North West Dessert Great British Menu

This week on Great British Menu,

three of the Northwest's most acclaimed chefs.

Kim Woodward, the first ever female head chef of the Savoy.

It is a competition.

I'm all guns blazing.

Adam Reed, a protege of Simon Rogan.

Pulling out all the stops then, aren't you?

I don't think I can do anything but, Kim.

And last year's regional champion, Matt Worswick.

I'm not out of the woods yet, I'm panicking out of my mind.

In the year the nation marked the Queen's 90th birthday,

the chefs are celebrating the everyday Great Britons honoured throughout her reign,

and competing for a chance to cook at an historic banquet

at the iconic Palace of Westminster.

Yesterday's main course put Matt in the lead.

You absolutely nailed that dish.

I'm going to give you a score of nine.

With Adam one point behind.

It just didn't have the character that a dish needs to go

all the way through to the banquet.

And Kim crashing into third place.

What let you down was the detail.

Today is the dessert course and the chefs' final chance to impress Phil.

You've got to feel the pressure, haven't you?

This dish is something I really want to pull off.

For one chef, the competition will end.

Commiserations.

Ultimately, only two can go through.

The chefs are competing to create dishes that are a fitting tribute

to our modern Elizabethan age.

Food that tells the story of British cuisine

during the Queen's historic reign, celebrating how far it's come.

Judging these dishes for inventive and outstanding cooking

is veteran Phil Howard.

The dessert course is probably the course I'm most interested in.

I've got a sweet tooth.

I'm very particular about what I want.

Polished, sophisticated, elegant, refined plates of food.

But, at the end of the day,

it's got to be a great dessert for the Great Britons.

Final day today.

I'm really happy with the score that I got. I was absolutely made up.

I think you both know I've got some climbing to do on the scores.

I don't know what you're going for, but I'm going for a ten!

I don't think I don't think anyone can rest on their laurels here.

One of us is going home tonight. It could be any of us.

No-one's running away with it.

First up is Matt.

He's going from strength to strength with his modern reinventions of

British classics and has taken the lead after winning the main course.

It's quite a pack. Seven, eight, nine.

It seems to be improving, but I can't count my chickens just yet.

Matt, how are you? I'm very good, thanks.

Last year, you nailed the main course, bombed on puds.

That's it, yeah. I remember it very well.

Let's not have the same again.

No, I'm going to do me very best to put a decent dish up. Good.

I think I've got the general gist of where Matt's coming from this year,

but come on.

It's going to be peach Melba.

A classic British dish, fallen out of favour.

This dish is everything that I love about puddings.

You know, poached peaches, fresh raspberries.

Just putting a bit of life into it with a bit of a modern twist.

This dish was created for Dame Nellie Melba.

It was a tribute to her and this is my tribute to the dish.

Has it got the scope to be modernised in a way that you did

so effectively with the coronation chicken?

I was very conscious with this dessert to be complimentary,

but just to add a bit of modern technique.

So, with the peaches,

I'm going to poach these in a little bit of a peach liqueur,

so it's going to be nice and boozy.

I'm going to make a peach puree as well,

and I'm going to make a vanilla ice cream.

I'm going to make a raspberry sponge in the microwave.

So, again, it's nice and aerated, not too heavy.

I'm also freezing some of the raspberries with liquid nitrogen,

so you get an instant burst of fresh raspberries.

I'm a real pudding person

and I hope you do this box of wonderful ingredients justice, Matt.

So do I.

I think Matt's peach Melba hits the brief, but it is an old-school dish,

and he's theoretically going to demonstrate where contemporary,

progressive cooking can take it.

So, the ball's in his court, really.

Next is Adam.

One point behind Matt, he may have cooked consistently all week,

but, as yet, he's the only chef not to have scored higher than eight.

I'm feeling good. I've got a very technical dessert,

but, if I can pull it off, I think it's really going to make a statement.

I really want the high score on this.

Hi, Adam. Hi, Phil.

How are you doing? Very good, thank you.

Going to go into this and really try and finish on a high.

Good. OK, name of the dish?

This dessert is going to be called Golden Empire.

OK. The dish is to celebrate the change that Britain's undergone,

away from being the British Empire into the Commonwealth.

OK. How does that translate to food?

The dish is going to also tie in with my brief

by recreating the nostalgic dish of apple crumble.

