Apprentice Watch, Week 5 - or 'the one with the Jewish pastry'

The ultimate Jewish fail in the history of The Apprentice - other than when one of Lord Sugar's puns hasn’t landed - has always been Michael Sophocles’ escapades in a bazaar in Morocco, when he memorably sought a kosher chicken at a halal butcher.

But move over Michael, for this week we had Manchester’s own Charles Burns tasked with procuring rugelach (or roog-lech as the other candidates described them) and heading not for Carmelli or Brackmans, but into a Turkish bakery, a place not usually known for stocking Jewish delicacies. You could almost see the word “shmuck” going through Lord Sugar’s mind when he raised it in the boardroom.

Dispatched to buy nine items for Lord Sugar's 70th birthday (“one of my favourite tasks", explained a gleeful Lord Sugar), all with some kind of symbolism for his life and career (hasn’t he heard of John Lewis Gift List?), Charles eventually redeemed himself by purchasing said rugelach, albeit from a bakery in Hampstead at a price few bris-planners would be willing to stomach. Team Graphene, on the other hand, ventured into black hat territory and came away with a bargain batch, later returning to the scene to see if the baker had a mate with a spare Spurs scarf they could buy. Naturally, he knew a guy.

In a task that tested not only the candidates’ negotiation skills but their ability to navigate the geography of London and plan for traffic jams, neither team shone. Graphene, under Joanna’s leadership and now with James on board, managed to acquire all the items, which included scarlet doeskin (in honour of the esteemed peer’s service in the House of Lords) and a retractable aerial, but were fined for returning too late. Meanwhile Sajan’s boys (plus Michaela and Sarah) were back promptly but – in a turn of events reminiscent of any man put in sole charge of the weekly Tesco shop – they returned missing several of their gifts.