Alex Names The New Head Chef At Potli | Alex Polizzi: Chef For Hire

This film was first broadcast: 2015

Hospitality expert Alex Polizzi is on a mission to help restaurant owners find a new head chef. Head chefs are crucial for fine dining and popular eateries as they oversee the kitchen and maintain high food standards. However, filling this position can be difficult. Polizzi takes on the task by sourcing nine candidates to go through a tough interview process over four nights. The contenders with the best cooking skills move forward to the final stages, where one person is selected to become the head chef at the restaurant.

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[trunderwood]

Shout to the editor who followed the 'we did tell you about the salary, darling' comment with the 'you didn't mention you expect 6 days a week' conversation.

Red flags all over the place on this job - low pay, hidden requirements, 'we're ok with 5 days a week, so long as you do 6 days worth of hours'. No thanks.

[jwa]

I could see Mark opening his British-Indian fusion restaurant. All the best Mark, only onwards and upwards!!!

[JJA]

6 days a week 60 hours a week. I bet its salary too. I know this was a few years ago but expecting that from any employee is wrong and a big reason why the hospitality industry is losing and lost so many talented chefs

[LA-krte]

I'm so glad Arbinder more or less stepped away from this "opportunity"! He has more than proven his worth in the kitchen now and these two bosses are just ridiculous! Mark was also a no brainer.

[robin-clbu]

For me, Mark is a no brainer. Excellent chef and leader, excited about building a chain of restaurants with the financial nout to achieve it

[John-muki]

As a Chef I totally dis-agree to 6 days a week. working 14 hours a day...no way !!! You achieve nothing by burning your Chefs out, as interest, tolerance and productivity falls doing this. And I bet they pay him a Set Wage with no " over-time". I beleive in hard work, but the day of being treated like fools is over. I was a Chef for 34 years in 5* establishments so I know what I am talking about.

[bellareid]

Mark was robbed. Always on point with costings, inventive and passionate about food. Kuldeep is less business savvy. Surprised by the outcome

[alcoyne]

Mark getting the server's to taste the herbs they didn't know was the moment he should have nailed it . But the owners didn't even mention it because they had made their mind up when he said no to 6 days a week

[saurabhchandorkar]

The owners want to clearly exploit the employees!! 60 hours a week! Or may be more!! That’s insane!! They chose Kuldeep only because he can be exploited, and work and listen to owners. This is the case with most of the Indian restaurants in the UK.

[tomsparks]

Love Alex's fake smile when camera is on her, rather than what she might really be feeling (especially with THIS segment). These guys want a chef for 6 days a week at sub-par salary. I'm glad the candidates played hardball and I feel sorry for the "winner".

[EC]

Baffling decision-making throughout the series from this restaurant. They would personally drive me crazy if I had to work for them.

[manuingiro]

after they said that the Head Chef had to work 6 days a week.
that would a straight no for me.
One needs work/life balance

[ajw]

mark was the one for me a no briner but i loved the resturant mark has cooked at in sussex one of my top 5 i wish mark all the best the guy is amazing well done to all

[lee-qzbd]

I think these owner's shoes must have a lot of holes for all the times they shoot themselves in the foot.

[BobG]

It seems that Jay wanted a "head chef" who would relieve him of the day-to-day grind of running the kitchen, doing the ordering, and crunching the numbers but still wanted to have total control of the kitchen. That's an owner's prerogative, but he seems to really want a sous chef who will take on additional responsibilities. Any real head chef would probably chafe at having him as a boss. Also, food cost percentages can be helpful, but targeting them can be misleading. At the end of the day, what's the difference between food costs at 30% of £25 and 20% of £22? Virtually nothing. These result in a profit of £17.50 and £17.60, respectively. With Mark's inventive cost-saving dishes, they could have actually *LOWERED* menu prices while maintaining or increasing the number of pounds of profit per customer -- which is what really counts in the end. Oh, well. Everyone seems to have gotten what he wanted. I think Mark is better off not having been selected. I think his talents can be better appreciated elsewhere.

[shubhamdarge]

People should understand the moment Mark said he won’t work on Saturday’s he was basically out.

[tusharmarcusgomes]

My point of view as an Indian, Arvinder was smart enough to realize that, the owners were going exploit him in terms of Hours(60 hrs), money(salary) and time( 16 hrs a day)... so ....

[T_WC]

The job doesn’t seem very appealing. The owners seem difficult, demanding, and rigid.

[carolirvine]

They selected someone who didn't keep to the budget, had poor leadership skills, and seemed to me to have a very over inflated ego. I wonder if he agreed to work a 6 day week for them.

[SporeZoo]

We all knew from the beginning Jay wanted a Indian chef.