Michelin-starred chef Raymond Blanc is to host a new reality television show where, as the top prize, a couple will be given the opportunity to set up their own restaurant.

Called The Restaurant and created by the producer of The Apprentice, Blanc will tutor, then fire, a total of nine competing couples whose dream it is to run their own restaurant.

Cameras will follow the couples 24 hours a day as they attempt to create their perfect restaurant and then open the doors to the paying public. The programme makers promise that the show will be a “brutal insight into the business of running a restaurant”.

The show – which will air on BBC 2 early next year – was prompted by figures claiming that, while more than 1,000 new restaurants open in Britain every year, 900 close within a year.

The eventual winners will be given six-figure financial backing from Blanc’s own money.

Blanc said: “To set up a business – especially a restaurant business – and make a success of it is one of the hardest things in the world. It is a constant balancing act – of passion with acumen, ego with humility, knowledge with a hunger to take risks.

“I look forward to sharing my experience and expertise with like-minded people who are eager to enter this crazy but irresistible world and achieve the dream for themselves.”

The French chef – whose Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxford has held two Michelin stars for the last 22 years – has run a scholarship programme for 10 years and trained famous UK chefs including Marco Pierre White and Eric Chavot. Details: www.bbc.co.uk