Wales Dessert Great British Menu

This week on Great British Menu,

three competitive chefs from Wales.

Last year's champion, Adam Bannister...

I'd like to think that I'm going to be all right.

..returner Phil Carmichael...

I think it's a fitting way to sort of say thanks to Her Majesty. Yeah.

..and newcomer Andrew Birch. So, you're ripping off Tom Kerridge.

I'm ripping off Tom Kerridge.

In the year the nation marks 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 Palace of Westminster.

Yesterday, Phil plated his first winning dish of the week,

putting him level with Adam at the top of the leaderboard.

This was your strongest interpretation of the brief so far.

Andrew's main course underwhelmed and he's back in third place.

Today's dessert course is the chef's last chance to impress

and make it through to the judging chamber.

I need to get a high score for this.

There's no room for errors.

Phil, Phil, Phil, Phil!

One chef will be leaving the competition.

If Michael doesn't like honey, I'll get another six.

If this isn't set, nothing else works.

Whoa, man.

You're not happy with it, are you? No.

It's a bit irritating, actually.

The chefs are battling to create dishes that are a celebration

of the complete transformation

of British cuisine during the Queen's historic reign

and a fitting legacy to our modern Elizabethan age.

Looking for inventive and contemporary cooking

is veteran Michael Smith.

The dessert course is a wonderful opportunity to inject

creativity, to inject fun, to really finish the banquet with a bang.

Me and you are neck and neck, Adam, you're only two points behind.

One of us is going home today. Just got to get in there and nail it.

I need to be getting a nine or a ten to be cooking here for the judges

tomorrow. I'm confident with my dessert, I think it's a ten.

Wow.

First is Phil. His simple presentation cost him points

earlier in the week, but after plating a winning main course,

he is confident he has what it takes to stay in the competition.

Going to give everything in this dessert course.

One of us is not going to get through to cook for those judges

and I'm going to make sure that's not me.

How're you doing, Phil? Very good, Michael.

How do you feel after your main course? A lot more confident.

Yeah, you gave me a very good score,

so it's given me a little bit of a lift.

And you're at the same position as you were this time last year?

Yeah, exactly, tied with Adam again, so there's nothing in it again.

My dessert course is A Cup Of Tea For Ma'am.

So, this is my way of honouring Her Majesty the Queen.

Reportedly, Earl Grey is the Queen's favourite tea.

I'm going to make that into a panna cotta

and beautiful little china tea cups.

I'm also going to take some oranges,

make an orange powder out of the skin,

blowtorch the segments a little bit

and then also make an orange gel.

On the sides, you get some sugar.

The brown sugar cubes

are going to be made out of a cocoa nib shortbread.

Cut them into, you know, sugar cube-size pieces.

Dust that in, little bit of cinnamon sugar.

And then for the white sugar cubes,

I'm going to make some dehydrated milk foam.

All right. And then cut that into little cubes to make the white cube.

Lots of processes.

Contemporary twists on classic, iconic desserts.

That sounds really intriguing.

I'm really looking forward to trying this, Phil. Good.

Phil always has well-balanced flavours,

he always has great contrast and texture,

it looks like he's going to try and do that again with many elements.

It sounds like he's also going to have some fun,

finally, in his presentation.

Next is Adam.

He's taken risks all week with complex cooking and bold

presentation and he's topping the leaderboard with Phil.

But the scores are so close,

he has to keep fighting for a place in the judging chamber.

The nerves are on, I really like my dessert,

I think I could see it all the way at the banquet,

I've just got to make sure I deliver it.

How are you doing, Adam? Chef. Your final course.

My concentration is all about getting this dish perfect.

So, it's Eton versus Harrow.

I wanted to honour sports and education.

Eton mess, you know, is thought to have started at the annual

cricket game between Eton and Harrow. Really?

There is lots of other, you know, theories of where it started,

but that's one of them. There's a definite element of fun with this.

I'm going to be serving it on a cricket pitch,

you're going to have a cricket bat and, you know,

you're going to make it messy yourself.

OK, well, that's definitely got my imagination going.

I'm doing some compressed strawberries.

I'm going to be making a strawberry jelly,

light strawberry dressing and then I've got some clotted cream.

So, I'm sort of making almost like an aerated sort of mousse.

OK, and, obviously, meringue is a major component of Eton mess.

Yeah, I'm shaping it as a cricket ball. Turning it red so, you know,

it visually looks like a cricket ball then.

