Come Dine with Me is back for a new series

Monday:Come Dine with Me; (Channel 4, 5pm)
Christopher, Izzy, Mark, Nicole and AdamChristopher, Izzy, Mark, Nicole and Adam
Christopher, Izzy, Mark, Nicole and Adam

Since its launch in 2005, Come Dine With Me has given us no end of awkward dinner interactions, cooking disasters and bizarre early evening entertainment.

The award-winning reality series hasn’t been on our screen for a year, mainly due to Covid restrictions, but if you thought you’d seen the end of poorly made beef Wellington and Eton mess, or heard the last of Dave Lamb’s witty commentary and sharp narration, you were wrong.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The series returns for a new series this week, as five contestants from in and around Basingstoke have a go at hosting dinner parties.

As usual, each contestant is given £125 to go towards their food and drink, while a prize money of £1,000 is up for grabs at the end of the week for the contestant who can host the best dinner party.

It may sound simple, but if you’ve never seen Come Dine With Me before, be warned: it never that straight forward. Contestants often play strategically, sometimes deliberately underscoring the other contestants or trying to make them look bad in front of the other guests. It should be said, that while the edited the dinner parties in the show look seamless, they apparently take up to eight hours to film per night.

Also, the dramatic taxi scenes at the end of each episode are also not real – the cabs do a few laps around the block for each contestant while they film the scoring segment. One thing that is authentic is the platter of cash served up at the end week to the winner. It is made of real money – but which of this week’s quintet will be walking away with it this Friday?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

First up, taking her turn hosting is marketing manager and maths enthusiast Nicole. She is hoping to wow her guests with a culinary nod to her roots and is throwing in a disco for good measure. Her foodie journey takes us from Lebanon back to the UK via the Caribbean. But will it be enough to impress her guests ?

In Tuesday’s show, cheeky chappy and business owner Adam cooks authentic Mexican cuisine, inspired by his one-week holiday to Cancún.

There’s even a Mexican gun fight with water pistols to add some fun to the fiesta, with Adam relying on his hosting skills rather than his cooking to wow his guests. On the third night in Basingstoke, DJ and nutritionist Mark goes down the festival route with both his food and the entertainment. He’s also offering his guests a taste of his own special filtered water, which sadly doesn’t go down as well as planned.

Next, winery worker Izzy plans a sophisticated evening, but will the self-confessed queen of dinner parties give the guests a night to remember and put herself in the top spot?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Our final host is snappy dresser and 1990s music lover Chris, who’s hoping to impress his guests with a ‘Franglais’ menu: French dishes made with local produce.

Chris has been disappointed with the standard of cooking all week and plans to take it up a notch for the final night!

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you

Related topics: