbury
6. 

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   #6 - Rice and Peas

   S1:E63/11/1993

   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

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   Director:John Birkin

   Writer:Peter Tilbury
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7. 

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   #7 - A Bird in the Hand

   S1:E712/24/1993

   Gareth and Janice are worried over Le Chateau's high expenses. Janice complains about the prices of Mrs Courtney, the herb supplier. Gareth dismisses Mrs Courtney with his usual shower of abuse. They also decide to open the restaurant for Christmas, which requires purchasing numerous turkeys for Christmas dinners. A frantic search for the best turkeys available leaves Gareth and Janice lost in the middle of Wilts, where they get caught off the road in a rain storm. They hope for rescue when they see someone walking through the fields, but their hopes are lowered when it turns out to be Mrs Courtney, whose boyfriend owns the turkey farm, still furious at her treatment by Gareth. Eventually they agree to buy the turkeys at a price even more excessive than what they've been paying her for herbs. The purchase proves to be wasted when their main Christmas party cancels and is replaced by a group of vegetarians.

   Director:John Birkin

   Writer:Peter Tilbury

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   Director:John Birkin

   Writer:Peter Tilbury