Alex Claridge appeared in the 2020 season of BBC’s Great British Menu and, as recounted in Blogs 87 and 90, was eliminated from the Central region heats after the first two courses and the audience never had the opportunity to know what the chef-judge Paul Ainsworth was missing.
The programme introduced the necessity for the competing chefs to prepare an amuse bouche and Claridge’s offering was a ba tête beef tartare with Parmesan custard and other elements which was already familiar to those who regularly wondered in the The Wilderness as Claridge’s Big Mac. The four subsequent courses were to be linked to works of literature preferably from the region which the chef was representing and so Claridge’s starter was something rather weird and wonderful called Nah You’re revolting which was a tribute to Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes and included a cricket and mealworm bhaji with quail marinated in a yogurt and spice mix to mimic butter chicken sauce served with coal oil and various other elements including wood ant emulsion.
For his fish course Claridge prepared Goth Apple inspired by the book Ghost Drum by West Midlands author Jacqueline Susan Price. The dish included a scallop ceviche with various apple elements, a white chocolate skull and a wasabi emulsion which Ainsworth identified as overpowering the other ingredients and which he pinpointed as the reason for marking Alex Claridge down to 8 points while the other chefs were all awarded 10 points for their fish courses. It was this that saw Claridge taking an early bath and the result was that we never got to see what else he had to offer.
So it was with great delight that I read an e mail telling me about a one-off dinner he was arranging for just twelve diners one evening in The Wilderness at which he would present his entire four courses + dinner which would have appeared on the television had he made it through to the second round. I scrabbled to ensure that I had secured two of the twelve places for myself and my guest and then, on the prescribed evening, met up with my companion at Isaac’s bar at The Grand Hotel where the dog and I were staying, rapidly glugged down a somewhat alarming Spicy Margarita and then boarded a taxi for Warstone Lane where this exciting event was to take place.
A single large table was stretched out lengthways in the restaurant for the lucky dining dozen and the event had pleasingly attracted an affable selection of food enthusiasts and it was not long before everyone was exchanging with each other their impressions of local restaurants as well as dining establishments a little further afield. The cocktails flowed and the included wine flight took off to everyone’s pleasure.
After Chef’s quietly spoken welcome and introduction to his thoughts about the Great British menu the Big Mac amuse gueule was served - a delicious little pastry with beef tartare and cheese custard. A hit! A palpable hit!
At this point Chef turned up in a jacket with a large food-carrying bag on his back which somehow tied in with local author JRR Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings (an old man’s deafness inhibited my ability to fully grasp the explanation) and at last the main course was revealed and it was indeed a revelation. A surprising revelation. The dish arrived in a cardboard takeaway box (which one assumes might have been a little more lavish if it had actually appeared on the television) and, when the box was opened, a flatbread laden with (spectacularly tasty) ‘tandoori’ iberico pork and raita was revealed for the world to see at last. Delicious but probably not the right look for Great British Menu.
The competition demands that the competing chefs prepare an intermediate course (what the then host, a wholly unfunny Scottish comedienne labelled hilariously [well, she thought it was funny anyway] “the pre-pooding pooding”. Claridge’s transitional course was again very enjoyable combining the flavours of white chocolate, lime and the tangy bite of padron pepper green chilli.
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