Last summer we were invited to appear on a BBC2 show 'Britain's Top Takeaway' and we jumped at the chance (well... someone hesitantly, said why not!).
It was filmed in Manchester where we were asked to stay for a couple of days to prepare and film. Bonus - free city break! The production team were wonderful, helping and guiding us every step of the way. We were due to film on the Thursday and we had specified that we need to prepare some of our meats the day before to allow them to marinade over night and that was no problem. We popped in on the Wednesday afternoon and had a sneak peak of the Burger episode being filmed :)
The day of filming was nerve wracking! We arrived on set at 7am along with the other 4 teams, who were all lovely. A mix of Turkish, Arabic and English teams who all loved one thing - Kebabs. Kebabs sometimes get a bad rep as something you only eat on a night out after a few too many beverages, but it was wonderful to celebrate Kebabs! There are so many to choose from, from all different regions in the Mediterranean and Middle East and the TV show showcased different types of kebebs brilliantly.
Anywho, it was a long day. 12 hours filming, not all cooking but lots of little odd bits of commentary in between, being asked a lot of questions by producers and Sara Cox! Who was so nice, just as she comes across on the TV and radio! And the wonderful Darren Harriet, who was a dream, so encouraging and really put us at ease! I think we must have looked a bit nervous!
There were 5 families/couples who we had to cook for, they chose what they wanted to eat from our menus and we had to cook, like we would at the restaurant, box it up and send it out to them. We chose to cook our sheffielders favourites - Chicken Shish, Beyti Kebab and Imam Bayildi (v). We had to chose the best of our many for the best chance to win but we also wanted to keep it simple. Trying to cook complicated, time consuming dishes would be difficult in a new kitchen, without our usual equipment would be tricky.
Periodicaly they let us know the scores we had been awarded and they were totted up at the end.
And there it was - WE WON! We're so glad the families who tried out our food loved it enough for us to win! We were thrilled and we still have customers come in to the restaurant who saw us and wanted to give it a try and we love to chat about it!
Thank you
Thank you to everyone who gave it a watch, sent us messages of congratulations or popped in to see us! It was a wonderful experience that we are so glad we took part in but that being said, we won't be doing it again!
It is still available to watch on the BBC iPlayer - give it a watch!
Enver & Kirstie
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