London South East Judging Great British Menu

It's Judgment Day as Michelin-starred returning contender, Matt Gillan...

Your five-point leads, it means nothing now.

..is going head-to-head with rising star, Lee Westcott...

It's going quite well, but I've still got a lot to prove to myself, you know?

..to represent London and the south-east in the national finals.

-Have you got some changes in mind?

-Yes, I have.

And one is definitely to wipe the smug smile off your face on that one, sunshine.

The ultimate prize,

to cook at the banquet celebrating 100 years of the Women's Institute

at London's Drapers Hall.

Ensuring their dishes meet the high standards of the WI

is esteemed food writer and author of the Institute's centenary cookbook, Mary Gwynn.

I'm representing the WI, so I'm going to be tough.

Matt narrowly scraped through to cook for the judges today

and he's determined to put up a fight.

My dishes are designed to go all the way to the banquet.

Standing in his way is first-timer, Lee, who came out on top

of every single course in the week.

It's just two of us now. It's all to play for, mate.

But only one of them will go through to the national finals.

In the end, there was just one point in it.

The winner is...

Matt was bottom of the leader board all week.

But his strong dessert course launched him into second place.

Lee was ahead on the scores, coming into today.

But I've warmed up and I'm ready to just overtake him

when it comes to the judges.

-Good luck, mate.

-Good luck, mate.

Ambitious Lee has led the scoreboard all week with huge

praise for his food, so he knows he must cook them

all perfectly again today to ensure he wins.

Today, there is no second place.

I didn't lead it all week to let Matt come steal it from underneath me.

I think the pressure's going to be on in that kitchen.

With cooking underway, both chefs are gunning for victory.

I'm feeling pretty confident, to be honest. It's just two of us now. You know, the pressure is on.

It's a new day. Your five-point leads, coming into today,

it means nothing now.

Judges Prue Leith, Oliver Peyton and Matthew Fort

are poring over the chef's menus.

Well, Matt has been here before, but he came up against

the formidable Tom Aikens.

Well, Lee is also a very ambitious chef and he doesn't have a

Michelin star yet, but instead, I feel he's pumping up that tyre very fast.

However good they are, they're going to have to shape up today,

because we are going to be just as tough as any WI judge has ever been.

We've both worked for the chefs that have been to the banquet, you know.

But, do you know what? It took Daniel three times before he got there.

LEE LAUGHS

-Fangs are out!

-I'm hoping to do it in two.

-Good morning, chefs.

-Morning, how are you?

-Good morning.

-Easy week?

-I wouldn't say it's been easy.

-Well, Lee, you've had a very good week.

-Yeah, not bad so far.

-Are you feeling confident?

-I am.

I'm in this to win it.

I want to know, did your mums inspire you at all?

For my main course, very much so.

I'm using goat, and my mum and my aunties actually reared their own goats.

So it's something that's very close to my heart.

For me, my mum, she inspired me because, us growing up, there were

six children, so she had to cook for a lot of people.

And she was a great cook.

So, for me, if I don't get a ten, I'm not going to live it down.

Well, you've got to satisfy us, and we have WI standards in mind

and so we are going to be extremely tough today.

Lee is first to plate up his dish of fine raw beef,

beetroot and milk curd.

Inspired by the WI campaign to support dairy farmers,

this complex starter earned Lee a respectable seven points

and he began the week top of the scoreboard.

Looking at the season on the dish, are you going to season your beef this time round?

Yeah, it was a little bit bland. I think it's cos I was rushed, I wasn't checking it.

You know, basic stuff that me and you should be doing.

The chefs will also be marked by a guest judge who knows

the exacting standards of the women's institute.

Mary Gwynn is a renowned food writer,

a champion of home cooking and Institute member.

-Welcome, Mary.

-Hello, Oliver. Nice to meet you.

-You too, you too.

-Let me introduce you to Prue and Matthew.

-Hi, there.

-Hi, Mary.

-Hi, there.

-Mary, do you have an official position within the WI?

-Well, I do.

