The creme de la creme of the UK's chefs... Ooh la la.
..are headed to the Great British Menu kitchen.
Hot stuff coming through.
They're competing to cook a course in our magnificent banquet,
one of the most prestigious prizes in a chef's career...
Rock and roll.
..to honour and celebrate Britain and Northern Ireland's triumphs
in the world of animation and illustration.
Stop-motion action. Wow.
Inspired by the 65th birthday of the nation's favourite bear,
Paddington, we're raising a glass to the full range of illustrated
and animated delights...
CHEERING
Isn't that amazing?
..from cartoon series to computer games and comics.
LAUGHTER
But reputations are at stake... I wave the white flag.
..as some of the most eminent Michelin-starred veteran chefs
of the competition... I'm not giving out points for confidence, right?
..those dependable old hands...
Snakes. Snakes. Yeah.
..and bright young guns... One each. Oh, you're too kind.
..will be returning to cast judgment.
I'm scoring you a 10. I would give you an 11 if I could.
The chefs will need to come up with dishes which tell a story
and capture the imagination...
That's amazing!
..just as the likes of Mr Bean, Rupert Bear, Pingu and Fireman Sam
delight their audience.
Back-up career.
The chefs must thrill the exacting panel of judges...
It's actually buzzing with flavour, isn't it?
..who are searching for perfection on a plate.
Tom, so nice to see you!
What?!
Of course they are.
It's Great British Menu.
Game on, people.
Today, four chefs from the South West's top drawer
are illustrating why they should be the one
going through to the national finals.
Stop shaking. Why are you shaking?
This week, the top chefs from the South West are drawing inspiration
from the most lovable cartoons and characters from their region.
Get set for culinary takes on The Wombles,
Wallace and Gromit, and how about lunch with The Gruffalo?
First in is Andi Tuck, who is bringing a unique set of skills
to the Great British Menu kitchen.
I cook on fire, it's completely different to what everyone else
is doing here, and there's going be lots of flames
and smoke and pyrotechnics.
Fellow first-timer Amber Francis is French classically trained.
She wants to let her elegant style of cooking do the talking.
I think I've got what it takes. I've practised it enough.
Andi. Amber. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.
Put my heart and soul into it and it's now time to let my food shine.
Next up, it's returner Charlotte Vincent,
whose nerves got the better of her last year.
Charlotte. Nice to meet you.
You've got to stay humble, not be nervous,
and just focus on what I love to do best.
Confident and competitive Nick Beardshaw,
head chef at Kerridge's Bar & Grill, is also returning to the kitchen.
He narrowly missed out in front of the judges in 2021.
So my goal is to get a dish to the banquet.
Hi. Hey. I know I've got the dishes so, barring any mistakes,
I think I will get there.
Hello, chefs.
VARIOUS GREETINGS
How you all doing? Great.
Nick. Hi. You came back? Yeah.
Of course your boss, Tom Kerridge, is now one of our judges.
So we've replaced Tom for the week with another chef
who is also at the top of their game,
who's also done brilliantly well on Great British Menu.
Charlotte, you're back again. I am back again and I feel
really positive about it this time. This time? Yeah.
Last time, I was scared witless. Amber, how are you, sweetheart?
I'm nervous. Good! But excited. This is a good combination.
How about you, Andi?
Really excited and really can't wait to show everyone what I'm doing.
It's wonderful to have you all here.
As ever, first up, it's the canapes.
They won't be scored, but will help decide any tie-break.
Unorthodox chef Andi cooks everything over fire.
This is going into the box.
He's introducing beef short rib to the flame for a tartlet.
Refined chef Amber is also making a tartlet,
hers with Bath soft cheese and green apple.
These look lovely. What are they? It's a really simple batter
and then you just fry them in this little copper thing.
Super cool.
Precise chef Nick is also using green apple.
We're just going to pickle it in a vac packer.
So the pickle goes into the apple.
It will accompany panne'd pressed pig's head and truffle mayonnaise.
So who will be their mentor this week to select the two
going through to the judges? Going to give you some names.
Tommy Banks, Lorna McNee,
Michael O'Hare, Tom Aikens. What do you think?
Well, Tom Aikens is a fellow ginger, so he might take a liking to me.
No. Absolutely. No?
I would love Michael O'Hare or Tommy Banks, personally,
because I'm a big fangirl and they're fit. Is Michael O'Hare fit?
And what do you think about their cooking?
What about you, Andi? Definitely Michael O'Hare.
Really look up to what he does.
Tom Aikens, I reckon, will have quite high standards, so...
They've all got really high standards, just so you know.
Fish specialist Charlotte is making mackerel tartare
on a seaweed biscuit. Got some more mackerel that I just cured.
It's going to go round it, just to keep everything on the biscuit.
In theory.
Oh, yeah. You have four minutes to the pass.
Stop shaking. Why are you shaking? You don't need to shake.
Our South West chefs will be trying to impress six-time veteran,
one-time winner known for his unconventional
and innovative style of cooking...
Beautiful.
..it's Michelin-starred Michael O'Hare.
Chef. Chefs.
Four new, beautiful chefs for you. Very much so. What have we got here?
So that's smoked beef, horseradish and truffle.
This is a tartlet of Granny Smith apple, Bath soft cheese
and elderflower vinegar.
What about here? Mackerel tartare
with a Cornish seaweed fairing biscuit.
And what's your canape, chef?
Crispy pig's head with pickled apple and truffle mayonnaise.
Thank you, chefs. Thank you, chef.
So the brief this year, animation and illustration,
is an absolute gift. But first and foremost, for me, at this stage,
it just needs to taste beautiful.
Super happy to have Michael O'Hare as the veteran.
Oh, my God! Did you see my face?
I need rankings from you.
If I had to go the bottom, I'd say Charlotte's mackerel tartare.
The thing it was sat on top was kind of dusty tasting.
That's really fresh.
Third - Amber. I thought it was a beautiful little tartlet.
Very beautiful. There was so much inside of it.
It took me ages to eat it.
You were quite a while. Yeah. And my teeth work!
Second, I'm going Andi with the short rib.
I thought it was delicious.
It was maybe a little bit on the large side. So warming.
So Nick's at number one with his braised pig's head.
It melted in my mouth. You know, it's like a true canape.
It's a mouthful. It's so light. It's like a little mini hog roast.
