Hospitality entrepreneur Yasmina Siadatan was last night revealed as the winner of the fifth series of The Apprentice, leaving her career as an award-winning restaurateur to work for Sir Alan Sugar in his Digital Signage division.
After a 12-week interview process, Siadatan, who co-owns the Mya Lacarte restaurant in Caversham with brother Matthew, eventually pipped former Marstons business development manager Kate Walsh to the position as Sir Alan’s fifth apprentice.
Siadatan’s new role involves working to implement television screens in doctors’ surgeries and hospitals, and although a far cry from the position of a restaurateur, Matthew told BigHospitality that his sister was more than capable of succeeding.
“The great thing about Yasmina is she adapts to every single role that she’s thrown into,” he said. “Our dad is very similar to Sir Alan and has his fingers in a lot of pies and that’s rubbed off on Yasmina. She’ll put her heart and soul into working for him, and succeed I’m sure.”
Matthew was also positive about Mya Lacarte’s future success, despite the absence of his sister.
“Even before The Apprentice we won the Pride of Reading award for Restaurant of the Year 2008, and off the back of that we got busy straight away. Now with Yasmina being on the show the amount of national reviews we’ve had off the back of that has really made the waiting list longer, and now she’s won I think bookings will definitely increase.”
Siadatan will continue to have a stake in Mya Lacarte while working for Sir Alan, though the day-to-day running of the restaurant will be in the hands of Matthew.