Shropshire's star of The Apprentice Gregory Ebbs survives another week despite bao bun task failure
Shropshire's star of The Apprentice Gregory Ebbs donned a chef's fat suit and drew wry smiles with a cheeky comment as he survived another week.
Gregory was part of the boys' team as they were tasked with making bao buns before selling them at a market and to corporate clients.
Their buns burst and sales flopped, resulting in a loss to the girls' team, but Gregory, who is a Whitchurch town councillor, was not hauled back in front of Lord Alan Sugar. Irishman Kevin D'Arcy was the contestant to receive his marching orders.
After Lord Sugar set out the task at a Chinese restaurant at The Shard in London, the teams went away and decided on their roles.
When choosing the fillings, task leader Bradley Johnson suggested meat for the savoury option. Gregory appeared to make an unwitting innuendo, saying: "May I put my support in for Bradley's meat?" drawing wry smiles around the table. "I think it would be a popular seller at a local street market."
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Speaking to camera, he added: "All the guys have experience eating meat products in this particular field. As a team we should go by what we're good at, and therefore choosing meat, I believe is therefore a very wise decision."
Gregory was put in the kitchen with half of his team, while the other half pitched to corporate clients.
Later on in the episode, Gregory's half of the team went to Greenwich Market to sell their savoury buns. In an inflatable fat chef's suit, Gregory played the role of Mr Bao, urging punters to have a try. After a lively start, the boys struggled to shift their products, deciding to slash the price to try and get rid of them.
Lord Sugar's aide Tim Campbell, standing in for Claude Littner this series who is absent for health reasons, looked unamused by the boys' attempts.
Meanwhile, the girls' team created gourmet-looking buns, complete with flower petals on top. They had no splits and looked ‘gorgeous’, the girls remarked. They had a successful sales day at the market and comfortably made a bigger profit than the boys.
Back in the boardroom, Lord Sugar sent the winning girls' team off to enjoy some top notch Chinese food, while the boys faced a grilling. "I dunno about bao buns, you looked like a load of dim sums," Lord Sugar remarked about their mathematical skills.
Shropshire's Gregory did not come under major scrutiny, other than Lord Sugar suggesting one of the girl's buns looked "like something Greg would fire out of one of his cannons," referring to his work in military antiques.
Boys' team leader Bradley pulled Avi and Kevin back in for the final showdown, and Lord Sugar dumped Kevin due to his mistakes with pricing damaging the profits. "Regretfully", Lord Sugar pointed at him and uttered the immortal words: "You're fired".
Next week the contestants will be tasked with creating cartoons.
The Apprentice is on BBC One at 9pm on Thursdays.
