Wales Main Great British Menu

This week on Great British Menu, three top chefs from Wales -

last year's champion, Adam Bannister.

Your guess is as good as mine.

Returner, Phil Carmichael.

Touch wood, it's coming together OK.

And newcomer, Andrew Birch.

You can feel like there's a lot of pressure on you today.

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

the chefs are paying tribute to the everyday Great Britons

honoured throughout her reign,

and competing for a chance to cook at an historic banquet

at the Palace of Westminster.

Yesterday, Andrew plated the winning fish dish.

Eight points. Thank you, Michael.

He's now level with Phil, and only one point behind leader, Adam.

The returning champion is fighting to retain his lead,

and make it to the banquet.

It's all about the gathering, celebration,

bringing people together.

But with Phil focused on getting past the judges this year...

The stress levels have just gone up slightly.

And Andrew determined not to be sent home on Thursday...

Life's too short to get stressed, though.

The competition is up for grabs.

Are yours going to be perfect? I'd like to hope so.

Are you going to put, like, a warning sticker with it?

We're here to take risks.

This year, the chefs have been challenged

to create dishes that showcase the transformation of British cuisine

during the Queen's historic reign.

Judging this week is Michael Smith.

A main course banquet winner himself,

he knows exactly what's required.

I think these Welsh chefs are just beginning to warm up.

They've got to make it the spectacle,

this is the pivotal moment for this amazing occasion

for the Great Britons.

You know it's really close.

You know, all three of us are pretty much neck and neck.

I started off with a six, and then got an eight,

so hopefully I'm on an up, and get a few more points today.

I'd like a little bit of a cushion going into the dessert,

and I'm sure you two are thinking the same thing.

Leader Adam is first.

Although he's impressed on presentation

and attention to the brief, his cooking hasn't been faultless.

He knows he has to improve if he's going to retain his crown

and make it to the banquet.

Someone could score a ten, I could score something bad,

and you could be looking at me being at the bottom.

I really, really do like this dish.

The most important thing for me, though, is,

you know, Michael enjoying it.

Good morning, Adam. Morning, chef.

How are you doing today? Good. You've still got a slight lead.

Feeling relieved about that.

So what's the title of your dish, Adam? Wild spit roast.

So already that kind of evokes a big sort of medieval banquet scene,

is that the sort of thing you're talking about?

That's the idea behind it all,

and so I just want to bring it into the 21st-century.

Right. So we've got a nice wild boar saddle here.

I'm going to cook it on an indoor barbecue to get

the same sort of same smokiness you'd get from a spit roast.

What made you choose wild boar?

I think it's an underused meat, because it's not so fatty,

the meat is naturally slightly drier than say pork.

So I've got some wild boar belly. I'm going to use some pigs' cheeks,

because unfortunately I couldn't get hold of wild boar cheeks.

Right. So I'm going to cook them slowly in the oven.

Right. But then I'm going to finish it then with some whisky.

Scottish whisky? It's actually Welsh whisky.

OK. I'm making a shallot and apple puree to bind the cabbage,

the onion and the carrots, so it's almost like a warm slaw.

And then I've got the celeriac.

There is a lot of potential here for a great spectacle at a banquet,

so I'm really interested to see how

you're going to pull all that together. Thank you very much.

Adam's main course sounds like it could be fantastic.

Whose mouth doesn't water at the thought of spit roast?

Phil is next.

So far he's shown he can deliver strong flavours

with skilful cooking, but veteran Michael feels his presentation

lacks the impact needed for the banquet.

I'm still one point behind Adam.

I'm concerned about the comments Michael's been making

about me not having any bells and whistles,

but hopefully that one point isn't going to come back and haunt me.

Hi, Phil. Morning, Michael.

Rested, ready to go.

Good to hear it. So, main course.

What's the title of your dish? The OBE.

The OBE? Yep. Order of the British Empire?

Yep, that's correct, or, for me, that stands for

onions, bacon and eggs.

But this is going to be mind-blowing bacon and eggs.

You know, this is going to be good enough for the banquet.

Just tell me exactly how you're going to elevate that?

For the egg element, I'm going to use quail's eggs.

I'm going to do them sort of three ways.

I'm going to boil them, make little Scotch eggs,

I'm going to crisp up some beautiful smoked bacon

and then coat one of the quail eggs, as well. And this large piece of...?

So this is the heavily smoked bacon.

I'm going to use that to wrap one of the quail eggs.

Yeah, and then to go with that, we've got the pork cheeks,

which I'm going to braise in honey, cloves, a little bit of Madeira.

We've got some cheeky action over here, as well. This young man. OK.

I'm going to make a beautiful, silky smooth onion puree.

And I'm also going to make an onion tuile.

Is there anything that you've tweaked after we had a chat

yesterday about presentation, or is it going to be another white plate?

It's going to be another little white plate, clean presentation.

It's all about the flavour, for me.

Onion, bacon and egg, three familiar ingredients,

he's going to elevate that by preparing them

in lots of different ways.

I just hope that there's some wow factor for this main course.

Last up is Andrew.

After a slow start, his fish course impressed,

with technical execution and attention to the brief.

His confidence is high.

I think my main course is one of my strongest dishes.

Every chef wants to get the main course to the banquet,

so that's what I want to do as well.

Andrew, good morning. Good morning, Michael.

Good day yesterday with your fish course.

What's the title of your main course?

The title of my dish is Welsh Wagyu Wasabi.

OK, what does that represent?

Probably one of the most iconic dishes in Britain,

a roast beef dinner.

I want to use amazing British produce,

and make it a celebratory dish for the banquet.

The people at the banquet, why are they going to appreciate Wagyu beef?

The flavour, the marbling, it's Welsh.

I'm very passionate about using this product.

The only slight twist, instead of horseradish sauce,

I'm making a wasabi sauce.

But I'm using British wasabi.

What else have you got in here?

So, I'm going to be doing roast potatoes in the Welsh Wagyu fat.

OK. A braised red cabbage, I'm doing Yorkshire pudding as well.

You are doing Yorkshire pudding? Yeah, but what I'm doing is I'm going to make them a bit smaller.

And we've got a little bottle here, a bottle of beer? I'm putting it in my gravy,

and this is actually the beer that this Welsh Wagyu

is fed on the farm in Powys.

It sounds like this could be your strongest dish so far, Andrew, is that right?

This dish and my dessert, I think, are my two strongest dishes.

Phil, what do we think of that?

That sounds like a bit of a challenge.

Sounds like fighting talk, to me.

Andrew's representing the diverse projects available in the UK today.

That's wonderful. But a roast dinner?

How is he going to elevate that to banquet standard,

honouring the Great Britons?

As they get cooking,

the chefs are weighing up each other's approach to the main course.

It seemed quite calm and collected up until now,

but I think the stress levels have just gone up slightly.

Are you worried at all, Andrew? You're doing a roast dinner.

Hopefully, the produce I'm using will elevate the dish.

But you're doing bacon, onions and egg.

That's surely got to be risky, as well?

I mean come you're right, but we're here to take risks,

and show how far we've come as a nation of chefs.

You're using boar which is quite unusual, Adam.

Us Britons, you know, we like to try something new, something different.

At the end of the day, it's all about showcasing that product.

Andrew's working on the vegetables for his take on a roast dinner.

Salt baked carrots are in the oven as he makes mashed swede,

and braises red cabbage with wine, port and aromatics.

You can feel like there's a lot of pressure in here today.

To be honest, I just want to concentrate on what I'm doing

and not really worry about what these two are doing.

The star of the dish is Welsh Wagyu beef,

a prime meat originating in Japan.

These cattle are massaged and fed beer as part of their diet,

creating tender meat with rich fatty marbling.

To retain the tenderness in the rump, Andrew's cooking it sous-vide.

I was very impressed with his fish course yesterday.

If Andrew can produce the best roast dinner ever,

he's got a real fighting chance.

All week, Phil has paid close attention to the brief.

His main course is a modern interpretation

of a British favourite - bacon and eggs.

He's cooking smoked bacon in the water bath,

and braising pig cheeks in stock, honey and Madeira.

I remember having, you know, Gammon and eggs

when I was a kid, you know, great flavour.

So I've just taken that idea and just elevated it.

His eggs are from quails.

He's using some to make Scotch eggs,

and poaching the rest.

Hi, Phil. Lots of pans going here. Yeah. What are we doing?

What I've done, actually, with quail eggs, yeah,

I've sort of soaked them in vinegar for literally five minutes.

In here? This is water now, so I've rinsed off the vinegar,

it's done its job now,

it's set the albumin, and then we can just poach it.

This is a well rehearsed technique.

Oh, yes, yes, I've done a few thousand of these in my time.

You seem as if you're really focused today, Phil.

One point behind Adam, neck and neck with Andrew,

we've just got to put everything in it now, you know,

and hopefully that'll be enough

to get me some good points for the main course.