So good standard. Great standard. Not really a bum note.
It's straight onto the starter.
And this year, our chefs must create a more sustainable vegan dish.
So your expectation for the starters,
I know you love this brief, what are you hoping for?
I want to see delicious food, but it's the stories.
You know, with animation, it's such a big part of everyone's life.
I don't want to see any food just on a book.
The reason for cooking that food is the brief.
Nick's starter is inspired by Aardman Animations,
which was established in the South West.
My dish is called The Golden Carrot
and it is based on Wallace And Gromit: Curse Of The Were-Rabbit.
The carrot is the trophy for a veg-growing competition,
which is the central theme of the movie.
What are you actually cooking for us? The carrot itself
is going to be made out of potato.
It's filled with whipped vegan feta.
It sits on top of a carrot royale. The royale is like a jelly, then?
Slightly custardy, jelly... Exactly, yeah, so it's soft, silky,
so it all kind of slots together and hopefully looks like
one solid, beautiful golden carrot.
I'm intrigued by how little carrot is in The Golden Carrot. Yeah.
Well, we wish you loads of luck. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Nick's dish. Lovely connection to the brief.
My biggest concern is he's doing a carrot dish with very little carrot.
If he's going off-piste with a carrot,
it needs to be better than a carrot.
Hey, Charlotte. How are you? Hi, Andi. Hi, chef.
Charlotte, the title of your dish, please, and how you're connecting it
to the brief. OK, so I'm also doing
Wallace And Gromit: Curse Of The Were-Rabbit,
and I've gone for the scene in the greenhouse where Gromit
is growing giant vegetables. There's a lot of mushrooms.
What are you doing with all of those?
I'm going to have crispy enoki for texture.
I'm going to roast the shiitake
and put them in a spicy cabbage dumpling. OK.
I'm going to steam it, and then I'm going to fry it. OK.
I'm going to compress the maitake in sherry.
And I'm going to make a mushroom dashi.
What are you worried about on this dish?
Don't want a dumpling drama, which has happened quite a lot recently.
You have regular dumpling dramas?
I've had a couple of dumpling dramas, yeah.
I'm not sure why she's cooking the dumplings the way she is.
Get it in the pot. Stick in the pot... ..then steam it out.
But she's steaming it first... Mmm. ..and then crisping it up.
Andi is also using mushrooms in his dish, Lunch With The Gruffalo.
There is Forestry Commission woods in Cornwall
where they have a big Gruffalo statue. Right.
And that's where me and the team will go foraging and we'll find
pretty much all of this stuff that's on here.
What are you going to do with these ingredients?
We're going to use the wild chervil root, make a puree,
with sticky hen-of-the-woods,
pickled girolles, and then the star of the show - foraged penny buns.
So we're going to roast them on the hot coals.
Well, I hope it works out for you. Thank you. It sounds wonderful.
It does. I'm excited to taste it. Cheers. Thank you very much.
Andi's dish, he's got so many beautiful mushrooms on his station.
Those big, fat penny-bun mushrooms. Those cooked over the open fire,
you know that's going to be good.
He needs to make sure he gets the cooking of that right
so he's not over-smoking all these mushrooms
so it just becomes, like, one kind of flat note.
This dish is called Underground Overground,
inspired by The Wombles. # Wombling free... #
That's been going round in my head for so long now.
It's inspired by the things that everyday folk leave behind.
Onions and bread are some of the most common things
that the British household throws away. I love The Wombles.
What are you going to do with this? An onion broth.
And when you make bread, you feed the sourdough starter.
Some of that is excess and I'm using that to make crumpets with it.
And that'll be served with a vegan onion butter.
It sounds delicious. There's not a place to hide, is there?
You know, it's crumpet and soup. That's the intimidating thing
for this dish, definitely.
Amber's dish, Underground Overground.
What she's done beautifully here,
she's taken the idea of The Wombles, what they stand for, and she's put
almost the beliefs behind The Wombles into her cooking,
and that is, like, perfect.
Four excellent chefs. Four intriguing dishes.
I'm excited because they're excited. Yeah.
There's passion, isn't there? Yeah. Nice to see. I can't wait.
Charlotte starts with her dumplings and they're already proving tricky.
Dumpling fail.
I knew I'd have a dumpling drama. It was really dry
so I'm taking a risk and I'm putting more warm water in there.
In the meantime, there are other elements to keep an eye on.
I've got the mushroom dashi, which has had its first boil.
Now I'm making the compressing liquor for the mushrooms.
I'm going to pop the maitake into the compression.
She moves onto her dumpling filling,
adding shredded cabbage to carrot, spring onion and chilli.
But again, she's not convinced.
This isn't quite working, actually, if I'm honest. It's missing that,
like, umami, sesame hit.
She adds more soy sauce and sesame oil.
It's stressing me out. But I'm just going to give it ten minutes
and see if it will really infuse in.
Her dashi is causing her less of a problem.
I'm really happy with that.
The dumpling mix comes out of the fridge.
I can taste sesame now. Cool.
And she's pleased with dumpling dough take two.
Much better. The risk looks like it paid off.
Yeah, happy.
This is going to be where the fun starts.
Happy with the component parts, she can now assemble the dumplings.
Don't tempt fate, but they're going really well.
Right, they can go in the freezer for ten minutes.
Hi, Charlotte. How are you getting on? Yeah, good, thank you.
Just letting the mushroom dashi infuse a bit
before I reheat to serve. If you want to give that a go? Yeah.
So, what have you got in here?
Shiitake, there's sesame and some soy in there as well.
What about these dumplings? How's the dumplings coming on?
The dumplings are good, they're in the freezer at the moment. They're going to go in the steamer shortly.
How are you feeling with your prep levels? Are you about there? Yeah, about there.
Just the last few minutes is going to be absolutely crazy.
I shall leave you alone. Thanks, chef. Thank you. Good luck. Thanks.
Charlotte is head chef at Hotel Meudon in Cornwall,
but she was in the Armed Forces when she realised her vocation.
When I joined the Army I was a driver. I decided to switch careers.
I changed to be a chef.
I stepped in the kitchen and I knew that I'd made the right decision
and this was my life goal.
How long on the veg garnish, chef? Two minutes, chef.
I'm really excited to be yet again representing the South West.
I've come back stronger this year
and took last year's comments on board.
