Funny, when I was at home with my baby, Restaurant Makeover was one of the shows to which I was fatally addicted. I may have seen every episode of the five seasons, but, sadly, now that I’m employed there’s no chance of really proving that…
Needless to say, when I heard the lovely Cheryl Torrenueva and the…er…well, Igor Shamraychuk were going to be at this past National Home Show in Toronto, I braved the line-ups and the endless hot tubs to corner the two for a chat.
I caught them just after their entertaining presentation for a packed house (a makeshift amphitheatre of sorts in the Direct Energy Centre at Toronto’s Exhibition Place), from which if nothing else, I soberly remember this:
Igor: “I’ll tell you one thing, if a restaurant looks a bit shabby and dirty when you walk in, you can be one hundred percent sure it’s way worse in the kitchen. I’ve cleaned out [kitchens] where I was literally sweeping the dead rats into piles. One place had more than 300 dead rats in the kitchen – no joke.”
That’s pretty serious. I haven’t been able to look at a restaurant the same since. It’s too bad the duo intimated that as of right now, there are no plans for season 6 – we need them to clean up!
While there are too many great episodes to choose one, I have a special place in my heart for Corbin Tomaszeski, and hence especially love all the episodes featuring him as the chef. How about you? Do you have a favourite episode of Restaurant Makeover?
Related:
A Video Interview with Corbin Tomaszeski on Foodtv.ca