Chef Zilli sacks his star apprentice after only a week

10:19am Friday 25th July 2008

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Watch Lewis cook his way to his doomed job here

The winner of celebrity chef Aldo Zilli’s Apprentice- style search for a protegé has been sacked after just one week in the job.

Lewis Birch, 18, was thrilled when he won a place in Aldo’s kitchen in Jubilee Square, Brighton.

The trainee chef, who had only recently finished his studies at City College Brighton and Hove, beat 15 other wannabes in a cookoff to create the best pasta dish.

The prize included the use of Aldo’s Alfa Romeo Spider sports car for the weekend.

However, the dream only lasted a week after the TV chef turned Sir Alan Sugar – and fired his apprentice.

Italian Aldo, 52, who recently celebrated the birth of baby girl Twiggy, said: “Unfortunately, Lewis couldn’t handle the pace of a professional kitchen.

“There is a world of difference to cooking a meal at home for your parents and sending out 100 covers.

“Still, he was a nice lad and he got to drive my car for the weekend.

“The restaurant has been going really well and we love being in Brighton and Hove.”

Aldo, announcing Lewis as the winner, had been optimistic at the young chef’s chances of making it at his restaurant, which opened in Brighton’s Myhotel.

He said: “He is young, upand- coming and there was good use of the ingredients.

“He was quite slow but we’ll make him faster. He has the passion.

“We’ll have to train him up with everything else. He has only made me a plate of pasta.”

Lewis, despite his eventual sacking, fared much better than the other contestants during the open-air competition, dubbed Chef Factor.

Zilli, famed for TV appearances on This Morning and Saturday Kitchen, rubbished some contestants’ efforts.

At one point he spat out a mouthful of food and lambasted a would-be chef for breaking up his spaghetti.

At the competition’s close Zilli said: “I think the concept overall was brilliant, because it was my concept.

“The contestants, nevertheless, were fairly poor.

“Maybe I was expecting too much. I have very, very high standards in my kitchen and I was expecting a bit better.

“But they came and cooked and they were brave enough to go up there in a nerve-wracking situation.

“You have to work under pressure like that and that’s why Lewis stood out.”

When contacted by The Argus, Lewis, from Southwick, said he left because of differences with Zilli’s head chef but declined to comment further.