I've been very lucky and I'm writing the centenary cookbook.

And it's 100 recipes for 100 years.

I've been using books like this little one, which is

The Secrets of Wiltshire Housewives, from 1927.

And these are recipes collected by WI members.

From 1930, a recipe that's in the book,

It says, "If you're feeling as rich as a Wall Street banker,

make this dish with chicken", and it's called Wall Street Chicken.

They didn't like bankers then, either?

-They didn't like bankers then either, exactly!

-Brilliant.

The level established by the WI is extraordinarily high.

I hope you're going to judge equally fearlessly.

Skill, taste, no messing about. So, yeah, I'm going to be tough.

Just been thinking, mate, if I get this through to the banquet,

it's going to be labour-intensive.

I just probably need about 50 chefs.

You're not getting to the banquet.

Lee is confident with the calibre of his starter,

but with many elements, he's pushing hard to get it to the pass on time.

On to a vintage milk crate, he presses layers of fine raw beef

into the casing.

Followed by beef dripping breadcrumbs,

diced, pickled mooli, smoked beetroot and egg yolk puree.

Taking veteran Daniel's advice, he adds extra pickled mooli discs.

To get four starters to the pass on time,

it's all hands on deck for the garnish of foraged herbs.

-You always this slow, Matt?

-Not normally.

Just hindering you, yeah.

Lee completes his dish with mini milk curds.

-Goodness me, it's quite a production, isn't it?

-Very elegant.

-It is.

I love this little churn. It says Mission Milk.

WI have campaigned to support farmers.

It's been an ongoing campaign.

Daniel mentioned that he didn't really see the story on the plate?

Yeah, the little mini milk urns. As soon as they see the Mission Milk,

I think it'll kick in, you know, what the cause is all about.

And then I think actually his milk curd, it has that wonderful

-sort of slippery texture which just dissolves on your tongue.

-Mmm.

You know, Daniel said a few more things, more pickle,

so I put a little bit more pickled mooli on there.

Breadcrumbs fried in beef dripping, and delicious it is, too.

It's the beef underneath which I think is quite interesting, but there's no fat on it at all.

I think all these flavours, particularly the pickling,

are masking the flavour of the beef.

It's not soul food, it's soulless food.

To be honest, that's my dish, that's exactly how I wanted it.

I think this dish has plenty of soul.

I mean, not only is it all about cattle and milk,

it's also about learning from your granny

-and your mummy...

-Which is exactly what the WI is about.

And it's his memories of his childhood, so...

It does have soul in that way.

Matt is up next with his vegetarian starter, Sowing And Growing,

inspired by the WI's passion for home-grown produce.

He made the onion the star of the show, cooking it five ways.

But veteran Daniel felt the dish lacked variety

and scored it a disappointing five in the week.

So, Matt, mate, seeing as you got a five from Daniel,

and I got seven...

In the feedback Daniel said I had too much puree and just

some textures to make it a little bit more interesting, you know.

Essentially, it's just a plate of onions.

First, on to a vegetable box, Matt layers onion puree, pickled onions

and a breadcrumb soil.

Grelot and malt onions and a new addition,

Crispy shallot rings, before garnishing with edible flowers.

You've added some stuff?

I just added some onion rings, some pickled onion.

It looks like there's more going on.

And finally, miniature watering cans filled with onion clove stock.

Wow, man.

Wow. Smells like onions.

Matthew's in there, look.

I love the gnome.

-Two dishes down, man.

-Yeah, two dishes.

Let's crack on that next one, shall we?

-If you don't like onions, you're stuffed.

-Yeah!

THEY LAUGH

Daniel, for me, mentioned the wow factor.

You know, with an onion, you just need to work twice as hard,

especially at the start of the banquet.

We've got onions many ways. The one I like the most is the caramelised onion.

There's a huge amount going on.

There's pickling onion, there's the braised onion,

there's rings, and... It's a bit...

overkill.

Flavourwise it was there, but in terms of texture

there's some shallot rings, and a bit of crunch, bit of raw apple.

I like my first mouthful.