I love a competition and I will push myself all the way.
Service, please.
For his starter, Andi's made a marinade,
which includes birch-sap syrup and miso, which he adds
to his hen-of-the-woods mushroom, also known as maitake.
It's going to vac all that flavour into the mushroom.
Just going to start making the puree.
Almond milk is added to chervil root and celeriac, and blended.
Hi, chef. What are you making? The chervil-root puree. Oh, yeah.
So it's going to be a bit bitter, but with all the other acidity
in the dish, it should really bounce out.
How are you finding vegan cooking? Pretty well, actually.
Vegetables and fire really go hand in hand together. Yeah.
You can make something that's so humble,
make it into something amazing. Excellent. Best of luck. Thank you.
I'm really surprised by Andi's chervil root and celeriac puree.
For a vegan element he's got it so, so creamy
and he's done really well to get that.
He removes the hen-of-the-woods from the marinade and reduces.
Want to get that down to, like, a sticky reduction.
For his dish, The Golden Carrot,
Nick is wrapping a thin layer of potato around cones.
But is he feeling the heat?
Michael was a bit on the fence, I think, about it.
So it's kind of knocked a bit of confidence.
He deep-fries his potato cones
and starts his edible soil by adding powdered black olives
to panko breadcrumbs and spices.
He then blends with black olives and the delicate potato cones are done.
Very happy. If I get this one out, I'll be even happier.
For his royale - a kind of custard -
carrot juice, coconut oil and thickening agents
are mixed and heated
and it's poured into the serving boxes to set.
How are you doing? Very good. Can I try some of this? Absolutely.
So in here you've got? Panko breadcrumbs,
dehydrated black olives, some fennel pollen, nutmeg,
caraway, ginger, a little bit of lemon thyme.
All of those spices are friends with carrots
so hopefully that will bring a bit more of the carrot out as well.
Excellent.
Nick's edible soil is really intense
and on its own not particularly enjoyable,
but as a seasoning for carrot, it could work perfectly.
Nick, who gained a Michelin Star at his former restaurant The Coach,
is now head chef at Kerridge's Bar & Grill in London.
My cooking philosophy is about big flavours, hearty,
really delicious food, and then allowing the produce to sing
by doing as little to it as we can.
I think it's really important to love the food that you're cooking.
If you really put passion in,
you know, you'll feel that on the plate. This time out,
I'd really like to go one step further,
get to finals week and get a dish to that banquet,
so I'm really looking forward to giving it my best shot. Service.
For her sustainable Womble-inspired dish,
Amber is sweating down onions for her broth.
Sugar in first...
She then moves on to her crumpets.
This is the wasted sourdough starter.
She proves in a very low oven.
Fingers crossed.
She caramelises Roscoff onions face-down in salt and sugar.
This dish is simple. There's nowhere to hide.
My crumpets have to be perfect. Everything's got to be perfect.
She griddles her crumpets. Just checking that they're not burning.
But they're not up to her exacting standards.
So I'm not happy with how these crumpets have come out.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to make a new batch
with a little bit more flour in. Bit tight for time.
Just going to leave that for a little bit to do its thing.
She passes her onion broth, and reduces.
Can I try it now? Yeah, absolutely. Still got a bit ways to go.
I finished it with a touch of soy sauce. Vegan food sometimes needs
a little bit of a punch of flavour just to balance out a little bit.
Amber's onion broth is tasty, but naturally it's a little sweet.
I hope the yeast extract that she's making
is going to balance out that sweetness.
Charlotte's up first, and the pressure is on.
I'm not having a dumpling drama. They're in 15 minutes late.
SHE SIGHS
She removes the dumplings from the steamer and crisps in a pan.
The dumplings worked! They've never worked before.
Yes, mate.
They're looking good. Crispy enoki.
The compressed maitake are plated first, but it seems Charlotte
hasn't escaped the dumpling drama after all.
Oh, no, they're burnt.
I've managed to burn my dumplings. That one's OK.
Oh. Are you happy with your dumplings?
I accidently turned that up and they burnt a little bit. But that's OK.
I'll just serve the ones that are OK.
Two minutes to the pass, Charlotte.
The mushroom dashi is served in watering cans.
In the greenhouses, please.
OK.
Charlotte, the title of your dish and inspiration.
It's The Plant Suite and it's from Wallace And Gromit:
The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. Happy with how it's gone?
I might have burnt the dumplings a little bit. I turned it up instead of turning it down.
But you've got the best one, so... Shall you and I go test this?
Yes, please. Thanks, guys. Sorry about my burnt dumplings. Enjoy.
The watering can's to pour dashi
over the mushroom? Yeah, please, yeah.
And the mushrooms, some of these are pickled, right? Mm-hm.
The tempura, is that crispy enough? And does that maintain its crisp,
do you think, through the broth? Erm, no, it does lose it
once the broth hits it. The broth is really delicious, actually.
It is. Very mushroomy. Yeah. I'm a bit concerned about the texture
of all these mushrooms. These feel a bit slimy to me.
The textures merge into one another a little bit.
The pastry on the dumplings, is that the thickness you were looking for?
No. Bit thinner next time.
And talk to me about how you cooked those again.
So I steamed them in kombu and ginger and I fried them
just to get them crispy.
My dumpling's burnt. Is your dumpling not burnt?
My dumpling is not burnt. Mine was very tough and quite chewy.
Yeah. So I know she'll be disappointed with that.
So, Charlotte, if you had to score this dish, what would you give it?
Six or a seven. More a seven.
I'm going to go for a seven as well. I'm going to go for a six.
Cos there's a couple of little errors on there
that will bring that down for me.
Hey, how was that? Hey. I am annoyed that I burnt my dumplings.
Not afraid to admit it.
Andi's up next, and his penny bun mushrooms are barbecued...
I want them, like, al dente.
..while chervil puree is first on the plate.
So it's going to create a little well. What's the oil?
Wood sorrel oil. Oh, amazing.
The barbecued penny bun mushrooms are next...
Look at that penny bun. Massive.
...followed by the sticky hen-of-the-woods.
You have two minutes to the pass, Andi. Thank you very much, chef.
Pickled girolles follow, along with deep-fried caribou moss,
wood sorrel and a tuile.
It looks very woodlandy. Looks great.
Oh.
