Wales Judging Great British Menu

It's judgement day.

Experienced executive chef, Phil Carmichael...

When I get in that kitchen today,

I'm just going to go hell for leather.

I'm going to throw everything I can at it.

..is up against new young restaurateur Adam Bannister...

Under pressure again, you know. Just want to try and get it right.

..for a chance to represent Wales in the National Finals.

-Happy?

-Personally, I think that's definitely better than a six.

The ultimate goal - to cook at the Women's Institute Centenary Banquet

at London's Drapers' Hall.

Ensuring their dishes reach the WI's high standards is a guest judge,

Rosemary Bishton.

An Institute member of 43 years, she knows what's expected.

The pastry smells delicious.

Phil is relying on his Michelin training to take him all the way...

-It looks calm over there.

-Organised, chef, organised.

-White wine vinegar, please.

-BLEEP.

..while Adam is hoping youth will win over experience.

Can I have a cooling rack, please?

Adam's looking a little bit flustered over there.

Only one chef will continue in the competition.

I'm about to BLEEP go down rather hard.

-No schoolboy errors?

-You never know until they eat it.

BLEEP.

It's all right, it's all right, it's all right.

The winner is...

Ambitious young chef Adam has pushed himself all week.

After a strong starter, the pressure of the kitchen got to him

and he struggled to reach the same heights.

I made some schoolboy errors this week

but I'm not going to do them today.

I've got to up my game for the judges.

-Good luck today, big man.

-Good luck to you too.

After a mixed week,

both chefs received identical total scores from veteran Tom Kerridge.

Today, they're focused on outshining each other.

Cooking for Tom has been tough. He's one man.

Now we've got four different palates we've got to try and please.

Definitely puts more pressure on you.

'I have to win this. I have to represent Wales at cooking.'

This is what I love. I'm just going to go all out guns blazing.

Judges Oliver Peyton, Matthew Fort

and Prue Leith are examining the chefs' menus.

We've got the Welsh in the kitchen today.

Phil works for Jason Atherton,

obviously a previous winner in this competition and a very

competitive man, so I'm sure he'll have been practising all night.

Adam's been building a formidable reputation in Wales

and he's also worked with a couple of past winners

so I think it's going to be a real ding-dong battle.

-Well, hello, chefs.

-Good morning.

-Good morning.

-You're new to this competition, aren't you?

-Yes.

-What kind of a week are you having?

-Super tough week.

Definitely hardest week of my life so far.

Phil, you work for Jason Atherton. Has he been breathing down your neck?

He's obviously given me some guidance but he's left me

to get on with it and make my own mistakes, which,

-unfortunately, I've made a few this week.

-Are you going to rectify them?

-Of course I am, yes.

-Good.

Adam, how did you find inspiration for this particular menu?

For me it was all about my mother, my childhood

and just good, honest home cooking.

We're looking for slightly better than good, honest home cooking today.

Phil is first to plate up his allotment-themed starter

of a tartar-like gribiche sauce, edible soil

and pickled micro-vegetables with canned ham hock.

He must improve on the six he scored in the week.

You making any changes?

Tom mentioned it lacked a little bit of texture,

-so I'm adding some chargrilled bread with it.

-It could be a wise move.

It was my mistake first time round.

Ham hock terrine, you need a little bit of toast with it

to sort of help you eat it.

The chefs will also be marked by a guest judge, Rosemary Bishton.

A former home economics teacher, who's been a WI

member for more than 40 years, winning an MBE for her services.

-Rosemary.

-Hello.

-Welcome to the Judges' Chamber.

-Thank you.

-Thank you for joining us.

-Thank you.

What we're doing here today is really important.

This is about taking the standards of the WI as a basis

-and building on those, if you like.

-So, Rosemary, are you a cook?

Oh, yes, I'm most definitely a cook.

I grew up with WI with my mother and my grandmother, going to meetings.

So your grandmother, your mother, yourself have been in the WI.

You're a home economics teacher, 43 years' experience.

-You're going to be a tough judge.

-You bet I am, yes, yes!

In the kitchen, Phil is plating up his starter.

Into miniature allotment boxes, he layers up his gribiche sauce

and covers with an edible soil.

He then plants his pickled micro-vegetables.

-Are the pickled veg the same as last time, Phil?

-Yeah.

He adds his canned ham hock...

-Have you got faith in the stock, in the gelatine?

-100%.

