Simon Rimmer: 'Strictly made me so tired I was hallucinating'
Simon Rimmer says the time when he was working on both Strictly and Channel 4's Sunday Brunch left him so tired he was on the brink of hallucinating.
The chef and restaurateur spoke to Kate Thornton on White Wine Question Time and spoke about his route to working in television and how he has continued to build his businesses.
He said he loved the Strictly experience but that when he was working late nights before filming Sunday Brunch he was 'fit for nothing'.
He said: "The fame thing is another tricky one, isn't it? With things like Love Island and a lot of the reality shows. It's not a nice bedfellow, is it fame? I mean, I always say that I've been quite lucky the fact that I've been on every weekend for 15 years so I don't know how I'll feel come the day when that ends because I love the process so much.
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"I loved the whole Strictly experience to be honest, Kate, I think that if you're going to do it, then you have to embrace the glitter the tinsel and the body suits and the spray tan in every single way. The Friday afternoon tanning was just brilliant.
"And then you weren't allowed to have a shower until it's done. And so you've been training all day. And then before you leave, you get sprayed with tan so you're sweaty and you're sticky and then you sit and have dinner and you think: 'What am I doing?'
"But I loved it. I didn't [do the tour] because I was rubbish. So you know, I wasn't invited. That was only the ones that were either hilariously funny. I was that lumbering middle aged bloke in the middle of got knocked out at week six was quite [content with that]."
Rimmer continued his role on Sunday Brunch alongside appearing on Strictly, and said both roles left him exhausted.
He said: "When when I was doing Strictly I felt sorry for Tim because obviously, you know you do the live show. And then you do the Sunday results show.
"So if you're in the dance off, which I was quite often, then I was getting back to the hotel at 1.30am in the morning, and then I'd be up at 5.30am to do Sunday Brunch. And so by the time it got to about 11.30-12pm I was fit for nothing! So you know, Tim would be there going: 'Your link there, mate.' 'Oh, yeah. Coming up after the break...' When you're so tired you're on the brink of hallucinating!"
He also talked about his early career and how he laid the ground work for his current success. He said he the hospitality industry is all about staying relevant while exceeding your ambition.
Rimmer talked about the impact of his television career on his restaurant success, and explained that Greens still being full on a Thursday night after 31 years was a flattering feeling.
He said: "That's great. And I think that shows that we've stayed relevant, and that feels good. There's obviously an element of 'I'm a bloke off the telly' and that helps with trade. But the reason we're busy is because, I think, we're a good restaurant that does exciting food, and we continue to do it.
"Now I sort of feel that I'm happy where I am. And I'm still ambitious and I still want to keep moving forward...
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"And you do stop becoming just being a chef who owns a restaurant, you become a businessman and a restaurateur. I think that that's the biggest change that happens and you don't know when it happens but all of a sudden, having 14/15 restaurants is more straightforward than having four. When you have four you're the big boss who does everything.
"If there's a problem they phone you, if the plumbing needs sorting out, they phone you, if they've run out of napkins, they phone you, if there's a problem with a blocked toilet, it's you that sorts out that kind of thing.
"Whereas with 14, then you are in that fortunate position that there's a team of people who have the responsibility to do that. So that's a nice place to be."
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