Here we go. Thank you. My dish is called Lunch With The Gruffalo
and Foraging Along The Gruffalo Trail.
It smells amazing. It smells absolutely amazing.
Can I just see your hands?
I got Gruffalo hands.
I just thought, what was that? I just saw...
Are you all right to carry it with those paws?
Yeah, absolutely fine, thank you.
I'll get the door. Thank you, chef.
Are you happy with the seasoning on the penny bun? Yeah.
The penny bun, I like the fact he's done it al dente.
For me, it could have done with a touch more salt.
My favourite thing was the maitake. Maitake's lovely.
Are you happy with that, the amount of it? Yeah.
I mean, it is strong, especially with the sticky hen-in-the-woods.
I think it really cuts through the strength of the puree.
I thought it was a lovely...balm to the whole dish, that puree.
Brings everything together. Presentation -
does that tell the story that you wanted to? Oh, definitely.
You go in the woods, you're going to see the fern,
you're going to see the moss.
It hits that kind of walk in the woodland
with The Gruffalo bang-on. What would you score this dish?
Like an eight? I believe in this dish.
Just a few fine tweaks, could be a ten.
I'm going to say seven. I'm going to go eight.
I would give it an eight out of ten as well.
How did it go? Didn't give anything away, does he? No. Really happy.
Really loved it. Oh, and your puree? Beautiful. Yeah? Awesome.
Yeah, really nice. Thank you.
Nick is frying pommes souffle as he's next to serve.
While they cook, he whips vegan cheese.
Is that your vegan feta? Yes.
So just got a bit of chopped dill and a bit of zest through it.
Beautiful. His edible soil goes on top of the carrot royale.
And you're happy with the set on the carrot?
So you can see it's just got a bit of a wobble there. Yeah, nice wobble, yeah.
Pesto made with celery, apple and capers will be served on the side,
and he fills pommes souffle with the vegan whipped feta
and adds the carrot top.
The moment of truth.
He also fills his cones
and places the carrots on the bed of edible soil.
They look fantastic. Are you happy with them?
It's very playful, isn't it? We are three minutes to the pass, Nick.
Coming up now, chef. Nice, early. Love it.
So my dish is called The Golden Carrot, and it's based on the movie
Curse Of The Were-Rabbit by Wallace And Gromit.
Shall we go and test it, chef? Yes, let's go. I'll carry the carrot.
All right, may I? Please do. You can crack it.
In terms of portion size, do you think that's right?
I believe so, yeah. It's very rich.
I think it's perfect for a six-course menu.
Potato's really strong. I love the feta.
I just want more carrot. As in more of the potato carrot.
More of that...? Yeah.
With the carrot royale... Yeah.
.are you happy with the consistency of it? I'm very happy, yeah.
And in terms of levels of the carrot, think that comes through?
Yes, I do. I think that carrot royale really does taste like carrot.
I really like the surprise that the carrot isn't made of carrot.
The royale, for me, I think it could have been a little bit firmer.
It's got a weird texture, doesn't it? It's just too watery for me.
I could do with more punchy carrot flavour.
So, Nick, what would you score your dish? I'm happy with it.
It's how I intended. I think a strong eight.
I think it has to be an eight. It looks amazing. An eight.
I'm going to give it eight as well.
How did it go? Good, I think.
I mean, the carrot was stunning. Good job, chef. Cool.
The last chef up is Amber.
She wasn't happy with her first crumpet, so started again.
I'm hoping this has worked. We'll see.
While they cook, she passes her onion broth through muslin,
and her new crumpet mix seems to be doing the trick.
I'm happier with this batch, but it is always a bit
of an occupational hazard with crumpets.
She begins plating.
This is a yeast extract that I made from leftover sourdough.
It's pretty punchy.
Charred Roscoff petals sit on top of the yeast extract,
followed by allium flowers.
You have one minute remaining, Amber. The broth is decanted.
Crumpets on the plates.
And chive oil finishes it off.
And it's served to the unmistakable Wombles theme tune.
# The Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we
# Making good use of the things that we find
# Things that the everyday... #
This is Underground Overground, a dish inspired by The Wombles
and things that everyday folk leave behind.
And the newspaper article.
You'll see some of the really poignant food waste facts about
the UK and why it's so important to use your bread and onions.
Andi, I know you want your crumpet buttering. I do.
Shall we go and test it? Let's do it. Butter your own.
I'll deal with mine.
Out. Out. Get him out.
So onion soup classically has a level of sweetness to it.
Is that sweetness level something you're comfortable with?
I think so, yeah.
The chive oil hopefully just cuts through the sweetness.
So I think the broth's really nice. It's got a lovely flavour.
It's quite sweet. I mean, I could just... Just keep drinking it.
The yeast extract on the bottom, are you happy with the strength of that?
I am really happy. The element is there
to add a bit of a flavour punch to it.
Oh!
Just got to the yeast extract.
If I was eating that again, I would probably take a little bit less
cos it killed the flavour of the onion for me.
I agree with Charlotte, that yeast extract is a bit too much.
The crumpets, you had a few attempts at them? Yes, I did. These ones?
I'm really happy with them. You can see the bubbles. Crumpet, lovely.
It's got just that right amount of, like, softness
but still being crisp. Amber, what would you score your dish?
I'd give it an eight out of ten. I think I did the dish justice.
Eight. The yeast extract was too strong.
I'm going to go in with an eight as well. Yeah, I agree. I think an eight.
Hi, guys. Hi. Hey, how you doing? Good, thanks. Happy that it's over.
Happy with what I served.
I love the presentation of it all, was just super cool.
Just a shame we had to share it cos I just wanted more.
How are you feeling after starters? I feel good.
I think the standard was high. There wasn't perfect cooking throughout.
No. But some delicious things happened. Some clever things,
some creative things happened. So scoring-wise, I would imagine
it's going to be quite the broad array.
There's a spectrum, but it's got to be reflective of ultimately
what is a tasty plate to food? Yeah.
You are four very skilled chefs, clearly bursting with ideas,
some of which came out beautifully on the plate
and some of which...did not.
Charlotte, for your dish, The Plant Suite,
the dumpling pastry I felt was way too thick.
And the making of the dumpling itself, a little bit sloppy.
The filling of the cabbage was a little bit cloying
and a bit claggy on the palate, I felt.
