Chef Episode Rating Graph

Gareth is invited to a cooking contest in France. He's forced to use English ingredients and needs English wine.

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.

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.

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

Gareth has to spend the entire day sorting out the private lives of his staff.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.