But I think that's all you want of oniony things.

I think it's a real assault on the taste buds.

I think you might end up only tasting onion for the rest of the meal.

It's sort of interesting, really, that he should have chosen to do

a completely vegetarian first course.

I think this dish would greatly have benefited from a dirty big beefburger underneath it.

THEY LAUGH

Next is the fish course.

Lee is first to play up his Modern Bouquet, a complex mackerel

and crispy quinoa dish on a bed of flowers,

inspired by the crafts of the WI.

Veteran Daniel scored Lee nine points but queried

if it could be achieved at the banquet.

-Made any changes?

-I have, yeah, I'm going to simplify it a little bit.

I've cut the fish slightly different so it'll be easier to cook.

-I feel I get that 10 now.

-Yeah?

I got a nine on my fish course, I made a few tweaks,

because I want to try and get a 10 out of it.

Tried to simplify the plating

to be a bit more accommodating for a banquet.

He starts his plate with compressed cucumber balls,

passion fruit gel and crispy quinoa.

He then works on a new element of his dish, mackerel tartare.

That'd be great.

Next, he adds confit fennel,

then his reduced-size mackerel fillets,

the centrepiece to his dish, go into the pan.

Matt helps by pouring cucumber and fennel water into teapots...

Teapots, lids on them, please, Chef?

..while Lee crisps the skin of the mackerel with a blowtorch.

I'm not ready, not ready. 1 minute, please. That's a chef minute!

He completes the dish with his mackerel fillets,

more passion fruit gel and edible flowers.

-Cheers, Matt.

-OK.

Final little push there, Chef!

Ooh! Very exotic!

Goodness me, it's absolutely beautiful.

And this is cucumber juice, I think.

How they're feeling when that smell hits them

and they really get why it's called a Modern Bouquet.

They'll understand it through the flower arrangement.

Underneath, there's little squares of raw mackerel, with passion fruit.

It's a very refreshing dish, actually.

I think the dish, as a dish, is really beautiful,

but I think it's a restaurant dish that he's gone out and got a bit

of dry ice and a few Dutch flowers and goes, "That'll fool them!"

-You confident you can still deliver a good score today?

-Yeah, I will.

I feel I will.

I think it does nod to the WI.

What could be more WI than really pretty bowls, like flower arranging?

I reckon you've given the WI a run for their money

in their flower-arranging competitions, mate.

I really like this dish.

I think it tastes lovely, but it doesn't say "WI".

Matt's Jamming And Canning fish course

honours the WI's well-known skills in preserving.

A complex dish of salmon cooked three ways with two jams,

it was served on a salt block, but veteran Daniel was

critical of its presentation and scored Matt seven points.

With my fish course, originally, the plate was too small,

so you couldn't eat all the elements of the dish together,

which really needs to happen with this course.

Matt swapped the small salt block for a large plate

and he's serving his tomato and bacon jam in jars.

You didn't have this before, did you?

No, it's something that

I got out of Daniel's feedback, and put jams in jars.

Now I see that you're jamming, Matt, where's your canning?

It's coming when they give the scores.

He deep-fries canned anchovies and finishes the cured salmon in the pan.

To a serving plate, he centres seaweed yoghurt,

salted runner beans and a site of salmon and anchovy ballotine.

He then adds deep-fried anchovy,

shallot and caper dressing and cured salmon.

HE EXHALES

It's like a different dish.

It's a plate!

Rather beautiful, bold, in fact. I love it.

Feeling confident on your fish dish?

Yeah, Daniel's comments, that he couldn't really experience the whole

dish because of what it was presented on, so bigger plate,

make more of a theme of the jam.

Well, I think, here, we've got some bacon jam and some tomato jam.

That bacon jam is absolutely lovely.

I'm happy with the changes I've made,

so I'm convinced they will have pushed my scores up.

These jams should be the integral part of the dish.

They should be what bring it together, and they don't.

He's made a dish and thought,

"How can I link this to the WI? I know, I'll bung on some jam."

The smoked salmon is so over-salted, it's horrible.

