At last some good sense seems to have entered into the brains of the BBC’s Great British Menu (GBM) production team. The series which recommenced last night was fronted by the very sensible and informed Andi Oliver instead of a silly comedienne who caused persistent irritation thoughout the last series and the new series also benefitted from starting off with the Central region heats even though 2 of the chefs did not work in either the Midlands or East Anglia as well having Lisa Goodwin Allen as guest chef-judge twinned with Simon Rogan for the fish course because of her shellfish allergy. The theme of this year’s series is British innovators.
The four competing chefs were detailed in Blog 133 and I have to admit that I was backing the two chefs who are working here in the West Midlands rather than those who were based in London. It always looked as though London-based Shannon Johnson was doomed to be the first chef to be eliminated from the competition with her amuse bouche being judged to be rather less satisfactory than the others and by the end of the programme she was on her way out. The future doesn’t look too promising for London-based Sabrina Gidda either though the judges often seem to have an unspoken rule that any chef having a third attempt to reach the regional finals will not be humiliated by being booted out without an opportunity to lay their fayre before Waldorf and Statler and whichever female is occupying the third judge’s chair this particular series. We shall see.
At this stage it looks very much as though Stuart Collins of Docket No. 33 in Whitchurch in Shropshire has his place booked in the regional final and I hope that Liam Dillon - good to hear someone speaking with a fine Staffordshire accent - from the The Boat Inn in Lichfield will be joining him. For his starter Collins prepared a dish which commemorated Elsie Widdowson who worked on providing a nutritious diet on the ingredients available in wartime Britain, the dish being named Take it with a grain of salt - pork cheek, smoked bacon, fresh apple, roasted apple purée, pickled apple served on a bed of choucroute (sauerkraut, fermented cabbage) with pork airbag (crispy dehydrated pork skin - posh scratchings which served as the “grain of salt”. The dish was well-received and scored 8. For his fish course Collins prepared a dish called Singularity which commemorated Stephen Hawkins’ theory of blackholes and this was made up of beetroot and fennel-cured trout served on taramasalata with golden and candy beetroot with nasturtium leaves and 2 types of caviar under a black coral tuile. A wonderful looking dish and singularly successful being awarded 9 points. Collins was well in the lead.
Liam Dillon’s creations were a starter named Flick the kettle on which commemorated the unsung Birmingham hero, Arthur L Large, who developed the element in electric kettles which revolutionised how we make a cup of tea or coffee. The dish was made up of beef sirloin and onion broth, bone marrow and bread and butter pudding with a sharp herby emulsion of various salad vegetables with garden vegetables to give it added texture. The broth was served, appropriately, in a kettle. The starter tied with Collins’ 8 points. Dillon’s fish course, The Apple (celebrating Isaac Newton’s discovery of gravity) was served up in a hollowed out apple and made up of whole Dorset crab with the brown meat used for an emulsion, a dashi made from kelp, tuna flakes, soy and mirin, lingonberries and pickled elderberries served with lavosh crackers hung from miniature apple trees. A visually remarkable dish but awarded only 7 points.
True enough, at the end of the programme Johnson was eliminated and the main course and dessert lay ahead for the next programme. Stuart Collins was 2 points ahead but, as they say, there was still everything to play for.
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