I’m already made-up that The Restaurant (BBC Two, Wednesday, 10 August, 8pm) is back on our screens. This classy show came back with a real bang. Now, bear in mind that one of the last things of note that we heard from the show was one half of winning couple Jeremy, pointing at the other half, Jane’s stomach and saying “She got a thing growing inside her” (he meant ‘a baby’), this show needed to win me over again (slightly). Thankfully, it delivered… and how!

Aside from Raymond Blanc, it was great to see Sarah Willingham on our screens again. She’s the inspector who works alongside Raymond who is tough and no-nonsense, as well as being a secret crush of mine. Well, it was a secret until now. The team that Raymond has around him is always impressive, but not nearly as impressive as the man himself.

Monsieur Blanc, as ever, treads the fine line of sagely Uncle and complete git and, as usual, he pulls it off with aplomb. There’s something about Raymond… a certain something he carries inside him… that makes me hold my breath every time he talks. I think they call it ‘respect’. Of course, the respect is diluted through the screen, so you can imagine the churning insides and trembling underpants of the contestants when faced with The Man Himself.

Briefly touched on earlier, the last series ended with a twinge of personal disappointment (basically, I didn’t want Jeremy and Jane to win) it was great to see the show return with vigour. Instead of the usual ‘…and here’s the new contestants‘, the show chucked a whisk in the works and a rolling pin at the viewers and a whole oven at the participants.

They all rolled up cheerily to have Raymond basically say “Right you lot. You think you’re all going to open a restaurant, but one of you isn’t. Go and impress me. Now.” It was a fine TV moment. This basically meant that the contestants had to go away and cook something for him and whoever didn’t deliver got sent packing without so much as a sniff of some keys.

The contestants were, as expected, a varied bunch. There were some rather sweet couples, the down-to-earth Northern couple (who I’m already stupidly attached to emotionally), some middle-class pairings and two people that I already don’t like and are probably going to win. They’re called Alasdair and James, but I’m already referring to them as ‘the arrogant gym f**kers’. This opening task thankfully took the wind out of people’s sails and it was great to watch the bravado get stripped away with acerbic reviews of the food and a realisation that the task which lay ahead wasn’t going to be easy at all. Of course, this is the reason why The Restaurant is so much fun to watch. With that, a lazy mango thing-in-a-cup saw Annette and Kashelle were booted off. It took three minutes to make and constituted tinned, mango, cream and a little bit of lime juice. No wonder they got booted off.

Fact is, this show is a very grown-up pleasure, a bit like olives or anchovies. I can’t imagine there’s too many teenagers fawning over it. However, with it’s grown-upness, it exudes a certain class. Right down to the orchestrations that soundtrack it, right down to the detailing of camera work, edit and dialogue. Where most food shows are either super-friendly (Saturday Kitchen, Chinese Food Made Easy) or tacky (Cook Yourself Thin, Nigella Express), this is refined and potent. From the off, I was gobsmacked and enthralled… it looks like my concerns about the second series not being as good as the first were ill-founded… and I’m as pleased as anyone else!