You did a lot of work to make the variety of mushrooms
taste different, but I don't feel that was successful
when it came together on the plate.
On a whole, none of this dish was lacking in flavour.
It was just a little bit disjointed and, for me, it didn't work.
Andi, for your dish, Lunch With The Gruffalo,
I loved the presentation. We see smoke coming out of things so often
that it becomes kind of twee. This is the first time I've ever seen it
and it's had a real connection.
The hen-of-the-woods was the star of the show.
I thought it was incredible.
The penny bun, however, for me, it was a little underwhelming.
It was cooked perfectly. Just need a little bit more seasoning.
For me, on the dish there was too much of the chervil
and celeriac puree, and I'd knock that down by at least half.
OK, thank you, Chef.
Nick, for your dish, The Golden Carrot,
presentation was beautiful.
The making of the carrot was very precise. Flavoured it perfectly,
and there was just great detail on your food.
The vegan feta filling made it nice and fresh.
However, it felt like that was the main element of the plate.
I really wanted the main element on a dish called The Golden Carrot
to have a little more carrot.
Carrot royale was well cooked.
Technically, everything was very, very good. I just feel like
the concept of the food itself might be slightly off.
Amber, for your dish, Underground Overground,
the presentation I loved.
The plate of food itself, it was very elegant.
I was a little worried with the onion consomme,
that it would be too sweet, but it balanced out perfectly.
The crumpet was lovely. It was nice and crisp on the outside,
and it was able to soak up that butter through the middle.
The waste sourdough yeast extract,
it was tasty, but maybe pull back a little bit on how much
you're putting in that bowl. It's quite intense.
You had nowhere to hide with this dish. It was soup and crumpets
and you didn't need to worry.
And so to the scores.
Andi.
I'm giving you...
..an eight. Thank you.
I was completely seduced by the presentation on this dish.
It was wonderful.
Charlotte.
I'm scoring you...
..a five.
I know you as a chef, and I feel that you would want more clarity
on your plate than that.
Nick.
I'm scoring you...
..a seven. As ever, everything was beautifully executed, so precise.
It's just oddly disjointed.
Amber.
I'm scoring you...
..a nine.
I love the way that you connected to the brief from the beginning
to the end, from top to toe. Excellent work.
Well done, all of you. It was very impressive cooking.
I look forward to the fish. So whether you had highs or lows,
put it all behind you cos we're moving forward.
Remember, after this course, one of you...is going home.
Thank you, guys. Thank you, chefs.
Good job. Well done. Happy?
After all that drama with the crumpets. My goodness.
How are you feeling? Yeah, fine. I kind of knew that, didn't I?
It's fine. But well done, guys.
You got a chance to bring it back now, though? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
I'm feeling rubbish because I messed up. Nerves get me every time.
Getting that eight, it's exactly where I want to be.
And with the constructive criticism he gave me,
I can make that eight a ten.
I'm slightly disappointed I'm out in third place.
The flavours, the rebalancing, I take all that on board.
I'm really pleased that Chef liked it and that I did myself
and the food proud.
Fish course, then. Let's do this.
Good luck, everyone. Come on, let's go. Yeah, good luck, everyone.
After a solid starter course, Andi is keeping the fire burning,
caramelising veg and cooking prawns directly over coals for his bisque.
You just want to give them a nice scorch.
Most of the flavour in a prawn is in the head.
Just going to get a rolling pin and just start smashing those up.
He's taken inspiration from Cornish author and illustrator John Cleave.
He wrote about the fish stew in his book Gully And The Celebrity Chef.
Grappling with a giant of the sea there.
Yeah. One of my favourite fish. Quite an unusual fish, Michael.
Gurnard? Yeah. Delicious.
I'm going to serve that with cockles, clams, mussels. Oh, yum.
And that's going to be finished with this lovely coal-roasted bisque.
What's the main thing on this that could give you cause for concern?
Getting that balanced. So it's all about the last-minute
tasting of it all. It sounds fabulous, right, Michael? It does.
Are you cooking the fish whole? Are you going to fillet it? No, no,
I'm going to fillet it in a minute. And then just nice, big chunks.
Second-from-last-in-the-competition Nick
is hoping his scallop fish course will earn him top marks.
OK. Sauce going on.
He sweats onions, ginger and garlic with lemongrass and lime leaves
for his Thai green sauce.
The sauce is really key, getting the sauce absolutely perfect,
that's the main driver of flavour.
So if the sauce is bang-on, that will sort me out.
Nick is basing his dish on the artwork of the Radiohead album
A Moon Shaped Pool designed by Stanley Donwood.
I'm going to make the album
and that will be made from an edible gelatine paper.
It'll have some black rice vinegar jelly on it to represent
what the album cover looks like.
And then underneath will be a hidden bowl, which will have in it
a hand-dived scallop, some scallop roe mayonnaise, and then there's
a green Thai curry sauce on the side. I love the sound of that.
What were your favourite cartoons growing up?
One of mine was Trap Door. It was from Honiton, I think.
"Feed me, Berk." Was it Berk? That's it. Yeah? Love it.
Berk's got a really...
A really bumpkin West Country accent, hasn't he? "Feed me!"
Yeah. Loved Bananaman.
Super Ted. Transformers.
I've still got some of the original Transformer toys at home. Have you?
Well, you're making me feel like a baby. Sorry.
Cos I don't know any of those references.
You are very young.
LAUGHTER
Amber, who is top of the leaderboard,
is smoking butter with oak chips for her beurre blanc sauce.
And I'm going to pop that into the freezer.
Hopefully, that should smoke nicely. Lovely.
What are you making for us, my love?
My dish is called Engines Don't Go Fishing.
And it's inspired by Thomas the Tank Engine and the steam and smoke
from steam trains. So we've got a steamed piece of halibut,
then I've got a smoked butter beurre blanc sauce,
so I've smoked it with wood chips. Right.
I'm serving that with loads of Cornish sea herbs and seaweed.
Gorgeous. Look at this. Michael, excited? I am.
The fish looks beautiful.
Keep doing what you're doing. Thank you so much. Good luck.
Fish specialist Charlotte is simmering onions and aromats
in cream for her smoked mackerel butter sauce.
I'm just going to infuse my mackerel into the cream now so I get
a really lovely smoky hue going through the sauce.
She's at the bottom of the pack,
so needs to impress with her fish course. Look at the size of it.