Phil, how do you like the sound of what Adam's doing?

I love it, I think it's going to be an absolute knockout dessert.

Eton mess is, fundamentally, a simple dessert.

I don't think Adam's dessert sounds simple in any way.

He's making a cricket ball out of meringue.

That's going to be a tough job.

It could be a right mess, rather than an Eton mess.

Finally, Andrew.

The newcomer's had a mixed week and despite some impressive cooking,

he's in third place, but he's not giving up hope

on getting to the judges' chamber.

I found this week a bit of a rollercoaster ride,

it's been difficult,

but I just need to put my head down, crack on and do the best I can.

Hello, Michael. Andrew, how are we doing, Chef?

Yeah, good, I'm all right.

Course you're all right and there's still

everything to play for, only a couple of points in it. Yeah.

A lot can happen at this stage, believe me. So...

The name of my dessert is Honey And Lemon.

It really represents a lot of hard work by some really great people

in this country.

It's about the honey bee and about preserving the honey bee.

I want to get honey on the plate in as many different ways as I

can to highlight how versatile honey is. OK.

I'm using this amazing Welsh raw honey, straight out of the hive.

What are you going to do with it? I'm going to be putting it in a gel,

there's going to be a bit of honey through the toasted oats.

Honey and oats, quite a classic combination. Yeah. Bee pollen...

honeycomb. OK.

I'm going to make a sheep's curd mousse,

a lemon granita,

but I'm going to use dry ice to set it. OK.

I think you're underplaying this slightly,

I think you're holding your cards very close to your chest and...

I like this dish and I think it can do really, really well.

Once again, it's wonderful Andrew's honouring the great British

producers and suppliers. Is honey to everyone's taste?

Not sure about that, but he's confident in that dish

and I really hope that he delivers what he's aspiring to.

As the chefs get cooking, Phil and Adam are remembering what

happened last year when they each scored six for their desserts.

Wasn't my strongest course. Yeah, made a few mistakes,

so sort of simplifying it a little bit this year.

Hopefully I do enough to get through to the judges.

I've got some tricky components, but I'd like to think I'm

going to be all right, we want to be scoring more than sixes.

I certainly want to be scoring more than six, I've had two sixes so far

and I've had an eight and I want to try and get even higher than that.

Andrew is making an unusual mousse using sheep curd for his

honey and lemon dessert, which honours local producers.

It comes from a small little farm, it's not like a really light

mousse, you can mould it on the plate and it will hold its weight.

Right, OK.

He's using different elements and textures

to showcase Welsh honey, including a honey gel made from

a lemon thyme-infused syrup, raw honey and lemon juice.

Both your dishes are quite traditional and mine isn't like

a traditional dessert, do you know what I mean?

And if Michael doesn't like honey?

If Michael doesn't like honey, then I'll get another six.

Hi, Andrew. Hi, Michael.

So, this is the honey gel? Yeah.

Can I have a little taste? Yeah.

There's honey in it, water,

a little bit of lemon juice and then it's infused

with a little bit of the lemon thyme.

Lemon thyme's in, like, two or three other components

of the dish as well. It's quite a potent flavour, isn't it? Yeah.

You seem very calm, you seem very organised.

I'm a calm person, Michael, I'm an organised person,

I'm just trying to keep my head down,

concentrate on what I'm doing and not worry about these two guys.

OK, I'll let you get on with it. Thank you.

Adam's modern twist on Eton mess is inspired by those honoured

for achievement in sport and education.

He's working on his strawberry elements - strawberry sauce,

compressed strawberries and strawberry jelly.

All the classic desserts are quite simple,

but they're only great if they're executed correctly.

Imaginative presentation has helped Adam stay in front all week

and he's hoping his highly creative dessert

will see him through to the judges for a second year.

What's going on here? These are going to be my cricket balls.

This is meringue?

Yeah, so nice and crisp. Right. I'll spray them red.

And then, obviously, put the two together, which makes your ball.

Anything going inside these cricket balls?

Everything's going inside it, so all you'll see is the cricket ball...

OK. ..on a cricket pitch...with a cricket bat.

Right, full of delicious yumminess inside.

Hopefully you're saying that to me afterwards.

Phil, Phil, Phil, Phil!

Phil is making the main element of his dessert.

It's always the way. Turn your back on a pan of cream

and it will boil over.

Still got enough.