..and his new addition of chargrilled,

garlic-rubbed baguette slices completes the dish.

-You all right?

-Yeah.

-Pleased?

-Yeah, very.

If you could place it down

with the tins facing away from the judges, please.

Well done, chef. First one done.

Thank you.

It is the neatest, tidiest,

sweetest-looking little allotment I think I've ever seen.

They've thought of all the elements of why WI first began -

preserving, growing their own food.

I just hope they got the dish

and understood what I was trying to get across.

I hope it worked for them.

I don't think I've eaten edible soil before.

There's a first time for everything.

What interesting is that the little vegetables

have been lightly pickled.

-That's rather nice.

-They're nice and fresh, aren't they?

I think the ham is very good too. Lots of parsley.

The jelly's not rubbery. It sort of breaks up.

Sometimes you appear to be chewing an old tennis ball,

whereas this is really nice.

I was quite happy with it.

The sort of textual change, I think that's going to work.

There's a great deal of skill that's gone into the development

of the dish and then you have garlic bread, for want of a better word,

chucked on the side.

I think the bread is not necessary, but I'm really enjoying it.

I disagree with you about the bread.

I think the bread is an absolutely essential part of this.

This is a good dish from a skilled chef,

but I don't think it's dramatic enough.

I think people would eat this with a real smile.

Adam is next with his winning suckling pignic,

an elevated take on three picnic classics - a pork pie,

sausage roll and scotch egg.

Yeah, it's nerve-wracking, you know,

going up to the judges for the first time, so fingers crossed.

Can I have a whisk, please?

During the week, he pushed himself hard to pull off the complex dish,

scoring an impressive eight, but his salad cream failed to

thicken before serving and he's up against it again today.

Adam's looking a little bit flustered over there.

He's got a lot of stuff going on with his starter.

White wine vinegar, please. BLEEP.

A measuring jug.

Can I have a cooling rack, please?

Adam's serving his starter on miniature picnic tables with

pickled purple heritage carrots

and bottles of salad cream.

-How's your salad cream looking?

-It's a shame it wasn't like it last time.

-Is it thick?

-It is.

Next on, slices of pork loin and black pudding sausage roll

and his pig's head

and quail's egg scotch egg coated in crispy pork scratching.

He adds pork pies hoping they will all be full of jelly,

unlike they were in the week.

If Adam gets this one right,

this is one of my favourite dishes,

so, yeah, he'll get better than an eight.

A traditional picnic hamper completes his presentation.

-Ooh!

-The pastry smells delicious.

It really does.

-The smartest picnic I've ever seen.

-Yeah, me too.

Fingers crossed,

they cut in and there's a nice bit of jelly in there.

The amount of jelly in there is absolutely perfect.

It's nice and strong too. It's really a good flavour.

It's the thinnest pastry I've ever seen on a pork pie.

There's a real pastry skill here

and I think he should be congratulated on that.

-You're confident?

-Yeah.

-That's your ten then.

I think if he had mustard there that would be absolutely perfect.

I think the scotch egg and sausage roll are really a class apart.

First to plate his fish course is Phil.

Lightly smoked sea bass, mussels, cockles, laverbread is a simple dish

that veteran Tom thought lacked impact, scoring it a seven.

I'm not going to change it too much.

Tom mentioned he thought it was quite like a restaurant dish,

which maybe it is, but I was happy with the flavours.

Is it on a hotplate today, chef?

It's on a raging hotplate, chef, thank you very much.

First on to his plate are cockles

and mussels mixed with Welsh laverbread...

I'm going to get a little bit more laverbread in there,

so you get the flavour of the laverbread coming through.

..topped with pan-fried sea bass.

Mussel veloute is poured into serving jugs

before he decorates with whole cockles and sea herbs.

Finally, Phil covers with a smoke-filled glass cloche.

-Happy?

-Yes.

-Whoa!

-Ah!

-Do you think it was better than last time?

-Yeah.

Got more laverbread in there. Veloute was fine.

Let's just hope they get it.

The bitterness and acidity of the sauce has really unbalanced

this dish because it's a very well cooked dish.

If the sauce was correct it would be what you'd

expect in a high-level restaurant.

I agree. It's a very restaurant dish.

I actually think the sauce is delicious.

My only real quarrel with him is the laverbread.

I think it would be so much nicer without the laverbread.

I don't think this is at all nice.

That dish, for me, is just all about the home and WI Anglesea,

the flavours.