OK. So, the apple is going to be a compote,

made mostly with Empire apple,

served with a take on a crumble.

It's got oats in there, which are going to be toasted,

and it's going to have hazelnuts in there as well to give it that nutty richness.

But the crowning piece is going to be that it will be served

in a golden Empire Apple.

So, I'm going to blow an apple from sugar,

I'm going to use that to encase the dessert.

Around that will be a Granny Smith apple frozen granita.

It sounds like a brave, all or nothing, kind of...

I think brave's one word. Yeah, yeah.

Matt? I had very similar ingredients last year in my box

and it didn't take too well doing a take on an apple crumble,

so I can't wait to see it!

Adam, I expect you to produce a great apple crumble.

Thank you very much.

Adam's been consistent all week.

He's a good cook,

but if you're going to do a blown-sugar apple

under the scrutiny of a competition,

there's just nowhere to hide with it.

If he was to blow his apple and the other two were to really triumph,

he's heading home.

Finally, it's Kim, in third place after a week of highs and lows.

She won the fish course with nine points,

but scored just six for her starter and main dishes.

I need to fight back the competition now.

The boys are ahead of me and that's not where I want to be.

Hi, Kim. Charged up?

I'm ready. Last course.

I'm excited.

If I was just to try and work out what you're going to do

from that box of tricks, I would struggle actually.

It looks more like you're going to open a bar than cook a dessert.

So the title of this dish is Guards Of The Tower.

OK. Now, my inspiration has come from Beefeaters. Yeah.

These are the ceremonial guards of the Tower.

They protect the crown jewels and, for me, they play a big part

in our British history today.

This is my great grandfather, a Beefeater for the Tower of London,

who served over 24 years in the service there.

Impressive. Yeah. Fantastic. Are you going to do him justice?

I hope I'm going to do him justice, absolutely.

I'm going to do a British classic, jelly and ice cream,

and what I'll be making is a gin and tonic jelly

and I'm going to marry the flavours of the botanicals from the gin

with the rest of the elements to the dish.

So, I'll be making an ice cream from a yoghurt and lime flavour. OK.

And then I'll be using a chocolate ganache with liquorice and coriander,

which I'll be doing in the shape of the jewels,

and then spray-painting them, colourful,

like the Crown Jewels would be.

The jelly, I'll be injecting rose water and red coloured jelly into

to create a poppy.

The centrepiece is the gin and tonic jelly and you're going to inject

into that the red jelly to create the poppy

on the inside of the gin and tonic jelly? Yes.

OK. I'm impressed.

Highly impressed.

It's a little bit challenging for me,

but I'm willing to give it everything I've got now.

I hope you nail it. Thank you.

Good luck.

Kim's run wild with the brief.

It's a super-complicated palette of ingredients to weave together

into a dessert.

As the chefs get started on their desserts,

Kim's weighing up the mood in the kitchen.

Are you feeling the pressure, Adam?

Last course in all of the day?

You've got to feel the pressure, haven't you?

It's a last chance to prove yourself, to show what you can do.

For me, this dish is something I really want to pull off.

Adam's attempting a technically challenging dessert.

He's working on the blown-sugar mix

which will form his apple centrepiece.

He's heated three types of sugar and added water,

citric acid and gold powder,

and then leaves to cool.

I think it's really important on the dessert to really push yourself.

Next, Adam prepares the filling for his golden apple,

which includes an apple compote...

and a baked crumble mix with hazelnut praline.

Bit noisy, aren't you, over there?

Well, you know.

It's no messing about any more.

Apple crumble - didn't you do that last year?

Yeah. It went really well, I got a five(!)

How are you feeling about that, Adam?

I wasn't here last year, so I don't really care.

You know, I'm going to do it well this year.

Matt's making his vanilla ice cream in a micro puree machine

for his modern spin on peach Melba,

a dish invented by the legendary Escoffier at the historic

London hotel where Kim is currently a head chef.

Don't know whether you know it. Actually, I do! Oh, right?

And what are you going to do? Your take on it, are you?

No, more of a tribute than my take.

Tribute. I don't really like deconstructing dishes

because it didn't really go too well for me last year.

Matt poaches his peaches with peach schnapps and vanilla

in the water bath,

then caramelises another batch for the puree,

before moving on to his iced raspberries.

What's going on here?