To make his panna cotta worthy of honouring the Queen,

Phil's heated cream infused with Earl Grey tea,

said to be a favourite of Her Majesty.

Your panna cottas are going in now, then, Phil?

Yeah, got to get them in now, otherwise they won't be set in time.

You worried about that? Ask me in about... BOTH: 45 minutes.

Fingers crossed, otherwise I'm going home.

This is the main component of the dish and if this isn't set,

nothing else works.

Phil's simple presentation has been an issue this week,

so today he's hoping to win points from veteran Michael

with a vintage-style tea set and attention to the brief.

I think, you know, it's a fitting way to sort of say thanks

to Her Majesty and honour the great Britons at the banquet.

OK, nice.

One of those great Britons is Sheila Davies,

who lives in Barmouth on the west coast of Wales. Bye.

Sheila received a British Empire Medal

for services to the community at her local primary school.

I have been a lollipop lady for over 40 years and I have every

intention of staying as long as I possibly can.

Phil visited Sheila at the school where she's been helping children

safely cross the road morning and afternoon since 1974.

So, this is where you keep the children safe, is it?

This is where I work. Brilliant. Yes.

Every year you get new kids - do you know all the kids by name?

Yes, I do. Wow. There is 240-something.

That's a lot of children to keep safe.

Oh, there is a lot of children. Oh, yes.

When Sheila was awarded her BEM, she chose to have it presented

to her at the school,

so the children could be a part of her special day.

The Lord Chief Justice came to present me with it

and the children thought he was magnificent.

This is gorgeous. Wow. That is beautiful.

That's beautiful.

It's a lovely thing to have been given you. Yes.

Having been honoured,

Sheila was also invited to a special event held by the Queen.

I did, I went to the tea party that she holds in Buckingham Palace,

which was lovely.

We had gorgeous tea.

What is it that, you know, you love about your job?

I love the fact that I am with children.

I don't really think that you grow old,

because these children keep you younger.

So the school really is a massive part of your life and you're a

massive part of the school's life?

Oh, yes, because I really do love it, you know.

Can I get over you, mate? Stay where you are.

Phil has baked his cocoa nib shortbread, which he's cutting

to resemble brown sugar cubes, but he's having problems with

his white sugar cubes.

The milk foam should dry and firm up in the dehydrator before it's

diced, but the mixture has collapsed.

I'm not going to serve Michael something I'm not happy with.

It's the pressure of the kitchen, I think.

Could be anything, could just be nerves - it just hasn't worked.

Phil puts another batch of milk foam in the dehydrator

and moves on to his orange gel, hoping for the best.

Phil, how are things going?

My milk sugar cubes aren't working out, I don't think I'm going to

have enough time to get them done and get them dehydrated in time.

When you were talking to me before, you said there were

brown sugar cubes and white sugar cubes.

Brown ones are done, you might have to have your tea

with just brown sugar.

Well, maybe that's the way Her Majesty likes her tea. Hope so.

Who knows? Well, I'm still very intrigued to see

how this cup of tea is going to turn out.

So am I. I'll let you get on with it.

Thank you very much, Michael.

Adam's making a cream mousse,

setting clotted cream with gelatine and aerating to lighten.

He's also going to great lengths

to finish the meringues for his quirky take on Eton mess...

What have you got going on here? My cricket balls. Wow.

..even replicating the white stitching on the balls.

What is it? Like a red food dye, you just sort of spray it on?

Yeah. Wow, it looks amazing.

Andrew is also using contemporary techniques for the lemon

element of his honey and lemon dessert. What's going on here?

This is for my granita, using dry ice.

I knew I had to get granita set in a certain amount of time.

This will set it in about three or four minutes,

I could put it in the freezer and forget about it.

Andrew's dish, I can't visualise it.

I'm sure he's going to bring it together,

but I don't have a vision in my head of what it looks like.

The final elements of Andrew's dish are toasted oats and oat biscuit.

He's hoping sweet and sour flavours along with soft and crisp

textures will impress veteran Michael.

I think it's the type of dish he's going to love

and give me a good score

or he's going to hate it and give me a lower score than the two

sixes he's already given me. Yeah.

Phil is first to serve his dessert honouring the Queen,

but after two attempts trying to make his white sugar cubes,

he's had to make a difficult decision.

My milk sugar cubes didn't work, so I'm not going to use them.

Obviously it's annoying that one component of the dish didn't work,

but I'm not going to serve something that I know is not right.

