Last week on The Apprentice it was washing cars.  As common on the show, Sir Alan gave the candidates 30 minutes notice before turning up at the penthouse with the task.  This week corporate catering.  Sir Alan Sugar set both teams the task to provide a corporate catering service in the City.  They would create both a lunch service and in the evening a special event service for 50 people each.  Once again the team who makes the most money wins.  Last week the girls team lost after not managing their costs and Anita Shah was fired.  They are sure to be wanting to turn things round and win this week.  14 candidates remain, all we know for sure is one will be fired today!

The Girls – Ignite

On the women’s team Yasmina jumps at the chance to be project manager citing her previous experience as running a restaurant to persuade the others.  The team had a day to prepare and then the next day they would be making and selling.  Yasmina was a little abrupt pushing her views across the team of an Mediterranean themed sandwich lunches.  Yasmina focused on budget when defining the sandwich menu and her “road” team managed to take orders for two offices of sandwiches and salads for lunch.

Yasmina - Team Manager

The team manager Yasmina focused on designing the menus and buying the ingredients and Kate floundered rather while presenting to the business event they were catering for, she wasn’t clear on ingredients or what the food was like.  The client agreed to the price but with conditions that he would decide whether the food was worth the value before paying!

The next day the Girls kitchen was like one of Gordon Ramsay’s, her team referring to her as chef and all food was made to strict ingredient limits, perhaps this weeks cost focus is going too far.  After delivering to their office lunch orders, they went desk to desk trying to sell their stock.

It was then onto the evening dishes, making canapés and more!  Paula commented that the food didn’t look close to the standard she felt the city workers would expect.  The Bruchettas were also rather large!

The Boys – Empire

After hearing the task Rocky volunteered himself to be manager.  At 21 he is the youngest of the candidates and already has a successful sandwich shop chain in the North which he started at the age of 17.  He is my one to watch this season as he already earns more than Sir Alan Sugar is offering as a prize and also because he started in business young and has worked for what he has achieved.  The mens team were also keen to put an angle on their lunches, with the Olympic 2012 themed lunch (food from around the world.  The team then went out looking for sales for the next day explaining their sandwiches including the American Peanut butter sandwiches.  The Boys team seemed more interested in proms and clothing for the event rather than on the food!  Unlike the girls team the boys had no luck in getting lunch pre-orders.

Rocky - Team Manager

For the evening event the boys were aiming for £60 per head, for a service which included decorating the room to their Olympic theme.  Philip negotiated with the client who was shocked at the price, what they would pay for a 3 course dinner and talked himself down to £15 per head, the client didn’t negotiate, just waited for Philip to keep talking himself down.

Despite no lunch orders, the boys made 500 of their Olympic sandwiches, Asian Chicken Tikka Sandwiches, European Ploughman’s wraps, African Cous cous salads and American Peanut butter.  They sold these to both city workers and tourists, the queuing tourists made easy targets selling out of food.

Half the boys then started to make the evenings food while the other half decorated the room in their Olympic theme, which looked rather tacky!  The guests arrived and were greeted by the boys dressed for the part in Roman togas.  James criticised his own food, which was rather “creative” in its Olympic theme.  They went on to serve cheese sticks which they called a modern take on the ploughman’s sandwich, I’m not convinced!!

The Boardroom

Before the boardroom began I will predict that the boys win.

Margaret fed back on the girls team commenting  – no chicken in one of the chicken wraps, a hair in the salad, and Alan didn’t seem impressed

Ignite – Spent £354.77, took £500 for the evening event (originally agreed £750), total takings including lunches was £1006.20.  Profit was £651.43

Empire – Spent £821.37, took £375 for the evening event (originally agreed £750), total takings including lunches was £660.61.  Profit was a loss of £160.76

This was unbelievable Empire (The Boys) made a lost.  Watching the show it wasn’t clear that the evening price was negotiable after the event but the client evidently was very unhappy with the creative themed food.

Ignite the winners got to go to Ascot to play polo as their prize.

After a visit to the bridge cafe the boys were back in the board room, early they had told Sir Alan he had been a good manager, now they were biting into him!  Sir Alan disclosed that the team greatly overspent on food which came to £680.  Equally the team didn’t change their menu to match the agreed price.

Rocky brought back James and Howard to the boardroom.

Rocky – Was the team leader and therefore ultimately responsible.  He talked about his prior experience building up his own company and the fact he could learn from mistakes.

James – accused of playing it safe and hiding under the radar.  He went on to say Sir Alan should fire both of the others.  Sir Alan said he should learn to communicate better as he kept bashing the table and spoke “very passionately”.

Howard  – I wasn’t really clear on why Howard was in the boardroom.  He runs 10 pubs so should have intervened and helped Rocky when he saw things going wrong.

In the end Sir Alan fired Rocky for “a series of immature mistakes.”

My Final Thoughts

I predicted after the task that the boys won, this was pre boardroom, because – Their sandwich selling in the street seemed very successful and they agreed a price in advance for the evening event.  I do not think the girls would have made much from their evening event though they did manage costs very closely (too closely).

But what do I know, After last week I assumed that no one would manage their costs as horrendously as the  Boys team did, of the three I felt Rocky had to go but I felt he was a good guy but he had so complete control over the task that no one else really had any responsibility to be fired for!  The only exception to this may have been Philip who negotiated the price for the evening event.

Next weeks task – the teams have to invent and market their own fitness equipment.