For the second year running the Central and East regional heats of BBC’s The Great British Menu, now in its twentieth year, were scheduled to be shown towards the end of the programme’s 2025 run.
There was much to dread - the judges still included the jollily bullying Tom Kerridge, the not at all funny comedian Ed Gamble and a new judge in the form of a stony-faced, dour Scottish woman chef with the disapproving, unsmiling demeanour of a dreich day in the Highlands and the sense of us all being ‘doomed’ (to recall Private Fraser). Perhaps it is unkind to label the trio as ‘The Bad, The Worse and The Miserable’ or perhaps not. Of course, this trio was balanced by the excellent Andi Oliver full of energy, discernment, knowledge and ebullience - there could be no better celebrity to front the programme than she in her colourful glad rags and distinctive look, less a wet weekend in Edinburgh and more a calypso on an Antiguan beach.
The region’s four competitors included only two who worked in the West Midlands, the others inevitably working in London. This latter pair were Sally Abé with her East Midlands roots who seems to be a perpetual Great British Menu competitor though always very charming and Harry Kirkpatrick from Norfolk, Head Chef at Trinity in Clapham, that well known Midlands/East Anglia suburb.
The West Midlands however was well represented by two chefs - Thom Bateman, chef proprietor of The Flintlock in Cheddleton in Staffordshire, who has previously appeared in the programme although he was beaten on the Judges day by Tom Shepherd, and Grace and Savour’s and Kynd’s David Taylor, originally from Nottingham but now well established as a star of West Midlands cuisine. I have dined at Taylor’s restaurant several times and enjoyed watching demonstrations by Bateman at last year’s Ludlow Food Festival.
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| Kirkpatrick, Thom Bateman, Andi Oliver, David Taylor and Abé. |
This being the 20th anniversary season of Great British Menu the theme of British heroes, in particular those local to the individual chefs’ regions, was chosen, presumably implying that the BBC and all who sail in it are also heroic in some way or the other. The West Midlands has its fair share of heroes of national significance and it was inevitable, and quite right, that our chefs should give the nod to the likes of Shakespeare, Josiah Wedgewood, Dr Johnson and their ilk.
The meal started with canopés - David Taylor’s took the form of Jerusalem artichoke crispy skins filled with fresh artichoke with bay leaf pickle and apple and thyme while Thom Bateman served a Staffordshire cheese custard and salt-baked beetroot tart with black garlic ketchup. Unfortunately the guest chef-judge, Tommy Banks, felt that David Taylor’s canopé did not have “the depth of flavour” he was hoping for and the canopé was his least favourite of the four. Thom Bateman’s canopé was placed third because it appeared to have too much flavour, “enough for a main course”. Too much, too little, interesting.
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| David Taylor’s canopé |
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| Thom Bateman’s canopé |
And so, on to the starters. Here the chefs were obliged to provide a vegan course. David Taylor based his dish, Talking Potatoes on, er, potatoes dedicating it to a trendy 20th century Birmingham poet of Caribbean heritage who apparently grew his own potatoes which he used to make samosas. The potatoes were confited with spiced coconut, onion velouté finished with a variety of roasted nuts and a vegetable samosa. Bateman’s dish was titled Po-tay-toes and inspired, he said by the works of JRR Tolkien. The dish involved confiting pink fir potatoes and then barbecuing them and serving with a plant-based pomme soufflé ‘ring’ (“one ring to rule them all”).
Sally Abé’s dish was a tribute to Florence Nightingale and saw the obliging David Taylor dressing up in a 19th century nurse’s costume and carrying a lamp for the presentation of the dish. This reflected the wonderful spirit of cooperation and friendliness in which the heat was carried out by all the chefs, for years the Central heat has always been the happiest of the regional heats due to the generous and well-balanced personalities of those who work in the hospitality industry in this geographical area.
At the judging Andi Oliver expressed the view that this had quite possibly been the strongest start ever to a regional heat and Tommy Banks felt that Taylor’s dish represented what “modern Britain is - on a plate” and that Bateman’s dish’s link to “the brief was bang on the nose”. Banks awarded Taylor’s dish nine points and Bateman’s eight but Sally Abé’s received a remarkable ten points which put her in the lead.
Next came the fish course. Taylor served a dish titled Perseverance which honoured Dr Samuel Johnson, who, in passing, it is worth nothing was one of the great English gourmands of his time. The dish took the form of poached brill in a herb butter, with a crispy herb stem salad and pickled shallot, and a leek cream sauce with oyster leaf. Bateman meanwhile served The Bard of Avon celebrating of course, William Shakespeare, which was brined halibut dusted in nori powder and poached in brown butter and served with dashi gel and a Stratford upon Avon wine sauce containing leek, fennel, shallot, pink peppercorn, kombu, dill, parsley and finished with smoked butter.
When the judgement on the course was delivered Andi Oliver stated that they were “standing in the kitchen with four exceptional chefs”. When commenting on David Taylor’s dish Banks said that he would have preferred the poached brill to have been roasted a little more to give it more flavour and texture. Banks felt that the dish “lacked a little bit of oomph and a little bit of seasoning in the overall dish”. He felt that another element might have been included “to bring it together but it certainly had potential”. He awarded the dish 7 points.
Banks had nothing negative to say about Thom Bateman’s dish and awarded it eight points.
When all the points had been delivered it was clear that while Abé was out in the lead, the three other chefs, including the two from the West Midlands, were all tied on the same score and, this being the case, David Taylor was eliminated on the basis of his canopé being judged to have been the least satisfactory. This obviously came as a surprise to all, if not a shock, but Taylor took it well and hopefully he will return in a future season for another attempt to win. Meanwhile Thom Bateman lived to fight another day and battle out the second day of main, predessert and dessert courses.
To be continued ….
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