To me, it screams WI history.

It is too ordinary. It is glossy but it is ordinary.

For his fish course, Adam is serving up his take

on a salmon and cucumber sandwich.

It scored a seven during the week

but he failed to get his fried bread crispy enough

and his presentation underwhelmed.

You changed much for this one?

I didn't want to go into the judges with a new dish

and take another risk so, fingers crossed,

I'll execute it better and it'll come across better.

Adam begins plating with ribbons of cucumber

but, as he gets his cucumber and jelly out of the blast chiller,

he realises they've frozen.

BLEEP.

I'm about to BLEEP go down rather hard.

Adam's frozen his cucumbers and cucumber jelly,

so he's got to pretty much start again.

This error is having a knock-on effect on the other

elements of his dish.

He's having to remake his salmon and cucumber parcels.

Cos my jelly's had to go back in, the moisture from the salmon

-and the bread has gone through.

-You've got to re-wrap all of them?

I think it's just two. I'm hoping.

And how long's that going to take?

Three minutes, four minutes.

But his rush job means

the bread parcels are coming undone as they fry.

The pressure of the judge is getting to Adam.

He just seems to making a couple of little mistakes.

Do you need a hand with anything there, mate?

Sadly, Phil, I think it might be a bit past rescuing.

-Oh...BLEEP!

-It's fine, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine.

BLEEP. I can't believe I've got to serve it.

He has no choice but to slice up the disintegrating parcels as they are,

adding extra bits of salmon to his plate to hide the worst.

Next, his newly-made pickled cucumber and jelly pieces

and finally, crispy salmon skin.

-Did that go according to plan?

-A million miles away from it.

Absolutely devastated.

Oh, you know what, I hope this dish tastes fantastic, cos it looks awful.

I think the idea of the salmon and the cucumber is a very good idea

and it's a very delicate dish.

The problem is trying to achieve this is very hard.

I had to remake the jelly.

You're trying to do catch up and then you take your eye off the ball.

Cos of that, it knocked me on on the salmon.

-What do you think of the jelly?

-It was just...jelly.

I didn't rate it greatly.

The bread thing's a bit weird for me. There's no flavour to it, is there?

I think it's supposed to be a texture, not a flavour.

Actually, it tastes better that it feels. I mean, the texture is soggy.

Pick yourself up - it's only one course, big man.

It's such a disappointment. It could be a great dish, but it ain't.

At the halfway point, the chefs are moving on to their mains,

as the judges consider their scores.

-We've had a bit of an up-and-down morning.

-What would the WI think?

I think the WI would be very happy with most of it,

but the fish dishes were disappointing.

I've actually been quite pleasantly surprised.

I don't think the scores are low at all.

There's been no tens yet, but we live in hope.

Adam is up first with his main.

An upmarket spin on the home-cooked Welsh classic faggot and peas.

He overcooked the lamb loin in his faggots in the week,

scoring a seven.

My main course was a big letdown when I done it for Tom.

There's great ideas there,

I just need to make sure I execute it correctly,

a bit more sauce on the plate.

Adam needs to hold his nerve to deliver it perfectly today,

and is relying on the classic nature of this dish to appeal

to the WI, in particular, guest judge Rosemary.

Hello, chefs. Hello.

-Nice to meet you.

-Hi, I'm Phil.

I don't suppose everything has gone smoothly, has it?

No. No. Oh, dear.

A few too many mistakes, more than I'd wanted anyway.

Yes, but it's pressure, isn't it? It's very, very hard.

Have you found it tough as well?

Yeah, this week has been an immense amount of pressure.

Well, you just have to keep calm, keep focused.

Any news on how it is going in the judge's chambers?

Comme ci, comme ca!

HE LAUGHS

The heat is on as the chefs move on to their mains.

We've been literally neck and neck all week.

No chance of me resting on my laurels now.

Still two courses to go and I'm going to make sure

I smash those two courses and win this.

Despite struggling with his fish course,

Adam is also determined to stay on track as he plates his faggot dish.

I've got to try and put that behind me

and just try and do my best now in my main and my dessert.

He adds mint jelly

and Jerusalem artichoke mash to homely casserole dishes.

This was only a seven for you for main course, Adam.

Do you think this is going to be better than last time?

-Yes? No?

-I think we'll have to wait and see.

Next, it's spoonfuls of mushy peas,

topped with panfried artichoke hearts.

