Grainne Seoige will be the first celeb to make up a menu in The Restaurant on TV3 this week, but her unimpressive starter will leave her desperately seeking help from Chef Gary O'Hanlon.

Celebrity chef Gary O’Hanlon from Ramelton will be showing his support for broadcaster Grainne Seoige as she braves the heat of the kitchen in the new series of  The Restaurant.

Chef Stephen McAllister, Maitre’D John Healy,Chef Louise Lennox and Chef Gary O’Hanlon.

Gary will be returning to our TV screens this Thursday March 23rd for the 12th series of the popular show alongside Maitre’D John Healy and fellow culinary whizzes Stephen McAllister and Louise Lennox.

Broadcaster Grainne Seoige is the first celebrity to don the apron and step into TV3’s ‘The Restaurant’ this year.

Donegal’s Gary will be giving Grainne all the support she needs as she encounters dissension from some diners. Unhappy guests complain of grit and stone catching between their teeth in her starter and have to question if the lettuce is washed properly.

Cooking has always been secondary to the Galway girl and TV host who splits her time between South Africa and Connemara,“Reading the news at 10pm/11pm at night meant cooking was just fuel for the body and it was often a case of piercing a ready made meal with a fork and put in to the microwave for 2.5 minutes and PING dinner,” she admits.

Grainne will be serving up a three course meal to a full house at Marco Pierre White Courtyard Bar & Grill, Donnybrook. The critics’ seats this week will be filled with Tom Doorley, Marco Pierre White and chef, restaurateur and author JP Mc Mahon.

The Critics

Grainne’s identity will remain a secret to the diners and the critics until service is over, at which point she will step out of the kitchen and face the critics in front of the diners to find out her star rating (from 1–5).

Hailing from the West meant Grainne’s family grew up dining on seafood almost daily, which influences and shapes her first choice of starter; Oysters three ways – Gin & Tonic Oyster, Oysters Rockefeller and a Natural Oyster.

Snapchat star James Kavanagh is among this week’s guests, who found one of Grainne’s starters hard to chew on, commenting “Do you ever get a salad and it’s very stoney, all I’m getting is crunch on my teeth, it’s like I’m chewing on broken ceramic.”

Grainne Seoige

Grainne’s first main course will consist of a traditional South African dish; Babotie with yellow saffron rice which confuses diners. Her second main course is Monkfish medallions with wilted spinach and lobster mash, however she is devastated when Marco Pierre White reveals Monkfish is his least favourite dish. Nonetheless the lobster mash proves an outstanding favourite with the diners.

The dessert proves an eye opener with a choice of chocolate, orange and edible diamonds as the first option and a rhubarb and custard trifle as the second. Will Grainne manage to sweeten up the critics and diners with her dessert options?

Find out what the table of critics will have to say about Grainne’s cooking on The Restaurant on Thursday 23rd March at 9pm on TV3.