Jamie Oliver is giving one of the young chefs from Fifteen the biggest challenge of their life: to transform a run-down rural boozer into a successful upmarket gastropub.

After putting four of the trainees through a crash course in everything they need to know to run a successful restaurant, he and the trustees of the charitable Fifteen Foundation have given 28-year-old Aaron Craze the keys to The Cock, a pretty pub in the countryside near Braintree in Essex. Aaron came from a broken home and left school with no qualifications, drifting between jobs, but he wants to make a better life for his partner Nicci and their two young daughters.

Now he’s faced with problems before he’s even begun, with delays in completing the purchase of the pub forcing the family to stay in a country B&B, they threaten to give up and go back to London. Even when they do get to move in, the young chef has to refurbish the pub, come up with a menu and find staff so he can begin to repay the £125,000 loan back to the charity.

If that’s not enough pressure Aaron is also having to find a way of working alongside his partner, Nicci, who has her own ideas about how things should be run. Plus qualified staff are hard to find in rural Essex. Meanwhile, Jamie worries Aaron is not doing enough to get The Cock open and taking in money. But just when the former kitchen assistant thinks he’s overcoming his difficulties the pub, which in part dates to the 14th Century, catches fire.

Jamies Chef airs on Channel 4 on 14/02/2007 at 21:00