Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Million Pound Menu’ On Netflix Is The ‘Shark Tank’ Of Cooking Shows

What’s better than a popular restaurant? A popular restaurant chain! Netflix’s latest original food competition show, Million Pound Menu, is a British reality import that pits up-and-coming Manchester chefs against each other in the fight to become a real national chain. But is it worth your binge-time? 

MILLION POUND MENU: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: High-energy classical music plays as a French guy named Fred Sirieix introduces himself as a restaurant industry expert. We get a fast-paced montage of London eateries as Siriex explains that the show will follow twelve Manchester restaurants vying for a shot at becoming a national brand.

The Gist: Perhaps the best way to describe Million Pound Menu is that it’s like Top Chef‘s “Restaurant Wars” episode meets Shark Tank. The show follows the search for the next big restaurant idea. Young chefs dreaming of their perfect restaurant, young cooks hungry to expand their food truck idea into a brick and mortar joint, and more are selected to battle head-to-head in side-by-side pop-up restaurants. The hope is that this is a way to show potential investors not only how good the idea really is, but more importantly, if these youngsters have the goods to run a real business.

The first episode is a battle between a young chef named Ewan looking to make his successful shrimp burger food truck concept into the next major chain and a very young chef and sommelier pair who want to bust out of their luxury hotel gig and into the high-end restaurant world. The first challenge is almost beat-for-beat what Top Chef‘s “Restaurant Wars” is, but way more kind. The competitors have been working for a month on their concepts and are allowed to bring a loyal team to help. However, as in Top Chef‘s “Restaurant Wars,” they have to juggle executing the menu with running front-of-house (and if you love Top Chef, you’ll know that balancing act is usually what sinks the best chefs and IRL restaurant concepts).

The second round is a private lunch for possible investors, followed by one-on-one financial plan pitches. This is where the show veers closer to Shark Tank because as it happens, the two teams really aren’t competing against each other as much as they are trying to get one, if not, two possible investors to bite. Next comes the offical “opening day” for the pop-ups, which the investors visit. If the chefs manage to attract a potential business partner, they’ll know if someone meets them for a private meeting by a certain time.

Our Take: As a devout food show nerd, Million Dollar Menu offered something I hadn’t seen before: a competition that seemed to have immediate real-life stakes. Sure, being on Top Chef or Chopped can help boost a young chef’s image enough to attract potential investors, but this show can really set someone up with the money to run their dream restaurant. Moreover, my forever-frustration with Top Chef‘s “Restaurant Wars” is that it’s such a high-pressure, ultra-manufactured challenge that puts people in a pressure cooker of insanity running a restaurant that will never become a reality. Here, the pop-up restaurants are the actual pitch, so what we’re seeing is an advertisement for a potential real-life eatery.

As an actual reality show, Million Dollar Menu is pretty riveting stuff. We get to know these young chefs, feel for them through their successes and failures, and there are failures! (Episode one features a really heart-breaking one for one contestant.) My one complaint is that at a full 60 minutes, it’s a bit long. You almost think that they don’t need a soft open day and a follow up “opening day.” Maybe the investors could just visit one.

Sex and Skin: The only skin we saw was the crispy skin of some grouse and some naked fish.

Parting Shot: After one competing team’s dreams come true, we end with Sirieix (on London’s Millennium Bridge?) excitedly chanting to the camera that dreams can come true! (Actually, he says something cheesier, which we’ll get to.)

Sleeper Star: The three contestants we meet in the first episode all seem to have tremendous talent and promise, but I’m going to make a note of young chef Ruth Hansom. Her BFF and partner Emily Lambert certainly gets more camera time (which makes sense as she’s the sommelier and front of house figure), but Ruth’s quietness belies the fact that her food was supposedly really freaking exceptional. Ruth’s only 22 years old and, as Emily crows, the only female chef to ever win Great Britain’s Young National Chef of the Year. Foodies take note: Ruth Hansom is probably going to be a star on the rise.

Most Pilot-y Line: Ahem, that last line: “Amazing! Unheard of! One million pounds! One million pounds!!! Can you believe it? Just goes to show, in this industry, doesn’t matter how young you are, if you put your mind to it, you can do it.”

Our Call: Stream it! Of the British cooking shows Netflix has imported of late, it is by far, the most inventive and interesting. Plus, the first season only has six episodes.

Stream Million Pound Menu on Netflix