Sir Alan Sugar hires Yasmina Siadatan on “gut instinct”
08 June 2009
Restaurateur Yasmina Siadatan last night became Sir Alan Sugar’s fifth apprentice.
The 27-year-old beat her rival, Kate Walsh, in a close-fought final challenge on the hit BBC TV series.
Sugar admitted that “gut instinct” had made him choose Siadatan, who will now work in outdoor advertising on a digital signage project.
The finalists had been given the task of creating and marketing a new brand of chocolates with the help of contestants who’d been fired earlier in the series. Siadatan developed “chocolates to shock” under the name Cocoa Electric, featuring diverse flavours such as strawberry and basil, while Walsh came up with a three-tiered box “for him, for her and to share”.
Although Siadatan’s confections tasted comparatively poor, Sugar praised her for the concept and the way she executed the task. Walsh came under fire for pricing her chocolates at £13 a box.
Sugar said the calibre of this year’s candidates had been the “best yet”. On the You’re Hired programme afterwards, he urged people who had been made redundant in the recession “through no fault of their own” to apply for the next series, to be aired in the spring. A junior version of the show for 16- to 17 year-olds will also start for the first time next year.
Last week Sugar was appointed as Gordon Brown’s new “enterprise tsar” as part of his Cabinet reshuffle. He will be given a peerage in order to take up the role in the expanded business ministry alongside Lord Mandelson.