Phil dusts his cocoa nib shortbread sugar cubes in cinnamon sugar

and serves them in a sugar bowl.

His Earl Grey panna cotta is served in vintage-style teacups,

topped with charred orange segments and orange gel.

Orange powder finishes the dish.

There you go, nice Cup Of Tea For Ma'am. Fingers crossed.

It looks very, very clean, it looks really, really nice, actually.

It looks like a cup of tea.

OK, shall we take one cup of tea and one bowl with sugar cubes,

is that right? Yeah.

So, first and foremost, the panna cotta,

has that set just the way you were hoping for?

Yeah, it's still nice and, you know, creamy.

Yeah, I think it's a nice texture on the panna cotta.

I think the tea comes through just at the end.

I didn't want it overpowering, it can be a very bitter,

sort of astringent flavour if you get too much of it in there.

Orange gel, is that to counterbalance

the slight richness of the cream? Yes.

I like the texture of the orange gel, but it's not

kicking me in the face with orange.

It isn't as pungent as you'd hope.

We've got some orange segments

that have been charred.

I burned the oranges, again, to sort of cut through that

richness of the cream.

I know you said that the white sugar

cubes didn't quite work for you.

It's better that I don't serve you

something that's incorrect.

These sugar cubes add a little bit of texture,

is that what you were hoping for? Yeah, yeah.

The cocoa nibs add just little bursts of chocolaty flavour.

I like the shortbread, I like the cinnamon on the outside,

I'm not getting the cocoa nib.

Do you think that this presentation is fitting for a banquet?

It's not a whizz-bang show stopper, but I think, yeah,

it's interactive, people can be passing the sugar cubes around.

I'm not in love with it.

Could I see it being at the end

of the banquet? I'm not sure.

Andrew is next to plate his Honey And Lemon dish,

inspired by Britain's honeybees and local producers.

Raw Welsh honey is served in a honey pot, honey and lemon

infusion is presented in a teapot with lemon thyme.

How did it go, Phil?

Yeah, you know, obviously a little bit annoyed about

the milk sugar cubes, but I think everything else worked for me, so...

you know, I've done all I can. I'm pleased with the dish overall.

So far, Andrew's dish has been a bit of a mystery,

but he's ready to reveal his presentation.

It looks as though you've got a cornucopia of lemons going

on there, mate.

There's going to be dry ice in there and then pour it over,

just a bit of theatre, just to try and enhance the senses,

lemon, honey, but it's not there to be drunk. OK.

Andrew's sheep's curd mousse is first onto the plates,

with oat biscuit crumb,

toasted oats

and bee pollen.

Next on the plate is honey gel

and lemon thyme.

Andrew finishes with fresh honeycomb and lemon granita.

If you bring the little teapot up, that would be amazing.

So, what have we got here?

It's just a bit of fun just to, I don't know, enhance the senses...

Honey?

I'd like to hope you can get honey off it,

bit of lemon, bit of thyme.

I think it's, yeah, a fantastic way to sort of finish the banquet.

You get the smells of everything before you eat -

let's hope the dessert's as good as that.

We do need to taste it. Yeah.

I'll get stuck into this, I'm going to try the granita first,

the lemon granita.

I like the way that it's got the big bits, the small bits,

it's adding a bit of texture.

Strong kick of lemon.

Just raw lemon juice, no?

It's pretty...pretty strong.

With the sheep's curd mousse, do you think that's a flavour

that people would find too much?

I don't think it's going to overpower the dish,

the cheese actually complements everything.

Beautiful flavour, almost as though

it's... Split. ..starting to split.

Yeah, we can't serve a split mousse at the banquet.

It's a curd, so it's not split,

but that's the best you're going

to get it using that cheese to make

a mousse, I'm very happy with it.

The crunchy oats?

It's trying to use as much different textures and tastes.

The biscuit crumb and the toasted oats,

for me, they're pretty much the same thing.

Give them a score out of ten.

I'm happy with that plate of food, Michael.

Alan is last to plate his cricket-themed dessert,

a modern take on Eton mess.

Oh, man.

I love it.

You all right, guys? How'd you get on?

It was executed exactly the same as every time I practised it,

so I was happy with it.

Adam starts by filling his cricket bat with strawberry sherbet.

First into the base of the meringue cricket balls is strawberry jelly,

then compressed strawberries,

sweet basil and strawberry sauce.

The last element is clotted cream mousse.