So, these are my frozen raspberries.

So, just shocked it with a bit of nitrogen.

What's this achieving that a freezer won't achieve?

I'm deep-freezing it straightaway and you shock them by smashing them,

and you break them up into little, small pills.

So, that when they go on the dish cold,

you get an instant freshness of acidity, so it's quite nice.

Makes the dish a bit lighter.

OK.

Kim may be in last place,

but she's also attempting a technically challenging dessert

in a bid to climb up the leaderboard.

It is about taking risks in this competition and I'm going for it.

Kim is starting on the crown jewels element of her dessert.

She pipes lime and yoghurt ice cream into moulds...

..then works on her chocolate ganache,

infused with botanicals used in gin.

I've just put the liquorice in here, the coriander,

get a nice, rich flavour,

and then set them in these jewel moulds I have.

Jewel moulds? Yeah. There's a first for me.

It's about the marry of flavours.

The gin, the tonic, the coriander, the liquorice.

OK. And you're happy with that? I've just made it stronger.

I want to get that punchy kick from it...

especially the liquorice coming through the chocolate.

You're on a mission. Yes.

Kim's dessert is dedicated to her great-grandfather, Henry Sumner,

who was a Beefeater at the Tower of London for more than 20 years.

Hello. Kim? Hello, yes.

Hoping to do Henry's memory proud,

Kim went to the Tower to meet chief warder Alan Kingshott.

If we look here, we can see H Sumner and the date here of 1924.

That's the date that he was enrolled as a yeoman warder.

I have this amazing photograph of my great-grandfather.

We've got some other research that we've done

and we know that he was a Royal Engineer.

He was the rank of Sergeant Major.

I think it's important that we do remember Beefeaters today

and actually what they've done serving for Queen and country.

The job is pretty much the same as it was in great-grandfather's day.

We still look after the crown jewels,

we still guard the Tower of London.

That makes me feel so proud.

Yeomen's warders also take part in state ceremonies and form a guard

in Westminster at coronations.

So, to make sure her dessert is a fitting royal tribute,

Kim gave Alan a taster.

What I have here is the poppy,

inside a jelly made of gin and tonic.

The other element of the dish is the crown jewels,

which I've made with a flavoured ganache.

OK, shall I try this one first?

Yes.

Gorgeous. Thank you.

Thank you very much for thinking of us. This is superb.

It's my pleasure.

In the kitchen, Kim is working on her complex jellies.

First, she prepares a gin and tonic flavoured jelly,

which will ultimately contain a red jelly poppy.

I need the first jelly to set so that I can set the second jelly

and, yeah, I'm panicking right now!

I need my chocolate to set before I can do anything.

My ice cream needs setting.

So, you know, it's hot in this kitchen.

Adam's delicate, sugar-blown apples also require a cooler kitchen.

He gently warms his sugar fondant and then,

aiming for perfect spherical shapes,

he starts to blow through a pump.

I want to be cooking for the judges tomorrow.

I would not be bothering doing this if I didn't.

Current leader Matt is first to the pass.

He's the reigning Northwest champion,

but knows the competition in the dessert course is fierce.

Matt, you're looking a bit tense there. Are you going to be on time?

Yeah. I will be, yeah.

To add another contemporary twist to peach Melba,

Matt pours raspberry puree into the freshly-made sponge mix

before cooking in the microwave.

Classic peach Melba, then?

Classic flavours.

Matt starts his plates with caramelised peach puree.

Next, poached peaches and fresh raspberries,

raspberry sponge, nitro-frozen raspberries and vanilla ice cream.

Holding up in his heat?

Yeah, good. Nice and smooth.

Matt garnishes with freeze-dried raspberries and more peach puree,

before serving it on boards paying homage to honours given out

to great Britons.

First one done. Over the finish line. Pleased?

Yeah, I am, yeah.

What do you think?

It looks tasty. I want to eat it.

Well, let's go and eat it before it melts.

Come on, let's get stuck in.

Peaches, perfectly cooked.

Is there enough ice cream on that dish and enough puree and enough

moisture so that it stays luscious and lubricated to the end?

I think so.

I've poached the peaches, so they should be quite wet,

and you get a big dollop of ice cream as well,

which is what you would expect from a peach Melba.

The sponge, raspberry flavour?

I mean, it gives it a lightness, a bounce.