Where was the canning?

It was with the anchovies.

I think the judges will be switched-on enough to realise

that they are tinned anchovies, and that's my nod to the cans.

I don't think rolling smoked salmon up in anchovy does any good at all,

except to make it more salty, and it was already too salty.

So, Prue, is this dish worth preserving for the banquet?

No, I'd can it!

THEY LAUGH AND GROAN

At the halfway point,

the chefs are moving onto their mains as the judges consider their scores.

Do you know, I'm just a bit disappointed.

This morning, I haven't felt that heart, that warmth.

My glass is half-full, because I believe we're going to get better.

This glass should be completely full, not just half-full.

I feel there's better to come, I really feel there is.

Matt is up first with his main course, Teaching And Preaching,

inspired by the WI's waste-not, want-not, ethos.

A complicated billy goat dish that calls for every cut of meat.

It scored a strong eight.

-Do you think it will do your mam and that proud, Matt?

-I think so, yeah.

They're used to goat curry, that's what I've grown up on.

To do it as many ways as I am, I think they will be proud.

Matt's under pressure to deliver his ambitious goat to snatch victory

from Lee. And he hopes guest judge, Mary, will be impressed.

-Hello, chefs! Hiya!

-Hiya.

Well, I've come because I'm currently writing

and researching the centenary cookbook for the WI,

so I've spent the last year with over 200 cookery books like this,

getting inspirations.

This one's from 1927. There's some great quotes in here.

This is "for our grandmothers, from whom we've inherited

"most of these recipes", so, that's where the WI are coming from.

They pass recipes down.

So, how's it going in the judging chamber?

-Am I a couple of points ahead of Lee?

-Hopefully not.

It's all been going on in that judges' chambers,

but I'm excited for this afternoon, so don't let me down, chaps.

-I'm rooting for you.

-Thank you.

-Good luck!

Right, let's crack it back to it.

Having prepped his goat ragout, Matt starts the herder's pie,

a version of shepherd's pie.

He then moves on to his kidney and fillet boudin sausages.

What changes have you made to your main course?

I've changed the shape of my boudins, so I've made more kind of a bonbon.

I've put a little bit more meat on there.

Daniel wanted a celebration of goat.

In order to do that, it needs to be kind of spilling off the plate.

They probably won't have room for yours, to be honest!

Because, you know, it's gone to smash yours out the park!

He adds it to a sharing platter with baby leaf spinach,

goat fat dumplings and kidney fillet boudin

followed by sliced goat shoulder, salt-baked leg and goat loin...

-Just fill that up.

-Fill them up, with the sauce, yeah?

..accompanied by goat sauce in serving jugs.

To plate, he sprinkles dehydrated goat's cheese rind,

caramelised pineapple, goat's cheese and goat jelly cubes.

-Ho!

-Think you'll be able to do that for the banquet?

I'm confident I can deliver that for a banquet.

-Wow!

-Wow!

Cor, it's got a whiff of cheese about it!

And that goat just looks amazing.

It looked like a beast to me, and a good one.

-Mmm!

-Mmm!

That slow-cooked shoulder is a cracker.

Looks absolutely beautiful.

Any moment now we'll all break into a chorus of "Jerusalem"!

Hmph!

And does everyone know the words?

You're not allowed a hymn sheet!

Today it's been pretty tough. And we're pretty much put off.

I'd be silly, and so would Matt, not to be nervous.

It fulfils the brief, I think. It's a joy.

I do think he could present it a little better.

I agree with you. Needs a bit of theatre.

Lee is also taking a risk,

serving a complex main course of smoked pigeon and cauliflower.

Its presentation evokes the World War II hay box cooking method

championed by the WI.

Veteran Daniel felt it would be a struggle to serve at the banquet

and scored it a eight.

Er, Lee? I thought you were simplifying this!

I took one of them off.

-And that's saved you some time?

-Yeah, a little bit.

Gunning to plate up perfection and bag a ten, Lee starts by adding

yeasted cauliflower puree to a serving plate, and capers.