Oh. I'd give it a kiss, but I'm not in the mood.
I'm worried about quite a lot on this dish, actually.
It's kind of important to me now if I stay or go so, yeah.
One thing right today is the fish.
Give me a hug.
All right. Set me up again. Bit hard, isn't it?
Yeah, and I'm, you know, I'm good at fish, so if I let myself down
on this, it's my fault. No, nobody's letting anybody down.
It's cooking. And this is why you're here
cos you're an excellent chef and we're really happy
to have you back in the kitchen. Thank you.
Tell me what you're making and how you're inspired by the brief.
It's called Hard To Catch An Angler's Lunch,
inspired by Norman Thelwell, the unofficial country cartoonist.
Ah... Wait, he's the... All those pictures in Punch?
The one I'm doing is the angler who could never quite catch his fish.
How is this going to look? I'm making a hash brown with a lardo.
So it's going to be fried in lardo. Whoo! I'm happy already.
Yeah. You like the sound of this one? I love the lardo.
Well, he's my friend...
We've got sea bass from Cornwall, which is beautiful.
And I've made a smoked mackerel infusion.
I smoked the mackerel myself. I caught the mackerel myself.
Oh, how nice. That's this. Hopefully it's going to be good.
I believe in you.
Just do what you're here to do and do what you do best.
Thanks very much. All right, darling. Thanks.
Charlotte's Dish, Hard To Catch An Angler's Lunch.
It's a long title. There's also quite a lot going on to this plate.
This is her bread and butter.
You know, fish cookery is what she's all about.
She suffered from that starter score. She needs to produce this.
Nick's dish, A Moon Shaped Pool. It sounds lovely.
It's not the direction I expected him to go in,
with the type of chef he is. It's an exciting one for me personally.
It's the kind of things that I love.
He just needs to make sure the balance of that Thai sauce
is spot-on. Amber's dish, Engines Don't Go Fishing,
quite stark, this dish. She's got that beautiful piece of halibut, she's got the sea greens,
she's got a smoked butter sauce. There's not a lot going on.
They're much nicer ingredients than an onion and some old bread.
And what she made with an onion and old bread
I thought was phenomenal.
My only concern with Andi's cooking is that he loves fire,
he loves smoke so much.... I still need to see the natural flavours
coming through from the prawns, coming through from the gurnard.
Andi fillets his gurnard and hot smokes cockles.
Sometimes we give a little tap
and they'll start opening. Just going to chuck them in this pickle
so we'll have some nice pickled cockles in the half shell.
Into a blender goes his bisque. Please, please, Lord. Please.
There you go, heads and all.
May I? Yeah.
I've taken out half the bodies and just pressing them.
Cos obviously it'll end up making it too bitter if there's too much shellfish in there.
But, yeah, really happy, really confident with it.
Andi's bisque tastes surprisingly light.
I was expecting really heavy, smoky, strong, almost robust flavours
with it, but it's actually very light, very easy going.
Andi is head chef at St Kew Inn in Cornwall,
voted one of the top 50 gastropubs in the UK.
The food we serve is fresh, local produce.
We like to do food in metres, not miles.
I love cooking with fire. It's the flavour. It's the depth.
Coming home smelling smoke, it gets ingrained into your skin.
Really, I see myself as a bit of a rule-breaker.
What we do hasn't really been done before.
We experiment and write recipes and make things up as we go along,
which gives us loads of creative freedom.
Fish, please?
Getting a dish to the banquet would be the most amazing thing
that had ever happened to me, going into this being an underdog
against Michelin Star chefs,
and it would just mean the world to me. Service.
Nick shucks his scallops...
Scallops look flippin' amazing. Yeah, they're decent.
..and separates the roe to make a mayonnaise,
blending with egg yolk, mustard and smoked oil...
..then passes his Thai green sauce.
What have you got here? I've just finished my sauce.
So that's the Thai green curry. OK. It does have a bit of a kick to it,
but I think that's a desirable thing. Yeah.
When it's eaten with everything else
I think that's the heat level that I'm looking for. Wonderful.
Nick's sauce has got a lovely level of spice to it.
I thought it would be quite soft,
but it's actually got a bit of a kick and I love that.
Amber is making her seaweed oil.
The stock is my sole. Obviously.
She portions her halibut and then starts on her beurre blanc sauce
adding smoke butter to white wine and white wine vinegar.
May I? Yes, absolutely. Still just balancing up the flavours.
I've smoked half of the butter with wood chips.
It's quite strong. Oh, it is strong.
So what I've been doing is balancing it with some unsmoked butter
and then adding in some different lemon elements
and the white wine vinegar. Excellent.
Amber's beurre blanc, it's got a real nice flavour to it.
The smoke I'm not 100% keen on. The smoke's a little acrid
and it's not that sweet, nice wood smoke that I expect.
Bristol born Amber is just 26 years old and already head chef
at the Zebra Riding Club in Cheshunt.
I think being young presents huge advantages.
I think I bring fresh ideas and I've learnt from some of the best
in the industry, but I'm bringing my own twist to that now.
I've worked in lots of different restaurants with different styles,
but I always come back to keeping things as simple as possible.
My favourite thing is to walk through the gardens and to see
what we've got available that week and that day.
Your food is a reflection of who you are, and if you're not
passionate about what you're producing and you don't love
the food that you're handing over to your guests,
then there's no point in doing it.
I've got a huge amount of passion and ambition,
and I'm going to do the absolute best that I can.
Service, please.
Charlotte, who's chasing the rest of the pack,
blends lardo for her hash browns... Pork fat.
Get on. ..and grates potato,
to which she adds melted butter and fries in the pork fat.
OK. Just let them cook away.
Feeling good? Yeah, yeah. You promise? Yeah.
Everything's last minute.com. So I'm kind of in limbo a little bit.
Look, as long as you can stay, like, perfectly organised,
it doesn't matter how last-minute anything is, right? Yeah.
Charlotte's confidence has taken a real hit after her starter course.
Fish is her baby. That's what she does day in, day out.
I really want to see some good cooking from her.
Plating first, Andi's cooking his gurnard.
So these are going to be about three to four on here.
And his clams and mussels are cooked, too, before he smokes them.
As soon as they pop open, I'm going to put them up here.
The smoke's rising. Oh. Wowzers. Heavens.
