It always amazes me when the restaurant owners on The Chopping Block are shocked when their failing business is criticised by food critic Alan Saunders.

You wonder why do they think they have few customers?

Morri’s Place in the Melbourne suburb of Armadale serves European comfort food is run by a older couple Morri the chef and Michelle his wife. They don’t have as many food issues as Pizza Piazza.

The big issue is presentation at Morri’s and with main’s in the high 20’s you do want it to look a bit better then homecooking. The menu is here.

Pizza Piazza a restaurant in Chapel St, Windsor was a mess. What did Fred the owner actually do? He did not cook, nor did he appear to help front of house. The whole of the menu came out of the freezer. Matt Moran thought the taglitelle seafood pasta “tasted like piss.”

The big thing they had going for them were gluten free pizza’s. This should be a big draw card. But the critic at first thought it was too soggy. However Matt Moran sorted that out, by advising that it be finished on the stone in the oven. This did mean that they could only serve gluten free pizza’s.

Sun the chef there did try, and knew how to cook once he got some decent ingredients, but it was not going to be enough to win the $20,000. Morri took it out, and he seemed more pleased with the win rather then the cash.

Sun
what does Fred actually do at his restaurant?

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One thing that annoys me about this show is the critic, Alan Saunders, is in a suburban shopping centre cafe and is bitching that the egg in his caesar salad is poached not coddled. It is not Aria. Which is something Matt Moran needs to remember when advising the troubled restaurants that not all can afford the top shelf ingredients he tells them to when the are selling meals for under $20.

But really not producing a coddled egg on their salad was the least of Spargo’s Espresso problems. The service was abominable, with Ashleigh the waitress really needing to be put on the chopping block. She was dumb or did not give a rats, or both.

The kitchen was just disgusting, no wonder the food was sub par at this Essendon eatery.

Mambo Italiano is not much better, their signature dish the Pizza Napa which is an upside down pizza, which was more like a pie. And did I spot canned pineapple in it?

Also the chef makes risotto with boiled rice. What was that all about? The daughter of the business Ljubliana seems like she may have the propensity of melting down once she was under pressure.

The other thing is when these restaurants get full, which they do the night they are going to get judged, the kitchens who are used to operating with half full premises are unable to cope.

Waiting an hour like Alan Saunders did for his meal at Spargos is not going to get you to go back. He would have been able to do his weekly shop in the nearby supermarket in that time.

When Alan Saunders did his final review he still bitched that the Caesar salad did not have a coddled egg, even Matt Moran was rolling his eyes, but that did not stop Spargo’s taking out the $20,000 first prize.

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People apparently do go and eat at the restaurants seen on The Chopping Block. Apparently just appearing on the show win or lose increases the number of clientele a restaurant gets. So all publicity is good publicity in this case.

The Sun Herald reveals that after Season one went to air series producers called each of the eateries that took part in the show to see how they’d been affected since.

Almost every one of the restaurants reported taking part was a very positive experience overall, with the winners noting increases of up to 70 per cent in trade, and losers up to 50 per cent increases.

So this should help them to get restaurants for season three, if Channel 9 renews it. Hopefully he will.

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Matt Moran Tells Of His Abhorrence For Restaurants On The Chopping Block
Matt Moran who advises failing restaurants in The Chopping Block tells Perth Now how at his horror at what he has found at the failing restaurants.

“To walk into the first kitchen and see the dirt and the grime and the uncovered things and the chefs who look like they just came to work after being out for 48 hours”¦ I realised straight away it was a completely different league.

“The way I run my restaurants, we’re proud of what we do – we like our uniforms to be clean, our shoes to be spotless and the restaurant and the kitchen to be immaculate every time someone comes into it – because you’re on show”¦ It made me realise that they, the featured restaurants, are not the kind of places I would ever go to anyway”¦ It made just go “˜f****** hell!’ and realise there’s another world out there.”

It is a pity he does not name names, as I was thinking of eating at Emads one of the featured restaurants on the show.

Australian Idol Winner Won’t Be Releasing a Christmas Album this year.
After the disaster of Natalie Gauci covers release last year, this year’s winner will not be releasing a covers album of songs they sang on the show.

This tradition was started with Damien Leith’s win and he sold over 100,000 CD’s, however Natalie’s bombed with only 11,000 sold.

The winner will release their album in May next year with a single released in March. Which raises the interesting issue of when is Natalie Gauci album going to be launched? Or will it just be buried?
Full story on Herald Sun.

Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe launch ‘Superstar Dancers Of The World’
A follow up from yesterday’s post on Nigel Lythgoe criticising Simon Cowell, it has now been announced that NBC will be launching a new dance show produced by Nigel Lythgoe.

It is called ‘Superstar Dancers Of The World’ and as Nigel previously said it is like the dance Olympics.

The series will pit the masters of various dance genres from eight countries against each other. Equal parts sporting event, rock concert and artistic exhibition.

The eight countries currently scheduled to participate include: Ireland, India, USA, Argentina, China, Russia, South Africa and Australia.

It is interesting that the UK and Canada are not represented.

Full details on The Futon Critic.

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The episode tonight could have been titled Chef Wants A Wife, with Tim the Chef/Owner of the Courthouse restaurant, declaring he was single every time a camera was anywhere near him. Was he using The Chopping Block as a way of picking up a girl, not for the cash?

Tonight the episode was located in the town of Berwick in Victoria which is a bit of a foodie town.

Both of the competing teams were struggling to stay afloat. The Courthouse was an upmarket serving Mod Oz cuisine. Mod Oz as defined by this restaurant a lot of different ingredients on a plate.

Hotel Eden was all different types of cuisine but a lot of it was frozen or pre-prepped. The bought in frozen beef pattie looked particularly unappetising.

