West Sussex fine dining restaurant reveal TV secrets after appearing on Come Dine with Me: The Professionals

Ami Bistro was included as one of three Sussex restaurants that featured on Channel 4’s Come Dine with Me: The Professionals last month.

The fine dining restaurant, which has been in Rowlands Road since 2014, was chosen as the winner of the episode with the help of their show-stopping menu. (Find our review here).

However, they did reveal that there were a lot of TV secrets that you wouldn’t know. Amy Cowen, the chef at Ami Bistro said: “There were funny things that we didn’t realise was going to happen. If your conversation was boring, the director would just say ‘shut up, you’re boring me, change the subject’. The other thing was they’re really strict on scoring. Whatever you score, they question every single reason as to why you came to that decision. The crew even try the food so that you can’t it was great when it wasn’t or vice versa. I didn’t realise that, I assumed that it was just a free-for-all in that aspect of it.”

Restaurant Manager Ryan Murray said: “For me, it was the fact that it’s one camera on you all the time. Once you’re sat down and in a conversation, the crew would sometimes say ‘stop’ to listen to one particular person at a specific time and move the camera on that person. If you want to join in on a conversation they had to stop the cameras and move them again so that you could get involved!”