Adam's butchering the British wild boar for his main course,

a refined take on a spit roast.

Boar used to be popular, you know, a long time ago.

It's an underused meat.

I think it's a great alternative to pork, it's got more flavour to it.

Adam's cooking the boar belly in the water bath,

and he's charring the loin on the indoor barbecue.

OK, so it's like spit roast, barbecue...

Yeah, you know, it's outside,

it's all about the gathering, celebration,

bringing people together, you know?

What I think us Britons do well.

But boar's used more in like Eastern Europe, isn't it?

I'm quite interested by you using it for a British banquet.

Because it's a British product. Yeah. Like Wagyu beef.

It's made in Britain, it's the same principle as you. Yep.

Adam travelled to Montgomeryshire in Mid Wales

to visit one of the Queen's Great Britons,

who's also passionate about home-grown meat.

William Lloyd Williams owns an award-winning butcher shop,

and has his own abattoir and smallholding.

The business was established by his grandfather in 1959.

Nowadays, they're the last independent abattoir

in Montgomeryshire.

So what's so special about your set-up here?

It's the quality of the livestock,

it's the loyalty of the customers,

and of course it's the hard work of the staff.

It's shop local to buy local, which is really important to me.

I should imagine that a lot of your customers certainly notice how good

the meat is? The husbandry and the welfare is a big thing.

Low-carbon footprint, traceability, what more do you want?

The meat supplied to William

is some of the least-travelled in the EU.

Their furthest supplier is only 20 miles away.

You can see the passport's on there,

to make sure that we comply with

all the protected geographical indicators. Yeah.

Adam's dish also celebrates British produce,

using home-reared wild boar and Welsh whisky.

So this is Penderyn. So this is not too far away from here.

William received an MBE in 2009 for services to the meat industry.

He's famous for always being ready to take orders

by keeping a pen tucked behind his ear,

and Buckingham Palace provided another opportunity.

Sue Johnson was receiving an OBE for acting, and she said,

"I don't know if anybody's told you, you've got a Biro on your ear".

"Yeah," I said, "I'm a butcher, I've always got a Biro.

"I was just wondering, perhaps the Queen would want a turkey

"for Christmas, and it would be awful if she wanted a turkey,

"and I haven't got a Biro to take the order!"

It must have been a privilege to, you know, get the award,

but I also think you know, coming here today,

and seeing your whole set-up and everything, you know,

I think it's amazing.

We'll toast Welsh agriculture, Welsh meat, and of course the Welsh chefs.

Cheers. Cheers. Iechyd da.

Adam's hoping to maintain his lead

by using many different cooking techniques.

Like Phil, he's using slow-cooked pig cheeks.

Adam's doing spit roast, it's, you know, a lot of different techniques,

a lot of different skills going on there.

His cooking's got to be super precise for that today.

To accompany his meat, Adam's making an apple and shallot puree,

which will bind his warm slaw of carrots, onions and charred cabbage.

It's got some nice colour all the way round it.

Shred it all up now,

so you get the barbecue all the way through the cabbage.

His other vegetable accompaniment is celeriac, cooked in butter.

Lots going on? Yep, yep.

Celeriac in here? Yes, this is the celeriac.

This is just solely butter in here?

Butter melted, and just keep ticking it over until it's nice and soft.

Is there something I that can have a wee nibble of?

My sauce is nearly there.

I used the bones from the animal, and, you know,

I make a stock from it. OK.

Whisky? No, I put the whisky in last-minute,

so it's raw whisky that goes into it for you to actually taste it.

Right. I don't want to interrupt you any more.

On you go. Thank you very much.

In an attempt to make his Wagyu beef roast dinner stand out,

Andrew's using wasabi instead of horseradish.

He's mixing the grated Japanese root, known for its fiery,

herbal flavour, with salt and sugar.

Are you going to put like a warning sticker with it?

"Caution, may be hot."

Because if I think it's horseradish and I pile it all over my dinner,

that's your dinner dead.

It's going to be on the side of the dish, Adam,

so people can help themselves. I think it will work.

Andrew's also making mini Yorkshire puddings.

How many are you giving a portion? They look tiny, mate.

One, two, three, just take what you want to take, to be honest. Yeah?

Are yours going to be perfect? I'd like to hope so.

Andrew. All right, Michael?

How's the traditional roast dinner coming along?

It's going it's pretty busy.

This is gravy, right? I've taken all the trim from the Wagyu beef,

reduced it down, and I'm going to put the beer in right at the end.

I want it to be a refined gravy,

I don't want it to be like the gravy my mother used to make. Ah.