Followed by his lamb loin faggots.

So the faggots - medium rare loin in the middle?

Fingers crossed.

Finally, he ladles on gravy, and it's ready to serve.

Happy? Looks good.

The nerves are just... I can't shake them, I can't get rid of them.

Ooh!

-Blimey, that's a helping and a half.

-That's a good-looking dish.

I'm going to give this dish points just for that sauce.

It's a very, very confident, assured piece of cooking.

I think this dish sings of thrift and economy and intelligence

of use and the tremendous cooking standards of the WI.

Fingers crossed those loins are pink in the middle

and if they're not - in trouble.

That's really clever, because the forced meat would, you think,

take longer to cook, yet the middle is still pink. Very good.

The fillet of the lamb also is really well flavoured.

I normally loathe mint sauce, but this really works.

It's very nice, it tastes delicious.

This is a classic Welsh dish,

so it would mean a lot to me to get a good score from this.

Fingers crossed!

It has the heft, I have to say, of a Welsh front-row forward.

It absolutely hammers you in the taste buds.

Well, I'm going to mark it highly.

-Are we talking eight or nine?

-Nine.

-Nine!

Nine, maybe even ten.

-It looks a bit calm over there.

-Organised, chef, organised.

-Nice.

I'm petrified about what the judges are thinking.

They can be loving it,

they can be hating it, it's the unknown that is even more scary.

Phil is making small changes to his Hug For Mum lamb dish.

Despite scoring it a strong eight, veteran Tom thought serving

lamb consomme on the side left the rest of the dish a little dry.

I'm going to change the pearl barley slightly,

to have more of a sauce in there.

Still serve the cup of tea on the side,

but then when they spoon the pearl barley over the top of the dish,

they'll get a little bit of moisture out of that as well.

Ready to plate, he ladles his pearl barley, made with extra sauce,

into individual pans.

Onto wooden sharing platters go slices of lamb rump.

-Happy with the cooking of the meat, chef?

-Yeah.

Followed by glazed lamb neck and crispy breast.

He adds blanched baby turnips

and butter-braised turnip chunks.

Lamb consomme is poured into a teapot full of fresh mint.

Serve it with the handle facing towards the guest, please.

-Whoa!

-Hmm!

A teapot.

-Mmm!

-Mmm!

Ahh...

There is something about this teapot that is getting me excited.

Smells good.

-God, it does smell good. Strong whiff of mint on it, too.

-Yes.

-I want to pour it in there and have it like soup.

-You do that.

Do you think that's better than your eight that Tom gave you?

Personally, I think so, yeah.

There's no excellence here.

There's good things here, but there's no excellence.

But there is something that is excellent, and that's the breast.

I love the barley, I love the turnips, because the little

bit of bitterness in there is really great.

And as for the tea, if I'm lying sick in bed, I'll have a

cupful of that, that would see me right in a minute or two.

I think it was a little bit more technical cooking in there,

I packed it full of flavour, so I'm hoping, fingers crossed,

-that they prefer my lamb dish.

-We'll just have to wait and see now.

-This dish is everything the other lamb dish is not.

-In what way?

I don't like it.

I thought that the quality of the lamb was good and I enjoyed it.

I'm not hearing the word great.

Do you prefer this to the previous dish?

-I do.

-Oh...

Under pressure again, you know, just want to try and get it right.

Adam is next with his rhubarb and custard dessert,

inspired by childhood favourites.

Veteran Tom felt the dish had too many components

and a dry sponge, scoring it a six.

How is your sponge?

-The other day it was a bit like sawdust.

-Ooh...

Better today?

To address the dryness of his cake, Adam is brushing with rhubarb syrup.

A little bit of rhubarb juice make all the difference?

No, I just think the sponge

could benefit from a little bit of moisture.

He adds quenelles of baked egg custard.

And decorates with poached rhubarb sticks and cubes of rhubarb jelly.

I've just made it a little bit bigger,

a little bit more distinctive.

Next on are mini Swiss meringues.

And finally, scoops of rhubarb ripple ice cream.

Adam, are you happy with that?

No, I'm a little bit disappointed.

Rhubarb and custard to me is quite special

and I just felt it wasn't quite to the mark.

The jelly is delicious.

Meringues are chewy.

-The sponge underneath has gone like...wet cardboard.

-Soggy.

I think there's quite a lot of skill involved here.

I think the only duff note really is the sponge.

