A Northumberland restaurant owner has hailed a "brilliant" night which "puts Prudhoe on the map" following her win on Channel 4's Come Dine With Me: The Professionals.
Anne Blakeburn-Ball of Balls of Prudhoe Fish and Chips took the £1,000 prize after getting a score of 37/40 on the new format of the daytime TV cooking competition. Alongside her front of house manager Gary Stewart, they "battered" the competition from Namaste in Gateshead and Pigalo's in North Shields.
The duo watched the show with friends and family in the restaurant on Monday night, who still didn't know that Balls had been successful. Anne admitted to feeling a bit "fragile" after celebrations went well into the night.
Read more: Come Dine With Me's Dave Lamb 'horrifies' Geordie viewers with pronunciation of Prudhoe
She said: "The phone has never stopped ringing this morning and last night. We ended up watching it at the shop and we had a brilliant night, we're delighted!"
Though many will think of Ball's primarily as a fish and chip shop, there's another side to the restaurant which has been in Anne's family for more than half a century. Anne and Gary wowed guests with their garlic king prawns, leek pudding topped with steak, and a dessert of Eton mess.
Anne said: "Everybody knows we do fish and chips, so I was trying to promote the other side of what we do in the restaurant. People come in that have never been here before and they don't expect the décor to be like it is either.
"They come in expecting a standard fish and chip shop with wipe-down tables and it's not like that at all. So that's why we didn't do fish and chips, to show off what else we can do."
Besides the food, one of the main talking points from Anne and Gary's night was Anne's opera singing. And it was only once she'd finished serenading her guests that the secret was revealed that it was a complete fabrication that she'd trained professionally.
Anne said: "That was all made up, but I do wind people up and tell them that I do opera. When I do it, I don't know if they know whether to laugh or cry. Sometimes they think I'm being serious and they're frightened to laugh!"
After plenty of laughter on their night and a fun atmosphere, it was unclear whether Balls or Namaste would take the crown, but a perfect score from the boys at Pigalo's meant that Anne and Gary won by three points.
But Anne isn't just happy that her and Gary have bagged a £1,000 prize, she also believes that the win has put Prudhoe on the map. She continued: "The phone has never stopped ringing this morning, last night and this morning it's just been bing bing bing, and you know for the town, it just puts Prudhoe on the map a little bit.
"It's already been on Metro Radio this morning, they were talking about how to pronounce Prudhoe. I think because we're Geordie, it wouldn't sound right if we said it the way the narrator did!"
And she also salutes new friendships, having been to visit Razz and Boxa of Namaste again since filming was done and welcoming Aaron and Adam up from North Shields. Anne finished: "It was a lovely experience and lovely to meet them, lovely people, but it's back to reality now though, there's no more TV in the pipeline!"
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