Can I have a taste so far? Yeah, certainly, certainly.

You seem to be pretty on top of things.

When my mother used to do a Sunday roast,

it would take her about five, six hours.

I've got quite a bit of work to bring it all up in the time.

That's because your mum was putting so much love into it.

Or she was watching Coronation Street. OK.

For the onion part of his refined take on bacon and eggs,

Phil is combining traditional and contemporary techniques.

Making a classic onion puree and a modern onion tuile by crisping up

sliced onion in a dehydrator.

Put forth for my dish everything.

No, I mean, touch wood, it's coming together OK.

He's focusing on accomplished cooking

rather than theatrical presentation,

hoping it will be enough to take the lead from Adam.

Phil's a bit quiet today, he's got his head down,

he's got a lot going on, he looks like he's pushing hard.

Adam's also pushing hard, as he's the first to serve his main course

- a refined spit roast, using wild boar.

His warm slaw is served in a side bowl,

with balls of celeriac cooked in butter,

topped with crispy celeriac.

Adam finishes his pig cheeks with Welsh whisky.

Adam, do you think our Scottish judge

is going to be impressed by our Welsh whisky? I hope so, Phil.

I think it's a good whisky.

It's better than most Scotch whisky, if I'm honest.

MICHAEL CHUCKLES

I'm glad you're saying that!

Adam feeds the boar belly, boar loin and pig cheek onto a mini spit.

The sauce is served in a jug on the side.

So, Adam, this is your wild spit roast,

and we just use this as a plate, as well?

Yeah, that's it, I wanted to bring the outside inside.

Let's go and taste it. Gentleman, I'll leave this one with you.

Thank you very much.

Now that we've put the meat on there,

it looks a little bit sparse to me.

Slow braised cheek.

It's nice and sticky, a little hint of whisky,

I didn't want it sort of in your face.

That's tasty, nice and tender.

I can get that Welsh whisky coming through on that pork cheek.

That pork cheek is divine.

Barbecued loin? Yep.

Do you think that smoky flavour is coming through? Yep.

You were concerned that the meat may have a lot of dryness.

I think it's cooked spot-on, myself.

For me, it's gone a little bit dry around the edges.

And the slow braised belly?

I like the little bit of fattiness that you do get on it.

I don't think boar belly's as good as pork belly. Not at all.

So your celeriac, you cooked it entirely in butter,

has it paid off? It intensifies the flavour.

It just tastes like boiled celeriac.

And then we'll try the vegetable slaw.

All the flavours are sort of muddled together.

Do you think this dish showcases wild boar?

I really hope so, I put a lot into this

and you know, I'm happy with what I've done.

Score? I'm going to give him a seven.

As it stands, yeah, I'd give him a seven as well.

All right? How did that go, chef?

Yeah, I was happy. Do you think Michael liked it?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Phil is next to plate up his refined take on onion, bacon and eggs.

The ingredients of his modern dish spell out OBE,

the honour presented by the Queen.

First onto his plain white plates is smoked bacon.

So have you done anything to that bacon?

Glazed it with a little bit of cooking liquor.

Next is the braised pork cheek.

The first of his quail eggs is dipped into maple syrup,

and rolled in crispy bacon crumb.

Next on the plates is poached and deep-fried quails eggs,

wrapped in bacon.

Followed by onion puree...

..and charred onion.

A lot more than bacon, onion and egg, Phil, eh?

Yeah.

Scotch quails eggs...

..cooking liquor,

and crispy onion tuille complete the dish.

What do you think, gentlemen? Very pretty looking dish.

It's a little bit more than onion, bacon and egg,

but I suppose we've got to taste it.

Shall we go and do that? Let's do that.

I'll leave that one to you.

Shall we get stuck in? And we'll start with the Scotch egg.

It's a lovely flavour on the meat.

The egg, it has gone over slightly.

So three different techniques of cooking egg. Mm-hm.

Do you think they all have their own individual flavours?

Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

So the smoked bacon. Is it cooked the way you'd hoped for?

Yeah. For me that's spot-on.

I think that smoked belly bacon's amazing.

The pork cheek. Mm-hm.

Is there enough glaze on that for you?

Yes. You don't want that honey and clove flavour

to completely overpower everything on the dish.

You can taste the honey on the cheek, can't you?

I don't think that cheek's as good as yours.

So this is like your onion tuille.

Crispy, taste of onion, they are what they are, they're nice.

So we have some charred onion.