I think the flavours are there, but again,

just let down on small, little things.

The jelly and the rhubarb were both delicious.

I'm going to agree with you.

I think the ice cream is delicious, I think the custard is perfect.

He just needs bells and whistles.

Too many of the elements don't actually link to each other.

I would have been perfectly happy with a plateful of rhubarb jelly.

Me too.

Last to the pass is Phil's dessert.

During the week, his fete-themed dish disappointed

when he overcooked his first batch of almond cakes

and served Tom a raw rhubarb tart.

He's nervous about any mistakes today.

I only got a six for this dish in the week so I'm hoping for,

you know, a better score. But we'll see.

Unfortunately, he already has issues with his almond cakes.

For some reason they've stuck.

-Stuck?

-Yeah.

-There are cooked all right, though.

-A little bit over.

With time running out, Phil quickly redoes them

and carries on with the rest.

I'm not risking anything with this last course.

He scoops his puff pastry ice cream into individual bowls.

I want to show the judges and WI, pastry is a versatile thing -

you can even make an ice cream out of it.

Decorating his sharing cake stand with bunting,

he adds pots of rhubarb jam.

Next, his newly made almond cakes.

Finally, his rhubarb and jam tart

and his dessert is ready to share.

-Done.

-Feel the weight off your shoulders now?

-Yes.

-Oh, my goodness.

-It's a fete.

It's festive. It's fun.

-It looks great.

-Great.

- So, I'm going to hack it in half. - Hack it. Hack away.

PRUE: Oh, look, it's going to be perfect.

-I was super pleased with that.

-Yeah.

-That's how it should have been for Tom the other day.

-Yeah.

Do you think the ice cream tastes of puff pastry?

-Is it supposed to?

-Mm.

-Why?

I can taste the puff pastry but I have to ask Matthew's question, why?

The jam is very nice, very tasty and sharp.

Slightly over-set.

-I think it's not the best tart I've ever had.

-No.

And, in fact, I certainly wouldn't have done

the little, tiny cakes because they're so similar.

Doing pastry for me is risky, scary.

It's not something I do every day, so doing it for a woman who's

clearly got massive experience in baking, it's a scary proposition.

It is nearly there, I would say, and I think he could improve.

Could you see that dish at the banquet?

Yeah, I think it's a great banquet dish.

I think it's on the way to greatness.

I think he could have a little bit more practice, a little more

development would make it a really great pudding for the WI.

Do you reckon you've done all you can?

I gave it everything I could have.

I just wish I'd have done things differently but it's done now

so it's too late now to look back.

I think it's been a really, really tight competition.

There have been a couple of dishes from both chefs, I think,

that have been outstanding. A couple not so wonderful.

Some of the dishes, I felt the WI ladies

might not actually take to their heart.

We're stuck in here, we have no idea what they're saying

so we've just got to wait and see. Fingers crossed.

They're actually very similar, aren't they?

Yeah, they're very precise cooks.

Well, welcome, chefs.

Your menus were just skilfully executed.

It was a real pleasure.

So, Adam, how do you feel you cooked today?

I was little bit disappointed with some of my dishes, you know,

but I gave it everything I could.

And, Phil, what about you?

I was more pleased with my cooking today than during the week,

so I'll just have to wait and see.

The winner is...

..Adam.

HE EXHALES

I don't know what to say to that. Wow, brilliant. I am speechless.

I really am speechless.

It shows.

Your faggot course was just the most beautiful dish.

I gave it a nine.

OLIVER: I also gave your faggots a nine. It was delicious.

Cheers.

Phil, I know that's disappointing.

Yeah, devastating.

This should comfort you - there was one mark in it.

It was that close.

-OLIVER:

-Your first course, I thought it was as beautiful

to eat as it was to look at.

-ROSEMARY:

-I loved it, too.

I gave it a nine.

I can't believe that. I really, really can't believe that.

Yeah, I feel a bit deflated.

You know, I cooked my heart out all week.

You know, I really thought I'd done enough today to get

through to the next round but it wasn't to be.

-'Hello.'

-Hi, you all right?

-'You?'

-Yeah, I've just had the result.

-'And?'

I've got through. I'm the champion of Wales.

'Ooh-ho-ho!' LAUGHTER

-Cheers.

-Cheers, big man.

-Thank you.

Make sure you get one of those dishes to the banquet now.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Represent Wales, do us proud.

I'll keep pushing and running like a lunatic.