Arts & Culture

The Apprentice Week Ten: Baby Food

23 March 202222 March 2022By
The Apprentice Week Ten: Baby Food

This week Lord Sugar summoned the remaining six candidates to KidZania in west London, where he revealed that their next task is to create the branding for new baby food, to which they would be pitching and selling to leading retailers. 

Sadly, Tim Campbell took a week of leave. This meant Mike Soutar stepped in to be Lord Sugar’s aide.

Last Week: Akshay was in the hot seat but quickly got burnt. Kathryn and Stephine were under pressure, and their sales failed to heat up. On the other team, Brittney was running the show. But Harpreet called the shots, and sales for their star product stole the limelight. 

Stephanie was nearly tuned out, but Akshay was turned off. 

“We are so close to the final five. One more hurdle, and we are nearly there,” said Harpreet.

7 am: The Candidates head to KidZania for this weekly brief.

“Welcome to KidZania London. This is a place where children get to role-play real-life jobs. But for children to grow, they must have a healthy nutritional diet. For this task I want you to make a healthy new baby food. You need to brand and design the packaging, and you need to create a unique dish,” said Lord Sugar. 

It was time for Lord Sugar to mix up the teams with six candidates remaining. On team  Infinity was Akeem, Harpreet and Stephanie. And on team Diverse was Aaron, Brittney and Kathryn.

Harpreet and her strong vision of fish curry baby food in mind took the role of Project Manager.

“I’ve got far in this process, I have only lost one task so far, so I am not going to start changing the way I work, the way I am, or how I do things,” said Harpreet. 

Although, Akeem and Stephine where offering alternatives… Harpreet’s vision was something that wasn’t changing…

“Harpreet is spoon-feeding her team with things she wants them to do. The problem with that is if it doesn’t work out, there is only one person to pass that dreaded blame too,” said Karen Brady.

Being a dad to two children, Aaron became PM for team Diverse and wanted to go down the route of vegetables. 

“I’m not sure what Aaron was thinking. He has given the girls no specific brief. They could be in real trouble if they come back with something they don’t like,” said Mike Soutar.

“Just be as creative as you can,” said Aaron. 

11 am: Half of each team have set off to wrangle recipes. The rest will give birth to brands. 

Before starting the baby food process, both Harpreet and Aaron got a crash course in what makes a good baby food. 

“Texture is really important at a young age. You want a bit lumpy food, but then you don’t want your baby to chock,” said an industry expert. 

Harpreet’s fish curry dish – “I have tried to create something high in protein, lots of green veg and colourful veg, and some spices which have all kinds of benefits,” said Harpreet.

Set on a vegetarian dish, Aaron gave his ideas the taste test.

“Aaron himself was very passionate about the idea of it being a vegetarian-based meal, yet he has only used two vegetables in his entire recipe,” said Soutar.

Over on the branding team, the priority for Stephanie and Akeem was to decide on a baby food name.

And with the two hours spent with branding experts, the pair created the name ‘First Time Foodies’.

Across the hall, Brittney and Kathryn had their brand name ticked off with ‘Little Taste Adventure’. But they both became very confused over Aaron’s recipe. 

“I thought it would be packed full of vegetables, but it only has butternut squash and carrot,” said, Kathryn. 

1 pm: Deciding on an icon.

Next up for Brittney and Kathryn is to decide on an icon. 

“What icons scream adventure to you?” said Brittney. 

Their answer to that was to combine the look of a frying pan and a globe.

“I think they have ruined a really decent brand name by creating a frying pan that looks like a magnifying glass, with the world in it. That doesn’t mean anything to anybody at all….” said Soutar.

With the print deadline looming, Brittney was too focused on the finer details, which decreased the time the girls could spend on the product design.

“Brittney kept going over the font, and I kept saying we should move on, but she wanted to get it perfect. But as a result of that, we have missed a lot of time,” said Kathryn.

On the other team, Stephanie and Akeem started to design a brand logo for First Time Foodies.