His fish goes into the oven to finish, and he passes his bisque.
You have three minutes to the pass, Andi.
Just waiting on that fish in the oven.
It's just going to be last minute.
Pickled clams, cockles and mussels are plated
and Amber decants the bisque.
Chive emulsion goes on next.
How's that fish, Andi? I was just a little bit behind on my timings,
just due to the size and meatiness of the fish.
I literally just gotta wait, literally, like, one more minute,
30 seconds. Sorry. OK.
It's OK for Andi to have a couple more minutes, but he'll start
to lose points if he's more than five minutes late.
I think it's better that you get your fish right.
I'd rather have it right, then two minutes late to the pass
than have it raw. I agree.
Finally, the fish is up to the temperature that Andi wants
and is plated, and caviar is spooned on top.
You're nearly at the five-minute mark. Right, coming now.
Oh, sorry about that. This, My Darlings, Is A Gurnard,
inspired by Gully And The Celebrity Chef, written by John Cleave,
local author and illustrator. I'll take the sauce? Yes, please.
Good luck, chef. Good luck, Andi.
So you had a little bit of trouble with the fish at the end. Yeah, it was just a bit too thick.
I know I was four minutes late to the pass. But I just wanted that fish to be perfect.
I'd say it's over. Just a little smidge, I would say.
Andi, the bisque, is that carrying the flavour that you wanted it to?
Yes. Yeah, it's sweet, a hint of smokiness in there, I think...
I think it's well-balanced.
It's one of my best recipes I've ever done.
The sauce, you get the beautiful smokiness coming through.
I think the sauce is seasoned nicely. It could do with something acidic.
Does this plate of food tell the story? Yes.
Is there anything that you'd change on the dish? Apart from the timing, the size of the gurnard? OK.
There's some good elements here. Nice ideas. I think it's a seven.
Yeah, I would agree again, it's a seven.
It's a really beautiful dish. I loved how it was presented.
Andi, what would you score your fish dish?
My heart and soul has gone into this dish. You know, I think kind of like an eight, eight slash nine.
How was that, chef? It was good. I know I was four minutes over
but I'd rather send out perfect fish than raw fish.
Up next, it's Nick, who is pan-frying his scallops.
What sort of cuisson you looking for? Medium rare.
A little opacity.
He starts plating with compressed cucumber.
What are you putting on there now? This is just scallop roe mayonnaise.
Delicious. You got four minutes to the pass, Nick.
He preps the top of his dish, made with edible glitter sheets,
for the look of the album cover.
What are you putting on this, then? This is a black rice vinegar jelly.
Are you happy with how this came out? Yeah.
They look great. You have one minute, Nick.
Thank you. Thai green sauce is poured.
So where do you want this up to? Just under half, please.
And scallops sliced and plated.
So you're happy with the cooking on that, then? Yes.
Caviar tops the scallops and the edible lids are placed on top.
So it's called A Moon Shaped Pool.
Based on the album by Radiohead,
the artwork done by Stanley Donwood.
It's very exciting. Pressure's on, chef.
So we just pour it and hopefully...
Oh, look at that. Look at that!
That's really great.
Wow. What a feature.
All of the sauce, chef? Yes, please. Wow. That's amazing. So part of
the idea of the inspiration is that that ends up random.
You wanted it to be more a product of chance.
Love it. Shall we go taste it? Let's go.
I have to say, looks stunning. It looks amazing.
The scallop? Yes. How is that cooked? It's just in the middle.
Just still a little bit medium rare in the middle.
Cooking on the scallop, how about that? Perfect.
Got that just right. The Thai green curry sauce,
you're happy with the heat of that? Yeah, I am. Yeah.
It's absolutely beautiful.
It's creamy, there's heat, there's pops of acidity.
I don't really get the roe in there.
And do you think it hits the brief? I think it does hit the brief.
It's linked to the way that he made the artwork and the way
that it's kind of randomly formed when it all falls in.
I mean, can't fault it.
I want to fault it, but I can't.
And so... So it's going to have to be a ten.
I'm really between a nine and a ten, I think.
Nick, what would you score your dish?
I'd like to think it's a strong eight, maybe a nine.
Thank you.
You're up next.
No pressure following that. Do you know what I mean? Marvellous!
Hi. It was stunning, mate. It was beautiful.
It really, really was. You blew me away. Well done.
Thank you very much.
To keep with her Thomas the Tank Engine steam and smoke theme,
Amber is steaming her halibut. How's your fish?
It's always a bit nerve-racking in a bamboo steam,
you don't want to open it too much. Yeah. But you need to trust...
Trust the process.
She flash-fries sea beet and dulse in butter.
It has that beautiful irony flavour.
Pickled sea fennel goes on next and the halibut is done.
So satisfying when it just peels off. Yeah.
That's how you know it's cooked.
You're just trying to give it a bit of colour? Yeah, absolutely.
You have one minute to the pass, Amber. Oui, chef.
The fish sits on top of the sea veg, followed by the smoked beurre blanc.
That should be going round, surely.
Oh, look at that.
The title of my dish is Engines Don't Go Fishing
and it's inspired by Thomas the Tank Engine.
Have you got any chance of reviving this guy? Oh... We've got movement,
we've got movement. There we go.
Yay. Hey. There we go.
Shall we go taste it? Absolutely. Let's do it.
Are you happy with the smokiness of the beurre blanc? I am, yeah.
I think it can overpower things, but with the quite saline flavours
of the sea herbs and the lemon just here at the end
with the halibut, hopefully it balances really nicely.
I think it's well balanced.
I think the veg is nice and gives it nice texture.
What about the link to the story of Thomas the Tank Engine?
Do you think that's clear within the plate?
People could find it difficult, but what I really wanted to
get through with the dish was that element of smoke and steam.
There's nothing to say Thomas the Tank Engine apart from a train.
And what would you score this dish?
I would score this dish a seven out of ten.
I think the fish is a tiny bit over and the lack of visible brief.
I'm going to go seven. I think I'd go an eight on this one.
I'm going to go seven. Seven.
Hi, guys. Smokey beurre blanc. That was lovely.
So classical. Beautiful. Delicate. Very much like you.
You charmer.
Charlotte is the last to serve and needs a top score for her dish,
The Complete Tangler,
inspired by Norman Thelwell's illustrations.
