Spoilers for The Apprentice Season 17 Episode 2 follow.
The Apprentice bid farewell to two contestants in tonight’s (January 12) episode at the end of a bao-making challenge.
After battling with flavor combinations and designs, the teams lost one candidate each.
In a shock move, bridal boutique owner Shannon Martin – who was reluctant to help with the numbers during the bao task – decided to pull out of the process, explaining that she didn’t think it was the “right environment” for her.
But it wouldn’t be The Apprentice without at least one candidate getting fired. After the men made less money than the women’s team, their sub-team manager, Irish accountant Kevin D’Arcy, was asked to leave.
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At the beginning of the episode, Lord Sugar met with the groups at the Shard, where he filled them in on the tasty tidbit.
The teams were asked to bake and sell bao to order for two corporate clients. The women, led by project manager Megan Hornby, had to create baos for a golf course business. Meanwhile, the men, led by Bradley Johnson, had to channel their inner children to make a bao for a children’s luggage company.
In addition, the teams will try to maximize profit by selling their delicacies in two different markets in London: the boys will be in Spitalfields and the ladies will take over Greenwich Market.
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Things really didn’t look bright for Megan’s team when the women failed to get the right amount of base, their main ingredient.
With 1 kg of fish instead of 5, the group had to expand the ingredients, making only 128 buns in the end. However, they were able to increase their profit by adding more spices and increasing their price accordingly.
The men didn’t fare too well either. The filling of their dinosaur-inspired baos wasn’t consistent, but their biggest mistake was halving their original price: from £8 to £3.80.
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As a result, the men took home just £599.35, while the women earned £754.60 in profit. Naturally, The Apprentice being a numbers game, one of the men had to pack his bags.
Lord Sugar had to choose between Kevin, who was in charge of bun pricing, project manager Bradley and banker Avi Sharma, head of the kitchen team, when deciding who to fire. Kevin ended up getting sent home for not making enough dough.
The Apprentice airs on BBC One, with the second series You’re Fired airing immediately after on BBC Two.
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