I don't know if it needs as much.

Does the raspberry actually impart much flavour into the sponge?

I didn't want the raspberry sponge flavour to fight with the flavour of

the peaches or with the vanilla.

It's supposed to complement the peach.

One comment I would have was - does it need some texture?

Does it need something crunchy?

Well, I got the freeze-dried raspberries, but, again,

they're not crunchy. I know what you mean.

We take this to the banquet, we put it down in front of a great Briton,

would they get the fact that it's a progressive peach Melba,

rather than an old-fashioned one?

I think it's fresh. I think it's refined.

Has he elevated it enough?

I don't know.

It does fit the brief,

but just doesn't have a show-stopping element to it.

Adam is next to the pass with his dish, Golden Empire,

but he still needs to finish off his technically difficult

sugar-blown apple centrepiece.

Using a heated copper pipe, Adam makes holes for his filling,

and then, to complete the authentic apple look,

he creates dimples in the top, finishing with delicate,

sugar-spun stalks.

Happy with the result, Adam now moves on to his apple granita snow,

yet another technical element.

What's going on over there?

Just making the apple granita

to go around the outside of my golden apple

and to give it that cold sensation. Nice.

Pulling out all the stops then, aren't you, for this course?

I don't think I can do anything but, Kim.

Hey-hey! How's it going?

MATT: What did you think?

Thought it was a great dish. You've done it justice.

That means a lot. Thank you very much. No, definitely.

Adam selects his best sugar apples.

The hard bit is getting everything inside without breaking them.

Carefully, he adds the filling of aerated custard flavoured with

meadowsweet, hazelnut crumble,

then the apple compote.

They look amazing, mate. Good luck.

Finally, Adam surrounds his golden apples with the apple granita snow.

Just follow me to the pass with it.

So, chef, this is your Golden Empire.

Looks a good dish. MATT: Incredible.

Still feeling confident?

Nothing I can do now, is there?

Come on.

Do you want to do the crack first?

Sure.

Sugar's nice and thin.

Crisp.

Apple crumble is all about mellowness and friendly things.

Then you've got this super-sharp granita on the side.

Does that complement it or does it jar with it?

Sometimes a crumble needs that bit of freshness.

When you want to recreate something,

you need an extra element to take it on to that next level.

It's definitely a contemporary version of an apple crumble.

I think the work involved is incredible.

Really important part of crumble is the way in which it cooks,

the crust that forms, the crunch.

Has your crumble component lost anything in that process?

I've engineered the components so you get a crunch and a chew

of an oat and some soft crumble mixture through there.

I think Adam is going to get a good score from this.

It's worrying, especially when I'm up next.

Kim's last to plate up.

She's making an edible soil

by boiling sugar and water to 121 degrees before beating in white

chocolate for her technically difficult jelly and ice cream dessert.

To finish the soil, Kim adds popping candy.

Next, she removes her lime and yoghurt ice cream,

and liquorice and coriander chocolate crown jewels from the moulds,

before colouring with edible spray.

How's it going? Happy that it's all over.

It was pretty incredible, really, blowing apples out of sugar.

Kim gets to work on her 3-D jelly centrepiece,

a highly skilled technique which requires a steady hand and

jelly set to exactly the right texture.

Well, it's quite nerve-racking right now.

My hands are shaking as well.

Using a shaped syringe,

Kim carefully inserts red jelly into the gin and tonic jelly base

to create a petal shape.

It looks incredible. I'm going to leave you alone.

Then, she finishes with a black jelly stamen.

Kim then reveals her presentation box.

What's in the box there, Kim?

So, this represents the Tower of London and the bed of poppies,

which my big poppy will sit across the light to give it a 3-D effect.

It looks really clever.

Kim fills her bowls with white chocolate soil...

..sprinkles her jellies with poppy seeds,

then carefully places her unique poppy jellies on top of the lights.

The Crown Jewels complete the presentation...

OK.

..along with a pair of white gloves.

OK, guys, can one of you help me?

It's called Guards Of The Tower.

Guards Of The Tower.

I've seen many things in my time, Kim, but I've never seen anything like that.

What do you guys think?

I think it looks really nice. MATT: Impressive, yeah.

It's clever. It's great. The jelly's amazing.

Let's go and try it.

Put the white glove on to pick up the crown jewels.

