Secret Interview - TV review

The idea is that each week a pair of rising professionals keen to land a job with a respected industry figure are filmed to see how they get on during a challenging working day, with actors playing critics, hopeless employees, irritating members of the public and the like.

This week it was the chefs and later in the series we will see budding estate agents and hairdressers in focus.

In last night's show you were left feeling more than a bit sorry for young chefs Richard and Rob. Believing they were being filmed simply as part of a documentary about their jobs the two had to jump through a number of contrived hoops for our entertainment.

In reality Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton was watching their every move via the cameras and judging who would be best suited to landing a job with him at his prestigious Pollen Street Social restaurant in London.

Secret Interview takes elements of programmes like Secret Millionaire and Undercover Boss and even goes a bit Beadle's About at points when dodgy actors are sent in to stir things up. It all works well though and the first episode was entertaining viewing with the trailer for next week's estate agents Secret Interview looking even more amusing.

With the chefs' bosses in on the whole set-up, this week Rob and Richard were unknowingly set a series of challenges on which they would be judged by Jason later.

The first challenge saw each having to cope with a hopeless trainee. The trainees were in fact actors sent in to behave like morons and push the boys to their limits.

This they did through daft stunts like trying to add ridiculous amounts of tabasco into meals and pretending not to know the difference between a spatula and a whisk. Both were sacked within hours, but while Rob stood up to his trainee himself, Richard hid behind his boss getting him to do the sacking instead. One nil Rob.

Challenge number two saw the chefs having to deal with the arrival of a food critic at one of their tables, nerve-wracking enough for a young chef. But then just to make things even more difficult a coach load of actors posing as diners turned up to crank up the pressure on the boys while the waitresses were told to drop a plate or two as well.

Again Rob seemed to cope well while Richard, who seemed to spend much of his time cooling off in the walk-in fridge, appeared to crumble before pulling it together, sort of, at the last-minute. Two nil Rob.

The penultimate challenge was to see how the two would cope with an over-fussy customer. Again the actors were extremely amplified versions of your average fussy customer, but Rob and Richard didn't seem to twig and both proceeded to get very hot under the collar about the situations. Poor pub chef Richard actually looked like he might have had a complete breakdown in front of the cameras leaving Jason shaking his head as he watched from a monitor.

With the penny starting to drop that they were involved in a bit more than a documentary about their jobs the two were invited to London to cook a meal for some selected guests under the watchful eye of Jason's master chef Paul Hood.

In a bizarre TV moment Paul welcomed Rob into the kitchen with probably one of the longest hand shakes ever seen on screen. Once settled the two were again made to sweat fumbling their way through the filleting of a fish and even forgetting to put the pasta on for their guests – who were in reality top food critics and restaurant managers.

And so to the end of the programme and Jason's final decision. Easily Cockney Rob for the job surely? But no, Jason decided he was a bit too arrogant and immature and went for Richard instead, probably leaving most who watched last night's show a little confused.

But thinking about it, after seeing Richard's gradual meltdown over the course of the challenges Jason and the programme-makers were probably a little concerned he might head back to the walk-in fridge and never come out again had he been rejected. Chirpy Cockney-geezer Rob on the other hand seemed happy enough to have been considered and is a safer bet to bounce back from the experience.

Secret Interview was good fun and I will certainly tune in next week to see how the estate agents fare.