You're not happy with that, are you?

No. Just coming out a bit too powerful.

Adam's used too much gas in the whipper for the volume of mousse

and it's made it split.

Silly mistake. It's a bit irritating, actually.

But Adam continues plating up and seals the cricket balls.

Wow, anyone for cricket?

Absolutely.

It's pretty impressive.

So, shall we take ours through? Please.

You any good at cricket? No, but I'll try and hit this one for six.

It might need a little bit more than a gentle tap.

Ah. And there's some sherbet in

the handle of this cricket bat.

Oh, here we go. I think that's a great way to start the dessert.

Yeah. We'll speak about the meringue first.

Yeah, it's nice and crispy, nice and dry.

I love the meringue. Yeah.

And the strawberries and the jelly?

Yeah, I think it's a nice texture.

It's not strawberry enough for me.

And it's probably set

a bit too much, to be honest, as well.

Compressed strawberry.

I've enhanced them with a strawberry juice.

English strawberries, they're the best strawberries in the world,

why would you compress them?

They lose all their texture.

I don't think the cream's worked.

100%, he split that cream.

For me, that's nearly ruined this dish.

I'm really irritated that I didn't think,

because I was hoping to give you the perfect dish...

I love the cricket ball visual, I love the cricket bat, but for me

I would have preferred just a normal Eton mess.

I could see this dish at the banquet, with work.

It would put a real smile on the faces of the guests

at the banquet, does this dish achieve that?

It puts a smile on my face.

I think it's worthy of a ten, if it's done 100% perfect.

How do you think that went?

Could've gone a little bit better,

it was a silly mistake on the cream and...

you know.

It's the horrible part now, it's the waiting.

Me, you and Adam have been in this position before.

Last year we did enough to get through to the judges -

fingers crossed I've done enough to get through again this time.

I am two points behind you two. Hopefully the dish I just

gave Michael will give me a few more points.

How are you doing, Chefs? Nervous.

Phil, I'm going to start with your dish.

A Cup Of Tea For Ma'am.

The panna cotta was very delicate, it wasn't overset,

the three elements of orange, it was refreshing.

I thought this was a really elegant-looking dessert.

However, apart from the shortbread cubes,

I didn't see much originality,

and, ultimately, the presentation once again was just too simple.

Andrew, for your Honey And Lemon dish,

I think there was a little bit too much of the oat biscuit crumb

and I think you could have done just a little bit

more with the star ingredient of the honey.

But the sweetness of the honey was counterbalanced by the lemon

granita, it had good sharpness.

I liked the sheep's curd mousse, interesting, original,

a bit like a light cheesecake filling.

And that dry ice provided a bit of theatre befitting of a banquet.

Adam, for your dessert, Eton Versus Harrow,

this was a stunningly original idea.

The theatre of breaking the ball with the bat,

I thought it was great fun and it really put a smile on my face.

All the different strawberry elements I thought were good

and it was a re-imagination of Eton mess.

But the cream element wasn't right,

it almost wasn't even there.

If the gun was overcharged, I would've taken a few more minutes

to adjust that and delivered a perfect dish,

which it could've been.

So, onto the scores.

With a score of eight, giving him the highest score of the week

and securing a place to cook for the judges tomorrow...

..Adam.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Cheers. Thank you very much.

I see real potential in that dish. Thank you very much.

Two chefs left.

Obviously only one of you can win a place to cook

for the judges tomorrow.

Andrew, I'm going to award you...

..eight points. Thank you, Michael.

Phil, for your dish, I'm going to award you...

..seven points.

Andrew, you missed out on that final place only by one point.

You had some really great, strong dishes this week.

Thank you, Michael. You two guys,

I really hope that one of you gets Wales to the banquet.

Thank you, Michael. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Well done, boys.

'I'm so pleased I'm cooking for the judges again.

'If I can get rid of all of these silly mistakes, I'm hoping that'

I can go all the way to the finals.

ADAM SIGHS Didn't think I'd done enough.

I was a bit worried at the end there. Hm.

Tomorrow - repeat of last year for Wales, me and Adam, head-to-head.

Hopefully I'm going to avenge last year's defeat by one point

and get through to finals week.

Yeah, it was a pleasure, it really was.

Yeah. Thank you. Well done.

Feeling a bit disappointed going out,

but I wish Adam and Phil the best of luck.

Don't think we'll get much sleep tonight. No, no, no.

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