It fits perfect. It wouldn't fit your big hands.

This is the coriander liquorice ganache.

I don't really get the coriander. I get a lot of liquorice.

Do you think liquorice is a risky ingredient to have so dominant,

given that it's quite a divisive thing?

I think it doesn't overpower the chocolate, because I still get the

chocolate feel from it, but I think it's a great combination with this dish.

MATT: Ice cream's very, very refreshing.

This is obviously quite a technical jelly.

Let's try.

I like a gin and tonic.

Are you happy with the texture of that jelly?

This jelly, for me, is set exactly how I wanted it to.

It's not over-firm.

For me, it's two separate dishes.

Yeah, it's almost as if you get your petits fours with your dessert.

I'd like to just see a bit more going on around the jelly.

I'm going to have a little go at having the whole lot -

a jewel, some ice cream and some jelly - in a white glove.

Do you think that the three together,

the balance of flavours, is right?

I haven't gone too strong in one.

My main part of it is the jelly,

so, for me, it needs to have that initial kick.

The concept of the dish, it's great presentation, it's interesting,

it's vibrant.

It's just I think there's a slight balance there that's lacking.

How are we doing? Hey!

Glad it's over.

I thought that poppy jelly was just stunning.

You know, a lot of heart and soul went into this dish for me.

So, that's it. Alls we've got to do is wait for the scores now.

I really hope I've done enough for Phil.

This dish, I've gone all out. Hopefully, I can get that big score

that you two have got and I haven't.

I am the one behind you guys.

Yeah, I feel nervous.

Hello, chefs. ALL: Hello.

Last course completed.

Matt, start with you...

..with your peach Melba.

I was a little bit worried about trying to reconfigure a peach Melba

because it's such a simple thing, but it worked.

Peaches were luscious, fantastic vanilla ice cream.

You hadn't interfered with what is a wonderful, classic dessert.

I think you delivered exactly what you set out to do.

But, the props I felt, this time, just didn't really support the dish.

It's a pretty dish and I think you could have put it in a glass bowl.

It did get a little bit dry towards the end.

You could have either put a bigger quenelle of ice cream on there,

or perhaps just leave out the fresh raspberries and replace them with

a softer raspberry jelly.

It just wasn't quite a banquet dish.

Kim, your Guards Of The Tower.

The jelly with the poppy inside...

..was so impressive.

Original, never seen anything like that done before.

I love it, particularly when something so simple in concept

is so effective. It was pure class.

The gin and tonic flavour, I thought, worked a treat

and that component tasted every bit as good as it looked.

But, I felt...

..the ice cream with the spray paint just wasn't as elegant as the jelly.

The chocolates themselves,

I just thought the flavour of the liquorice and the coriander

was too strong.

Adam, your Golden Empire dish.

There was one issue for me.

I just felt that the granita was so sharp that it kind of jarred rather

than complimented this lovely, mellow, friendly thing.

I've praised all your cooking this week, but you haven't managed

to show any real flair to create yourself a banquet-worthy dish.

However, this is the dish that changed that.

It was impressive.

Every now and then, you see something that is technical,

that is really beautiful to look at,

but it's absolutely delicious to eat as well.

The apples were, clearly, exactly as they were supposed to be.

So, to the all-important scores.

With a score of nine,

securing a spot in the judges' chamber tomorrow...

..is Adam.

Well done. Thank you very much.

Two chefs are left.

Obviously, only one can go through

to the judges' chamber to join Adam.

Kim, I'm going to give you a score...

..of eight.

Matt...

I'm going to give you a score...

..of eight.

Which means, Matt, you go through.

Congratulations.

Thank you very much.

Kim, commiserations.

You put up some great plates, but, ultimately, only two can go through.

Matt, Adam, good luck.

Good job, guys. Good competition.

Of course, I'm gutted, you know.

I didn't make it through to the judges' chamber.

That's a hell of a lot harder than last year.

I've got to come in fighting tomorrow.

I'm really going to give it my all and try to beat Adam to the post.

That is probably one of the most draining weeks I've ever had.

I'm feeling ecstatic.

I can't wait to show off my menu to the judges tomorrow.

I think it's all strong.

I would love for one of you guys to get one of your dishes onto the banquet.

The Northwest should shine right through.

I want him to live.

So that he can be tried and sentenced

and spend the rest of his life in prison.