ANYONE who has ever wondered what exactly goes on behind the kitchen doors after ordering a restaurant meal is about to find out - kitchen theatre is coming to Minehead.

In the New Year, guests at the YMCA’s Beach Hotel will be part of a culinary drama as they sit only feet away from where their food is being prepared and cooked, watching the progress of every fine-dining dish … and hoping for a happy ending.

“Of course, if anything goes wrong, they’ll see that, too,” said head chef Paul Ruttledge. “But hopefully it won’’t happen very often!”

A new £65,000 state-of-the-art kitchen, completely open on three sides, provides the backdrop for students of the hotel’s catering training schemes to learn their skills in front of paying customers.

“It will be an experience for everyone, to put it mildly,” Paul said.

“Even our professional chefs won’t have cooked in front of an audience.”