8.3/1057 votes#1 - 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 votes#2 - 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 votes#3 - 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
8.8/1053 votes#4 - 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
8.3/1036 votes#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 votes#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
8.4/1039 votes#7 - A Bird in the Hand
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 3/18/1993
No description available
Director: John Birkin
Writer: Peter Tilbury
The Best Episodes of Chef Season 1
Every episode of Chef Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Chef Season 1!
Sharp knives and even sharper tongues! Meet Britain's finest, most short-fused chef, Gareth Balckstock.
Genre:Comedy
Network:BBC One
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Personnel" is the best rated episode of "Chef" season 1. It scored 8.3/10 based on 57 votes. Directed by John Birkin and written by Peter Tilbury, it aired on 1/28/1993. This episode is rated 0.1 points higher than the second-best, "Beyond the Pass".