Birmingham Come Dine With Me show ends in tears

Apr 19 2009 by Roz Laws, Sunday Mercury

COME Dine With Me contestant Mike Olley has told how his TV dinner party ended in tears after descending into a slanging match.

The Birmingham Broad Street manager was one of four amateur cooks taking part in a fiery edition of tonight’s Channel 4 show.

Mike consulted two Michelin-starred chefs and splashed out on real gold leaf for his guests – only to be told his food tasted “like smelly socks”.

He had invited 31 year-old events manager Claudine Stevens, hairdresser Katie Smith, 24, and Kishor Paw to his Sutton Coldfield home to compete for a £1,000 prize.

But his carefully planned dinner party turned sour, with Claudine accused of being rude and turning her nose up at food.

She declares on the programme: “I’m not here to be polite.”

But what viewers won’t see is that it ended with her bursting into tears.

Mike, 48, said: “The ballcock went in the downstairs toilet so I spent most of the night trying to fix that.

“I was blissfully unaware of the row that was going on.

‘‘When I came out, Claudine was upstairs in floods of tears.”