And some could say, this is where it all went wrong for team Infinity!

“They have created this label for their baby food. But when I look at it, all I see is ‘First time Dies’. I mean, what parent wants to see that on the side of baby food?” said Brady. 

“I think we haven’t done a bad job!” said Stephanie.

Across town, Harpreet began to create a sample for tomorrow’s pitch, whereas Aaron was still refining his recipe.

“It must be alright because I keep eating it,” said Aaron.

6 pm: Working with baby actors.

The next task for Stephine and Akeem was to create a poster for their baby food, which meant working with baby actors.

With Finn, the baby actor, not looking too impressed about the baby food on offer, Stephanie and Akeem had to result in singing to get him to smile.

“They have finally got a poster, but I have to say not a lot of thought has gone into it. They have got a photograph with a few words added to it. It is not very creative,” said Brady.

Working against each other, rather them together, Kathryn and Brittney had issues when creating their poster.

“There are too many cooks in this particular kitchen right now. They are just talking over each other. They contradict what the other one says. The poor designer is just sitting there not knowing what to do,” said Soutar. 

7 pm: Flavours finalised—brands in place. Tomorrow – convince two major retailers to buy into their brand.

7 am: First Impressions.

For PM Harpreet, it was the first time she was going to see her label. 

“It’s not clear who we are, what the brand it is. We will have to bear that in mind when pitching to the retailers,” said Harpreet.

Across the hall, Aaron approves his branding. But now it was time to taste Aaron’s baby food recipe… 

“It doesn’t have enough vegetables in for us to go down the healthy route,” said Brittney.

11 am: Pitching.

Over in Hatfield, First Time Foodies begin their pitch with the world’s largest online grocery retailer Ocado.   

“I think it is time to grab the elephant in the room. You have one or two seconds to grab a parent when they’re browsing. In that instance. Your logo reads First Time Dies….” said one of the panellists. “So, the logo is unfinished. The packaging is unfinished. Do you think that is professional?”

“The biggest issue is from this label. It looks like we want to kill children,” said Harpreet.  

Next up was Aaron and Brittney with Little Taste Adventure. 

“The product is so thick. I don’t understand how you’re supposed to get it out of the pouch.” Said the retailer. “The other problem I have is your packaging is all about going on a journey with the flavour. But this is so bland! Where are the vegetables? Where are the greens?”

“That was intense!” said Aaron. 

“The team thinks they have done really well. But I’m not so sure. Unless they start to address some of the core issues here, they could be in real trouble,” said Soutar. 

The Boardroom: 

It was now time to see if each teams baby food was good enough for retailers to stock in their stores.

Team Infinity: “The high street retailer was not keen on the brand. So, they didn’t place any orders,” said Brady

“The Online retailers loved the product. But they couldn’t get over that logo. So, they didn’t place any orders,” said Brady.

Team Diverse: “The high street retailer didn’t like the product or the brand. So, they placed no orders,” said Soutar. 

“The online retailer also didn’t like the brand or the product. So, they placed no orders,” said Soutar.

“I’ve got no order at all from anybody?!” said Sugar.

With both teams failing to get orders from Ocado and Iceland, all six remaining candidates had to stay in the boardroom a little longer.

“Six of you have put yourselves forward to be entrepreneurs, and in week ten, there are zero orders….” said Lord Sugar.

The first candidate to be fired with Aaron, with his lack of direction when project manager.

“Aaron, this is the worst product I have seen in this boardroom, and you were the one responsible. And so, it is with regret, Aaron. You are fired.”

And Lord Sugar wasn’t stopping there. 

“This is ridiculous. There will only be four people in what used to be the famous final five.” Said Sugar. “Akeem, you were part of the team that came up with that label. It was the reason you never for any orders. I don’t feel like I’ve seen much from you in the past ten weeks. Akeem, you are fired.”

Now four remain, hoping to be Lord Sugar’s next business partner.

Next week: Business plans up for trial.

Read more round-ups of The Apprentice, here.