It was not really difficult to predict correctly the eventual winner of the 2021 Great British Menu Central Region Final given the general run of things over the past 2 days of broadcasts. It was a clear victory for Stuart Collins over Sabrina Gidda though his fine looking main course ‘Dissected Maps’ again came in for criticism as not being thrilling enough to take its place as a banquet dish. Both Waldorf and Statler, on the other hand, were ecstatic about his fish course, “Singularity” which really did look spectacular, and awarded it 10 points.
Sabrina Gidda worked exceptionally hard and her main course, “Everything goes with brown sauce” (Matthew Fort revealed himself to be a great brown sauce enthusiast) was received with enthusiasm by all four judges. But in the end it was not surprising to hear Andi Oliver announce that the Central chef going forward to the Finals was to be Stuart Collins. I admired Sabrina Gidda’s gracious reaction to her defeat which must have been very painful given that this had been the third time she had entered the competition.
There was much fawning by the permanent judges over Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut, who was the guest judge and who chatted on in an increasingly irritating fashion that made me grateful that it was unlikely that I would ever move in circles where I would have to sit by her and listen to her for a whole dinner party. Even worse was the new judge, Rachael Khoo, who said nothing of value and might as well have not been there thus saving the BBC licence payer a few thousand pounds in the fee paid to her. Oliver Peyton and Matthew Fort were in good form and Andi Oliver presented the programme faultlessly (memories of last series’ Scottish comedienne presenter now fade pleasingly into the distance).
So good luck to Stuart Collins, Shropshire and the West Midlands.
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