There was the usual scathing review from the critic Alan Saunders, who is good, but he can sometimes come across as a bit snooty.

This week both the owners of the premises were both prepared to listen to the advice Matt Moran, and also seemed to have more experience in the hospitality industry.

I think this helped on the reopening night where the the kitchens worked well. On previous shows this evening usually results in some chaos in the kitchen, lost dockets, and delayed meals.

The food did look much improved in both premises but The Courthouse took the $20,000 first prize.

Courthouse has its own website, and it has kept the Matt Moran dishes on the menu. And if any girls are interested you are able to contact Tim on this site.

Hotel Eden – chef Walter

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Now there would be a lot of women who would like to stick their boobs in Matt Moran’s face but really would you attempt to do this in the first 30 seconds of meeting him?

Angela the daughter of the owner’s of Piazza Navona thrust her tits in any man and a few women’s faces whilst they were dining. She needs to get laid she is obviously is taking her sexual frustration on the customers. She was surprised that anyone would find that behaviour offensive or in fact NOT want to have her boobs in their face. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hooters were trying to employ her at this very minute.

But the other thing that was vaguely amusing was how unsettled it made Matt Moran. At times when he was in the kitchen with her he looked like he was scared he was going to get cornered.

Mama Rosa the cook, has now passed away, so has Angela taken over the kitchen?

Matt Moran razzled dazzled the Bolognase and the cabonara. I am not sure I would like my cabonara bought out to the table with raw egg yolk on it.

Down the road was the South Yarra China House which served up food that had me reminiscing about the one chinese restaurant in the country town where I grew up. In fact I now have a craving for some bad lemon chicken.

After Matt Moran came in and rejigged the honey chicken and told him to ditch the anglicised food that was so popular in the ’70’s.

The show does now have a better flow without season one host Catriona Rowntree, and Matt Moran is able to give assistance and good entertainment without going down the Gordon Ramsey tourettes route.

Alan Saunders is much more serious and imperious than last seasons critic David Grant. I am still getting used to this. But it did crack me up that he thought the gay maitre’d in China House was giving them to much attention. That’s what you get Alan when you dine with three good looking boys.

The South Yarra China House won the $20,000 prize money.

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Why are some owners of restaurants complete and utter morons? It appears that people think you can just open a restaurant with no experience and expect them to work.

The two owners tonight were both dumb. Terry the co-owner of Anacapri did not show any enthusiasm and looked confused most of the episode.

If Gordon Ramsey had been in the kitchen of La De Da’s with Kim the Chef she would have had a complete nervous breakdown and been carted away in a strait jacket.

All Matt Moran asked her to do was cook a chicken dish and she had a meltdown. This resulted in the other cook Kelly becoming head chef.

Kim was not the only meltdown in this episode.

Both Anacapri’s and La De Da’s are in Swansea an area which most recently acquired notoriety when their local State Member, Milton Orkopolous was thrown in the slammer for young boy and drug charges.

Matt Moran said that Anacapri was one of the worst meals he had ever eaten, and he had a hissy fit over the chicken schnitzel which he played up to the cameras by throwing them into the water.

Terry the co-owner of Anacapri was a bit of a dolt. He appeared to be not that motivated to change. And was gobsmacked that anyone could not like chicken schnitzel.

The pregnant waitress who had previously sobbed to the Sunday tabloids that she had been chased down the street by the camera crew, was shown to have stormed out of the resturant under her own volition.

Both business’s had issues on the night of the reviewers, Alan Saunders, visited for the second time. Anacapri had service issues, and La De Da’s had a complete kitchen meltdown. Both owners were not really that much help.

Terry turned up to the verdict scene alone clearly his staff did not give a stuff by this stage or he had not paid them. Predictably La De Da won. Personally I would not eat at either establishment.

Here is an article from today’s Newcastle Herald where Terry states the chicken schnitzel’s are back and their biggest seller. He did not say whether his business was making a profit yet.

Also it implies in the article that Kim is now back as head chef, she had been demoted by Matt Moran to second chef in the series.

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Matt Moran was back on TV to try and knock some struggling restaurants into shape in The Chopping Block.

The premise was the same as last year, a secret critic reviews the restaurant, then Matt Moran gives advice about the menu, a $5000 makeover occurs, then 48 hours later the critic comes back to dine again.

The winner of the $20,000 is the place that gets the most stars from the food critic.

The first season never rated as high as channel 9 would have liked, so it is good that they are persisting with it, as it is an entertaining format.

The main change is Catriona Rowntree is not the host anymore. Matt Moran does that role. David Grant who was the critic season one was unable play the role anymore as his identity had been revealed.

Noted food writer Alan Saunders replaces him, and on first viewing he is not as acerbic as David was, but he should improve as he gets his TV legs.

The show was set in Shellharbour tonight with an ‘Italian’ restaurant Angelinas versus Tandoori Place.

Both of these business are struggling, and the problem usually boils down to management/owners not taking enough control. It amazes me that owners who have put thousands of dollars into the their own business that they are not control freaks and let their staff get away with lax practices or kitchens to pump out substandard food.

The action in this places always takes place in the kitchens. Angelina’s had a determined, but over confident chef, and Tandoori Place had an experienced but lazy chef.

Matt Moran has a great knack of being warm whilst criticising the staff, he is no Gordon Ramsey and that is a good thing.

After a Matt Moran touch up Tandoori Place won. Angelina’s lost due to Alan Saunders not receiving his food two hours after he had set down. The owners wife was using the docket machine and she was stuffing up. Why have someone doing something they have never done before on such an important night? Also where was the owner of Angelina’s he was not managing either the floor or the kitchen.

Will the chef was devastated. My advice for him would be buy the business off the owner as with his enthusiasm he would improve place further.

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