Eddie (Episode 6604/06)

After assistant chef Luigi had been fired by Leanne Battersby, the new owner of Italian restaurant Valandro's and Head chef Tony had walked out in protest, Leanne was forced to hire an agency chef to step in with immediate effect.

Geordie Eddie and Leanne got off to a bad start when he arrived late for his shift due to "transport problems" and had strolled into the restaurant smoking a cigarette. Quickly familiarising himself with the set-up, he explained that he had gained his experience in the army catering corps and didn't have any formal qualifications, but assured Leanne that there was nothing on the restaurant's menu that he wouldn't be able to handle. However, it was soon apparent that Leanne, who had been under pressure to run the business single-handedly, had forgotten to place an order with the catering suppliers and what little there was in the fridge wouldn't stretch very far. Under duress, Eddie hot-footed it to the suppliers and came back with enough food for the lunchtime trade.

Although panicking that there wasn't nearly enough time to have anything prepared and cooked for the potential customers, Eddie was outraged when Leanne's stepmother, Janice Battersby arrived with carrier bags full of ready meals from Freshco's and was adamant that he wasn't having anything to do with products that had been "assembled on some inner-city industrial estate". Eddie however had no choice but to go along with Leanne's decision to microwave all of the ready meals as she refused point blank to close the restaraunt and lose any business.

The following day, Eddie was accompanied by another chef who had also been drafted in by the agency, and was more than happy to go along with the ready meal idea again - as there had been no complaints, although seeing the opportunity to take advantage of being paid £10 per hour for doing little to no work. Paul Clayton, who was eating at the restaurant with Tyrone Dobbs and Molly Compton commented to Leanne that the food was below-standard and explained that he was a trained chef. After persuading her to give him an interview and to let him prepare her lunch, Paul was immediately offered the chef's job and Leanne promptly gave Eddie and his sidekick their marching orders.