The Editor's Hospitality Blog

Week three and having lost Rocky Andrews, one of our hospitality hopefuls last week, our remaining catering-based competitors managed to evade Sir Alan's glare in this week's episode of The Apprentice.

The two teams were mixed up this week so that we no longer had "the girls" and "the boys". The challenge - to come up with a sports product - seemed to have both teams in a lather and ironically Ignite, led by Debra, which struggled to come up with a concept, ultimately won the task with a landslide victory.

It was a close shave for hospitality hopeful Yasmina Siadatan of Mya Lacarte this week as she was dragged into the boardroom in week 4 of Sir Alan Sugar's The Apprentice.

Having been asked to design, create and brand two types of bodycare products, Empire came up with the best looking soap and shower gel, called Rock Poole, but went massively over budget by mixing up the prices of two natural products - sandalwood and cedarwood. 

Chemist and science teacher Noorul Choudhury, who was project manager of Ignite, limped his way through the project, but having managed the costs better his team won through.

Noorul Choudhury has been fired from Sir Alan Sugar's The Apprentice programme after an auction-based team task went wrong.

Team leader Ben Clarke, who struggled to develop any strategy for the task, dragged Choudhury and Debra Barr into the boardroom, quietly confident that Choudhury was going to be fired.

The strategy for the boardroom, at least, paid off and Sir Alan, who had been irritated by Choudhury's lack of presence in previous tasks, got shot of him.

While hospitality contestant Yasmina Siadatan was on the losing team, she managed to escape Clarke's glare for most of the task and so was far from his mind when he was looking to blame someone. Over on the other team Howard Ebison, again quite quiet this week, managed to drift along with the other team to an OK success.

This week, Sir Alan Sugar's Apprentice hopefuls were asked to undertake a rebranding exercise, giving the seaside town of Margate a makeover.

Although this task was probably right up Howard Ebison's street, Empire ended up being project managed by "bossy" Debra and included Mona Lewis and James as fellow team-mates. They decided to chase the pink pound and, in a braver move than the other team, rebrand Margate as a gay resort.

Meanwhile, Yasmina Siadatan headed up Ignite (made up of Kate, Lorraine and Ben) and went for the safe bet of making Margate more family friendly and thanks to a more consistent marketing campaign won the task.

Howard, who "had the ideas and Debra suppressed them", according to Sir Alan, avoided being dragged into the boardroom (despite the wearing of a red shirt and matching red tie on the first day of the task - that's got to be a yellow card).

Debra, James and Mona faced Sir Alan, Nick and Margaret in The Apprentice boardroom and after raising the fact that Mona hadn't been behind the task from the outset and showed little commitment throughout (even though she attempted to converse with Margate's resident he-she), Sir Alan decided that Mona should be fired.

So Hospitality Watch lives on to write another blog as our industry hopefuls Yasmina and Howard make it to the last seven.

Well it's really hotting up now for the contestants of Sir Alan Sugar's cult TV show The Apprentice. We're down to the final six and our Yasmina Siadatan and Howard Ebison of Mya Lacarte restaurant and Mitchells & Butlers fame are still in the running for the top job and a six-figure salary.

Last night's task required the teams to source and sell two items aimed at the baby market. Sir Alan decided to put the two parents - James and Lorraine - in charge of the teams, so Lorraine led Kate and Howard and James led Yasmina, ice-maiden Debra and I'll-bite-your-bloody-teeth-out Ben.

Yasmina's team went for a high-risk strategy opting for a top-end rocking horse, retailing from £1,700 upwards and a blow-up birthing pool, while Howard's team played a safer game and chose a nifty collapsible buggy and a baby crash helmet.

Howard Ebison has been fired from Sir Alan Sugar's Apprentice series after a closely fought task which saw him head to head with hospitality rival Yasmina Siadatan.

In this week's show, Sir Alan asked the final six would-be apprentices to host an hour's slot on a shopping channel. Although both teams managed to bumble their way through the task, Ignite, led by Howard and supported by Kate and Lorraine, failed to make enough money to keep themselves out of the boardroom.

Despite good presenting skills from Howard, Kate was described as performing like a "programmed robot" so Ignite struggled to sell enough of their products which included an air guitar, craft toys, some garish leather jackets and an innovative chip pan which only used one tablespoon of oil to cook a batch of chips.

Meanwhile, Yasmina's team of Empire, which included Debra and James, opted for cheaper items (a remote-control toy car, ponchos, hairclips and a gardening tool) but managed to shift more of them.

Last night the hospitality industry's Yasmina Siadatan beat finalist Kate Walsh to become Sir Alan Sugar's apprentice.

With both finalists leading teams tasked with each creating new chocolate brands from scratch, creating an advertising campaign and presenting to an audience of chocolate industry experts, the pressure was intense.

But 27-year old Yasmina's experience of running her own restaurant, Mya Lacarte, with her brother and managing the pressure and demands that come with it paid off.

Sir Alan Sugar even said it was the toughest final decision he'd ever had to make in the boardroom since The Apprentice began.

Of course, while we are delighted that Yasmina's publicly shown that the hospitality industry is the perfect environment to develop skills and make your mark, the sector will on-the-face-of-it be losing a talented restaureteur. 

Apprentice winner to work on Stansted hotel>>

Yasmina Siadatan and Kate Walsh make it to Sir Alan Sugar's The Apprentice final>>