The Hotel

S02:É07 - S02: E07 - the Inn

"I would sell the hotel on three things...location, entertainment and food," claims Manager Mark in this week's episode. He's come up with a plan to revamp his old restaurant, The Inn, and he wants 23-year-old new chef, Jenna - who he's promoted from housekeeping after finding out she is a qualified chef - to come up with a tantalising menu. But Jenna's ambitious ‘fine dining' menu of black pudding tortellini with pancetta foam is a far cry from Mark's idea of a steak and fish restaurant serving prawn cocktails and black forest gateaux. Mark thinks he knows exactly what the tourists and locals of Torquay want to eat, even though his own diet mainly consists of steak, bread and tinned spaghetti hoops - and he hasn't eaten a vegetable since he was 18 months old. With grand ambitions for the new restaurant, Mark decides he needs to employ another waiter. He asks Restaurant Manger, Marta, to find and hire the perfect candidate. Thinking he can do everyone's job, Mark also decides to carry out his own interviews and offers a keen waiter the job on the spot. He forgets to tell Marta about his decision, even though she has already hired somebody else for the same position. "When someone walks in for an interview, 9 times out of 10 within about 5 seconds I make the decision whether to give them the job or not...if I think they look the part I decide to give them the job," explains Mark. On the night of launching Jenna's new menu, Manager Mark invites the crème de la crème of the Torbay Hotel Association to the restaurant. Their review and opinion is crucial to Mark's restaurant and Jenna's career. With Jenna left struggling on her own, Mark reassures her that all they have to do is reorganise the kitchen and everything will run like clockwork. Convinced he can save the day, Mark rolls up his sleeves and takes over frying the fish telling everyone he used to serve 120 customers on his own anyway. Among the guests checking in this week are Jane and Robert with their son Jack. Working every day of the year except Christmas day, their two-and-a-half day stay at the Grosvenor is a rare treat. But another couple, Jackie and Dean - who check in to the hotel with 18-month-old Jessica - have learnt the meaning of ‘working to live' rather than ‘living to work' after an accident threatened to change their lives forever.