She fries her sea bass and sea beet. In there...
She strains her smoked mackerel and butter sauce.
It's all the good stuff in there. And her fish is ready.
That skin looks... Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It helps when you've got a beautiful sea bass, to be fair.
She plates cherry tomato vinaigrette
while Andi decants the mackerel butter sauce. Grandpa's flask.
She's serving it in the style of a fisherman's lunch,
complete with flask and hamper. OK.
Sea beet is followed by the bass.
Fantastic. I'm nearly there. It's super, super simple.
It's garnished with sea herbs and a copper ham crumb.
You have four minutes to the pass, Charlotte. Oui, chef.
A fish-shaped tuile sits on top... I love these tuiles, Charlotte.
..and the hash browns are served on side plates.
Hard To Catch An Angler's Lunch. And the inspiration is Norman Thelwell,
who was an unofficial countryside cartoonist.
Are you happy, Charlotte? Yeah, I am, actually. Good.
Good luck. Thank you. That's what I like.
You don't want too much sauce cos it's quite strong.
Are you happy with the cooking on the bass? Yeah.
It's maybe just slightly over.
Erm...only slightly.
The skin is beautifully crisp on that, which is really enjoyable.
The hashbrown seasoning where you want it to be on that?
Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
Because the sauce is quite strong, so I didn't want to over-season.
I think the hash brown is really nice. I love the loud flavour.
The hash brown is absolutely delicious.
Does it feel a little bit like an afterthought on the side there?
Yes, but it's so tasty that I'm not going to complain about that.
What's in the sauce? So that's the smoked mackerel that I caught
and smoked myself. I've heated some cream up with the smoke mackerel
in it very, very low just to infuse it through.
I just loved just grabbing the hash brown and dipping it in the sauce.
As a plate of food, is there anything that you'd change for this competition?
I'm not sure, actually, I don't think I would. That's OK. I'm quite happy.
OK, let's have some scores. Nick.
Maybe it's a little bit disjointed, so I'm going to say seven.
I want to go... Go a seven. I'm going to give it an eight.
What would you score it? A seven?
Hello. Hey. How was that? Yeah, good. Yeah. Not too bad.
The skin on the bass was delicious. So tasty.
I just loved picking up that hash brown at the end.
Just dipping it in the sauce and chewing on it. I love that,
that makes me happy. Thanks for that, guys.
So you had quite high expectations
of the fish cookery from this region.
Really excellent cooking. Not so excellent on the storytelling.
Yeah, never before have I've been given four dishes
that are so different, so equally well executed,
but have exactly the same problem
in that there's just... There's no storytelling there.
So it's a tricky one. It's harsh that somebody has to leave now.
It's brutal. It's Great British Menu. It's brutal.
Amber is on nine points. Andi eight, Nick seven and Charlotte five.
It's the South West, where we expect the fish cookery to be excellent.
But did you deliver all that we hoped for?
Andi, for your dish,
This, My Darlings, Is A Gurnard.
The gurnard was cooked nicely.
I thought that really took on the smokiness.
I understand that you were late with your fish as it was a large piece.
You prepped it and saw the size of it.
Yeah. So I don't think the size of it is really that relevant.
It was just a little late.
The ocean dwellers, the clams, cockles and mussels
were cooked well. For me,
I was left a little bit disappointed by the bisque.
It felt somewhat flat and it didn't have punchy flavours
running through it, which is what I expect from a bisque.
Nick, for your dish,
A Moon Shaped Pool,
scallop was cooked perfectly and well seasoned.
The Thai green sauce was delicious and it packed a punch.
I like that you weren't afraid of the heat.
The theatre of the presentation was ace, everyone loved it.
I personally question whether this is the best example
of illustration - as clever and as well executed as it was.
Amber, for your dish,
Engines Don't Go Fishing,
the presentation and the theatre of this, I thought,
was a little lacking. It felt a little bit rough around the edges.
The halibut, though, I thought was delicious, and the smoked
beurre blanc had the right level of smokiness. But you'd not integrated
the brief as seamlessly as you had with the starter.
Charlotte, for your dish,
Hard To Catch An Angler's Lunch,
the sea bass was cooked nicely.
The hash brown cooked in lardo was delicious.
The smoked mackerel butter sauce was lovely.
But I want you to have more confidence in your cooking.
When we went to taste it, the first thing you said was,
"Don't pour too much. It's quite intense." It was lovely.
And so to the scores. Nick...
..I'm giving you...
..an eight. That's exactly the beautiful, sharp cooking
I've come to expect from you. Andi...
..I'm scoring you...
..an eight. I thought it looked like an excellent plate of food.
I do worry, however,
about the size of that giant prop
and its connection to the brief. It felt a little shoehorned.
Amber, I'm scoring you...
..eight. We've come to expect simplicity from you.
Sometimes a dish can be too simple.
It still needs to have energy in it.
And Charlotte...
..I'm scoring you...
..an eight.
So that means, with the lowest overall score,
Charlotte, I'm afraid, sadly, you're going to be leaving us.
Charlotte, you can pack so much flavour into your food.
What I'd like you to take away from this is that you don't need
to prove yourself with hundreds of different things going on
on the plate. If you spent the same amount of time just focusing on
a few of those elements, you'd have really standout dishes. OK. Thanks.
Charlotte, very sorry that you're going to be leaving us.
The other three, we move on to main courses.
Thank you very much. Thank you, chefs. Thank you.
Well done, guys. That was a tough course. Yeah.
I'm really pleased I got an eight. Gutted that I got an eight too late.
I'm really happy with that. Loads of constructive criticism which I can
take away that if I get through to the judges, I can change on it.
I really wanted to be able to showcase my whole menu and now
I have the chance to do that. So I couldn't be more thrilled.
Look, it's going to be a hard couple of days now. It's very, very tight.
All got to bring our A-game.
We've all got to come in fighting tomorrow.
I did myself justice today. I gave it absolutely everything.
Again, too little, too late. But proud of myself, I guess.
There's only two points between top and bottom, so the scores
are super tight. I'm looking forward to seeing what these chefs can do
with main course and dessert.
Next time there are surprises in store...
SHE GASPS
Amazeballs. ..as the chefs pull out all the stops...
This is it now, it's just a waiting game.
..for their mains and desserts.
Are you on schedule? Give me another half hour and I'll tell you.