Cooked in a water bath till they were just tender,

and then you just burn them. I like the charring on it,

maybe a little bit undercooked for me.

Is this main course worthy of the place at that final banquet?

Yeah, I think so, it'll stand a chance

against any of the other main courses.

Phew! How did that one go?

It tasted the way I wanted it to taste.

Yeah?

You know, looked how I wanted it to look.

So how are you getting on, you don't look too stressed.

Life's too short to get stressed, Phil.

Andrew is last to plate his twist

on a roast dinner using prime Wagyu beef.

He's presenting the food as a sharing dish.

Mashed swede, and red cabbage are first into serving pots.

Adam helps serve the salt baked carrots,

whilst Andrew plates the roast potatoes cooked in Wagyu fat.

Wasabi sauce is served on the side.

Strong? Nice kick.

Yorkshire puddings are presented on a platter,

with the sliced Wagyu rump.

Gravy is in a patriotic jug.

The dish comes with a bottle of the same beer

that's fed to the Wagyu cattle.

What do we think, gentlemen? I like it.

Looking good. And we just start helping ourselves?

Yeah, that's the idea behind it.

I think Sunday roast dinner with a beer is a match made in heaven.

I'll take this one. Gentlemen,

I'll leave you that very generous jug of gravy.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Is the beef cooked exactly how you hoped for?

Yeah, I'm happy with the beef, how it came up.

To me that's delicious. It really packs a punch in your mouth.

Probably not as tender as I would expect it to be, being Wagyu.

For somebody that's never had wasabi before...

Yes, it is strong,

but you can put what you want and it works with the beef.

You're brave.

I'd have preferred horseradish.

Very strong flavours in the red cabbage with the spices.

I think the red cabbage is actually freshening the whole dish up.

You cooked the potatoes in the fat from the beef, nice and crispy.

I don't think it's the best roast potato I've ever had.

I'm going to try this mashed swede.

I like the texture you get from it.

That's how I want texture with my swede.

The Yorkshire puddings. They're exactly what I wanted.

These are super crispy.

Maybe that's why he's given us such a big jug of gravy.

Have you done enough with this dish?

With the amazing beef, amazing wasabi,

I think it's a dish fit for a banquet.

It's great flavours, but fundamentally it's a Sunday roast.

It's not a banquet dish, for me. Yeah.

All right, guys? Yeah, how was that? It's what I wanted it to be,

I just hope Michael liked it and he gets it.

This is the worst part.

You know, just nerves. Just got to wait and see, now.

Chefs, how we all doing?

Good day today? Hopefully.

I'm going to start with you, Adam, and your Wild Spit Roast.

Using wild boar was a brilliant, original idea.

I thought you cooked it really well.

It was a good level of smokiness on the loin.

I think the celeriac was absolutely lovely.

However, the slaw -

I find that was overpowered by the shallot puree.

I did find it a little bit heavy.

And it needed something to brighten it, some acidity to cut through.

You described it as a sharing dish, I was a little underwhelmed.

Phil, for your dish, the OBE.

It was a really great reimagining of bacon and eggs, with the onion.

Great flavours throughout. The three quail eggs,

I thought they individually showed real refinement

and a deftness of touch. I loved the smoky bacon belly.

I think this was your strongest interpretation of the brief so far.

However, I'm questioning whether bacon and eggs

could ever be befitting of a main course,

is it show stopping enough to be the main course?

I do though think that this dish potentially

could make a fantastic starter for the banquet.

I would think about that.

Andrew, and your dish, Welsh Wagyu Wasabi.

I think the standout flavours were actually the vegetables.

I thought the swede had texture I enjoyed,

the red cabbage had depth of flavour.

However, the beef for me didn't shine through

as your star of the show, I thought it was a little bit chewy.

Maybe you'd sliced it a little bit on the thick side.

There's nothing new, there's nothing innovative

in a roast dinner, ultimately.

So onto the scores.

Andrew.

I'm going to score you...

..a six.

Adam.

I'm going to score you...

seven points.

Phil.

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

..eight points.

So, one more course to go, there's still only a few points in it,

good luck. Thank you.

Well done, chief.

Well done, man.

Phil has caught up with the leader Adam, and they're joint top.

Andrew is two points behind.

I've got to respect his decision, haven't I?

Feeling a little bit deflated,

but hopefully I can make it up on the dessert.

We're back where we were last year!

I know. Absolutely over the moon with that.

Neck and neck now with Adam,

strong position going into the dessert course.

Two points is nothing. All to play for. Yeah.

I've got to go into the dessert now and I've just got to smash it out.

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