210. Great British Menu Central Region Heats Will Feature Two London Chefs.

 

  

  

The prospect of the return of the BBC’s programme The Great British Menu on 1 February 2022 is not a happy one given that the great combination of judges Oliver Peyton and Matthew Fort has been swept away and replaced by BBC luvvies who look ready for a Halloween party and not for really what ought to be a quite serious event given that the reputations of 32 British chefs will be on the line depending on how they fare in what looks like being a circus. The presence of the supercilious and self-regarding Ed Gamble could bring the programme down to an even lower level than it achieved two years ago when it was hosted by a Scottish comedienne whose name I have forgotten mercifully and I only hope that the other judges do not descend to his level.

  Worst still is the news that, as has happened in years past, only two of the four chefs who are competing in the Central Region heats actually work in the Midlands while, as you would expect, the other 50% work in …. London. True, the chefs all have connections with the Midlands or East Anglia but once more sneering BBC producers choose to offer little exposure to Midlands restaurants preferring instead to feature dining establishments in London, where they feel comfortable no doubt. 

  Only one of the chefs currently works in the West Midlands - Liam Dillon of the excellent Michelin-plated The Boat Inn in Lichfield (see Blog 199) and there is also Harvey Perttola who took over from Richard Turner as Head Chef at Maribel in Brindley Place and did a cracking good job there until the always unfortunately located restaurant closed during the first Lockdown, never to reopen (see Blog 86). BBC publicity for the Central heat reports that Perttola is now Head Chef at Trent Bridge Cricket Ground in Nottingham.

The West Midland’s own Liam Dillon of The Boat Inn.

Harvey Perttola, formerly of Maribel

  The other two ‘Central Region heat’ competitors are Sally Abé who qualifies by virtue of having been born in Mansfield but who has never worked in the Midlands and the sole East Anglian chef, Ben Orpwood, who is the Executive Chef at Gordon Ramsay’s The Lucky Cat in London. Abé competed in the Central heats in 2020 and works at the Conrad St James Hotel in, where else?, London. Orpwood was apprenticed as a chef at Kings College in Cambridge and has subsequently worked in London, Dubai, Sydney and, er, Leeds but does not seem to have worked in the Central region since his apprenticeship.

  This year’s theme will naturally be self-referential to commemorate the BBC’s centenary so we may expect to see lots of BBC luvvies and executives, snouts in the trough, enjoying themselves at this year’s  banquet at the licence payers’ expense, as though they were at a Downing Street party. The feast is to be held at Alexandra Palace which of course is in London.

  The first part of the Central heats will screen on 1 February.