You've got loads of elements going on.

Even without the one you took off.

Next, roasted cauliflower, pickled grapes, raisins,

sliced cauliflower and mint leaves.

He fills feuille de brick crispy rolls

with pigeon leg and shallot confit

and drizzles with mint oil.

Matt, if you don't mind, put a few breasts in each box, please.

-Yep, just as is?

-As is, please, Chef.

Pigeon sauce is poured into serving jugs

and the hay is lit

to smoke the pigeon breasts in the box.

-I thought I was busy!

-That was a bit more busy than I thought!

Yeah, yeah.

Oof! More plates!

This little military chest,

which I think is meant to be a hay box, has got in it pigeon breasts.

Yum! Well, this is certainly not a simple dish.

The hay box is such a WI method of cooking,

and there's a lot about it through the war years.

Good job you simplified it.

I think I've got to simplify it one more time!

-I think you should!

-THEY LAUGH

It's great gravy.

It's a compendium of modern cooking techniques, really, this,

because it's got a bit of the old seared cauliflower.

And this is actually cauliflower puree and it is delicious.

He's used the whole pigeon, the leg, it's crusty, with a lovely,

crunchy outside, a long-cooked, fibrous leg.

I think it's an excellent piece of cooking. I mean, I really do.

Technically, I think it's all right on the money.

I absolutely love this dish,

and I have the feeling that the WI would love it.

I don't know if we could do that for lots of people for a banquet,

but I hope we could.

In the kitchen,

Matt is plating up his complex Back To Black (And Yellow)

dessert, inspired by the WI campaign to save our bees,

which saw him through to the judges today.

To increase his chances of winning, he's adding an extra element.

-What's in there, Matt?

-It's my bee pollen tuile.

-You didn't have enough going on before?

-No, no,

I thought I'd really push myself today.

On to a honeycombed themed box, he places honey cakes,

set-honey yoghurt and white chocolate and honeycomb mousse.

He pipes on mead and lemon curd and mead and lemon gel.

-This OK, this tuile, Matt?

-It's a bit chewy, to be honest.

More changes were needed on my dessert,

and I tried to enhance it a little bit with a bee pollen tuile, but it

just didn't work, so I just wasn't going to send it to the judges.

Bee pollen tuile abandoned,

Matt completes his dish with honeycomb and fennel sorbet.

-How you feeling, mate?

-Bit upset that the tuile didn't work.

I think this is so elegant and beautifully designed.

Well, the question is, does it taste as good as it looks?

I've kind of took Daniel's feedback on board about the sponge.

I thought it was too much, the dish was too big,

so I went with two smaller sponges.

I think the sponge is much too dry, for me.

You've got an odd, chewy texture on the outside.

-I think that's from the honey.

-Yeah.

Honey's always very risky as a pudding.

You know, the strength of flavour of the honey is always a problem.

I think the sweetness was coming from the glaze the sponge,

so I reduced that massively.

In terms of everything else, I kept it the same.

I think the fennel sorbet's absolutely wonderful.

And I think that if you actually doubled the amount of fennel sorbet

and halved the amount of honey, I think

you would have the makings of a really nice pudding.

Lee's Honey, Where Would We Bee Without You dessert is also

inspired by the WI's honey bee campaign

and features a savoury ingredient - cep mushrooms.

A risk that won over Daniel and earned Lee a nine,

despite messing up his honeycomb.

-This is honeycomb.

-How many times have you done that so far today?

This is the first time today.

If it's not working out, I do have a little bit spare.

Just fingers crossed that this one works.

He starts by rolling the honeycomb parfait tubes

in cep mushroom crumble.

To a honeycomb themed serving block

he adds the cep crumble and cep meringue cake...

It's a bit of a gamble, this one because I don't think cep's

going to be everyone's cup of tea, but I just love it.

..followed by natural honeycomb parfait,

honey jelly and edible flowers.

So, moment of truth, Chef.

-That sticking to your teeth?

-Still a little bit chewy, that, yeah.

-No, I'm not going to put it in.

