Celebrity Restaurant in Your Living Room - Living TV

23 March 2010

The programme's format sees two people go head-to-head, opening up their homes as "restaurants" to the public, who then pay what they feel the meals were worth - the higher total figure determines the winner. This one-hour celebrity special formed part of Living TV's tribute programming to mark one year since Jade Goody's death. The proceeds were to be donated to the "Jo's Trust" cervical cancer charity, with Living doubling the amount raised by the winning contestant.

The two stars taking on the task were Vanessa Feltz and Antony Costa. Each was given £500 to fund the evening, and each was to asked invite a few celeb friends to be guests, the remaining diners being members of the public provided by Living TV. The public in each "restaurant" included an anonymous food expert to review the meal. Each competitor could also enlist the aid of family or friends to staff their restaurants.

Vanessa's home is a converted Gothic Church in St John's Wood, while Antony lives with his mum, dad and sister in a semi in Barnet. Vanessa opted for a menu with a Caribbean theme (inspired perhaps by her fiance Ben Ofoedu) serving 28 covers, and Antony ran a Greek Cypriot themed evening for 30 covers.

We hear Vanessa and Ben discussing which of their celeb friends they should invite. The first name on their list is Esther Rantzen, and then they jointly say "Aisleyne!". Shortly afterwards we see the beginning of a phone-call by Ben to Ash inviting her along. Other guests at the two venues included Shane Lynch, Anthea Turner and Lizzie Cundy, though we would say that it was Aisleyne and Esther who got most screentime among the guests on both teams.

After showing the general preparation, cooking and laying of tables, including the inevitable crises and panics, we see the guests start to arrive at around 6:30 on a cold dark evening in mid-February. At that time of course Aisleyne had only recently returned from her holidays in Gambia, so she was looking healthily tanned, and was wearing a black dress, her hair down and a pair of large-loop earrings.

Late arrivals were Ben Adams (of boyband A1 and 2009's Celebrity Big Brother) and his girlfriend, the then Miss Norway Sara Skjoldnes, who were placed at Aisleyne's table.

Vanessa's menu included West Indian orange soup (which everyone said tasted of orange juice - Shane Lynch is seen mentioning it), risotto, and home made desserts (which went down particularly well).

There's an amusing scene with Aisleyne asking the waitress who brought her risotto if it contained cream - she is seen telling the waitress she doesn't eat 'dairy'. We suspect that figure-conscious Aisleyne was counting the calories ready for her next Living TV appearance at Pete's wedding, which was due to be filmed a couple of days later.

The waitress takes the plate back to the kitchen. A stressed Vanessa says the cream is already in all the risotto and tells the waitress to go back with the dish and to pretend that the new serving is without cream. We see the waitress do this and Aisleyne then happily eats the food. You won't let on to her, will you?

Everyone had to leave by 10:30pm, leaving what they each thought the meal was worth in a collection box by the door. Vanessa won, with her more satisfied (or more generous?) guests leaving an average of around £40 each.

Outside on the way out, sound bites were collected from the experts and a couple of the celebs. Aisleyne said that Vanessa's menu "wasn't restaurant standard - as in Michelin star, but it was restaurant standard - as in better than a caff". Now would Vanessa see that as a suitably "diplomatic" reply, or as "damning with faint praise"? We suppose THAT can best be judged on whether Ash gets invited back to dine Chez Feltz again!

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