Chef Raymond Blanc has been signed up to star in BBC2’s newest reality TV show ‘The Restaurant’.

The winners of the show will be given their own restaurant, which he will financially back with a six-figure sum.

Blanc said: “To set up a business, especially a restaurant business, and make a success of it is one of the hardest things in the world.”

“I look forward to sharing my experience and expertise with like-minded people who are eager to enter this crazy but irresistible world and achieve the dream for themselves.”

But Blanc’s involvement represents something of a U-turn.

He recently wrote of reality shows set in restaurant kitchens: “We have eight million morons watching these programmes. The brains of the British have gone soft.”

He added: “We need to bring respect to our industry. We are not helped in this respect by certain programmes that do us a great disservice.”

“The impression of what happens inside a restaurant is a disaster for us. It strips people of dignity and promotes abuse.”

“A kitchen shouldn’t sound like a market place or an insane comedy. There should be one voice: the chef’s. And he doesn’t need to yell.”

The Restaurant will feature nine couples whose dream is to run their own establishment.

The show will air early in 2007 and each week the worst restaurant will be eliminated from the competition.

BBC2 controller Roly Keating said: “BBC2 viewers are fascinated by food and business – this show audaciously brings them together for a television event.”

“As well as providing an insight into the food that is served on our plates, it will reveal the harsh realities of the restaurant business.”

“We’re delighted that Britain’s most legendary chef has joined forces with BBC2 to create this project.”