The new series of The Restaurant that Makes Mistakes sees ten volunteers, all living with Young Onset Dementia, run an upmarket restaurant under the guidance of top chef Ben Bayly.

Four out of five Kiwis know or have known someone living with dementia but it’s a disease that’s been an uncomfortable discussion point, until now. The Restaurant that Makes Mistakes Series 1 helped lift the stigma attached to the label of dementia and change attitudes towards the disease.

In Series 2, the focus is on people living with Young Onset Dementia, whose symptoms develop before the age of 65. Research suggests that as many as one in ten people living with dementia are still of working age, many still with mortgages and dependent children.

The ten new volunteers include a former lawyer, a scientist, an engineer, a journalist and a rugby league legend. Over the course of the series we see how working in the restaurant impacts not only their lives – but those of their families as well. By the end of the experiment will the volunteers have shown that those diagnosed with dementia still have a role to play at work and in society? And will their time in the restaurant have helped them discover the people they used to be?

Over four weeks the volunteers deal with complex cooking, picky diners, hospitality industry heavyweights, old teammates and a marriage proposal – hoping to prove to themselves and others that they can run a restaurant, and more importantly show that they can still make a valuable contribution to society.