-Not going to put it in?

I'd rather not put something in that was wrong. Pull it out.

Lee decides not to serve the honeycomb

and finishes the dish with yoghurt sorbet and toasted bee pollen.

-Ha-ha-ha! Amazing.

-You girls look lovely. Thank you very much.

-HE EXHALES

-Last dish.

-MATT EXHALES

Oh, dear!

THEY MURMUR APPROVAL

Oh, look, that's really nice!

-Think it'll make them laugh, initially.

-Yeah, I think so.

It would be very dramatic, all the girls coming into the banquet

dressed like that and bringing these wonderful plates.

We've got cep meringue cake.

-Do you think the judges are going to get the cep?

-It's a risk. Maybe not.

But it's a risk that I'm willing to take.

What have ceps got to do with bees?

My answer to that would be absolutely nothing whatsoever.

The cep is staying with me and I really don't like it.

-I like the jelly, funnily enough.

-Jelly's really nice.

Can't wait to have a bit of jelly. Bit of fun.

What Lee's very good at, I mean, he's a very visual chef.

This looks tremendous.

Disappointed about this honeycomb.

I don't know what went wrong.

Where's the honeycomb? That's not honeycomb.

The one really potentially interesting element he left out.

-Oh, the honeycomb.

-The honeycomb.

Today's been... It's very level.

I think it's going to be a tight decision for them to make.

I have absolutely no idea, really, who's actually pulled it off today.

I think it's neck and neck, I really do. I can't call it.

-It's just a waiting game now, mate.

-Yeah, it's down to the judges.

May the best man win.

We get these cracking main courses, which are so good that

we forgive the starters not being perfect

and the fish course being, frankly, not been good at all.

Good luck, mate.

Both of the chefs have given me things that

I really, really want to eat again. Both of them have given me things

-I really don't want to eat again!

-Absolutely.

Welcome, chefs. I imagine it's been a little bit tough

-out there in the kitchen.

-Yeah, it has.

-It's been a busy day, yeah.

Well, Matt, you've been in the competition before,

but this is the first time you've actually cooked for us.

-Do you think you've done enough today?

-I really hope so.

I have nothing more to give, so...

Lee, you've been in the lead week,

-so are you still feeling confident?

-Today, we both cooked our hearts out.

We're on a par today, I think.

I'm sure you want to know which of you has won and when we came

to do the final addition, in the end, there was just one point in it.

Now...

And the winner is...

..Matt.

-Well done, mate. Well done.

-One point.

How do you feel?

A little bit stunned.

Lee, I'm really, really sorry. It was that close.

You must be feeling pretty unhappy.

Yeah, I'm pretty disappointed,

but Matt put up some incredible dishes today. The best man won.

Matt, I absolutely loved your goat dish.

-In actual fact, I gave it a ten.

-And I gave your goat dish a ten too.

I thought it was wonderful. It came from your heart.

-It was just what the ladies in the WI would appreciate.

-Thank you.

Lee, for me your outstanding dish was the pigeon.

-Just a joy to eat and I gave it a ten.

-I did too, really.

Not only exquisitely executed,

but with wonderful taste surprises in it.

It was just a beautiful dish.

Well, thank you both very, very much indeed.

You've given us an enormous amount of pleasure

and now, I think you'd better go off and have a very stiff drink.

-Thank you. Thank you very much.

-Thank you very much.

Erm, I can't believe it. I'm over the moon.

There was one point in it between me and Matt.

For me, I think it must have been on the dessert. It must have been that.

-Hello, Mother.

-'Yeah?'

-I've won the region.

-'Oh, my word!'

I'm a little bit of an emotional wreck at the moment, to be honest.

'Oh, I'm so proud of you.'

How are you feeling?

Yeah, I'm...chuffed to bits.

-You should be, mate.

-I've loved cooking with you.

You too, mate. I'm sure you'll smash it anyway. Well done. Cheers, man.

I'll get a dish on that menu for all of us.

-That's well needed that is, ain't it?

-Oh, yeah.