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The Cooks was an Australian television drama series that ran for one season on Network Ten during the summer of 2004/05. It was a co-production with subscription television and screened on the UKTV channel on Foxtel. It was produced by Penny Chapman and Sue Masters. The directors were Tony Tilse, Ian Gilmour, Brendan Maher and Ian Watson. The Cooks was about the love and war involving the staff of two restaurants on the same street. R&R's Restaurant was run by chefs Rita and Ruth, with waitress Argentine Carmelita. Across the road at Snatch and Grab, its chefs are Gabe and Sachin, who's of Indian descent, with Dishpig at the sink. The Cooks was a spin-off of a telemovie called Temptation, which screened in 2003, starring Colin Friels as Roberto Francobelli.
Life is pretty good for the staff of R&R restaurant. With no real competition on their strip, their restaurant is now a year old and a success. That is until the arrival of Gabe, the next in line to the old Italian family restaurant across the road.
The competition between the two restaurants hots up, as the new, remodelled Snatch and Grab takes off, and R&Rs business begins to suffer.
The passionate relationship between Sachin and Carmelita is tested. Meanwhile, Gabe is beginning to realise that running a restaurant and being a single father might be too much to handle.
Sexual longing for Gabe and her passion for food combine in Ruth's dreams to produce a new salmon dish. Despite Gabe's denials, Ruth sees this as a move for the two to be reunited and refuses to accept Gabe's pleas to meet him half-way.
Dishpig is experiencing something of a meltdown. The combination of Ruth's rejection of his advances and Gabe stealing his girl has flushed out all his deepest insecurities.
Gabe and Raffa learn that Rosie is being ostracised by her friends because her mother is ""crazy"". In an attempt to cheer her up, everyone pitches in to organise a fabulous karaoke party for her ninth birthday.
When, through the influence of Ruth's ""tame"" DJ, R&R begins to edge ahead of Snatch and Grab, Gabe and his team decide they need some publicity of their own. Sachin gets invited to do a cooking segment on ""Good Morning Australia"" and Dishpig proposes marriage to Carmelita to keep her in the country.
A former mentor and, it turns out, lover, of Rita's comes to town to conduct a cooking master class. This man, Rita assures everyone, is a food genius, and so R&R will host the class. But George Bolley is not the man Rita once knew.
Inspired by his new found relationship with Carmelita, Dishpig undergoes a transformation.
R&R restaurant is raided by the Department of Immigration, and terrified of something going wrong, Carmelita brings forward the date of her wedding to Dishpig.
Two influential celebrities have chosen to dine at R&R on their wedding anniversary, and have asked Rita to prepare a heart shaped dessert for the occasion. Gabe is strapped for cash so he asks Dishpig to go without pay for one week, so Dishpig goes mental.
Carmelita and Dishpig prepare to face a series of interviews at the Immigration Department, in which they must prove the legitimacy of their marriage.
During the ""Cooks of 2000"" cooking school reunion, various relationships come to the boil, and in one long night of very hard partying, some things change forever.
