Central Main Great British Menu

This week on Great British Menu...

Backs, backs...

..three of Central region's top chefs.

Daniel Smith, who is focused and competitive.

My biggest gadget is this bad boy here.

Andrew Scott, whose food is about flavour and finesse.

I'll smash both of them.

And daring and innovative Danny Gill.

I can't get this one wrong.

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 a grand banquet

at the Palace of Westminster.

Danny's fish course received the highest score so far from veteran

Angela, an impressive nine.

Definitely worthy of something going through the banquet, so well done.

Thank you.

Giving him a two-point lead on Daniel.

Andrew remained bottom of the leaderboard -

he must plate a winning main course to stay in the running.

I'm going to be cooking top of my game today.

But with Daniel determined to catch leader Danny...

I'm as pressurised as that pressure cooker because I want to get high scores.

..the competition... Go hard or go home. ..is getting serious.

It needs to be nailed absolutely bang on or it's home time.

Stressful, innit?

The chefs are competing 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.

Judging this week is veteran Angela Hartnett.

An MBE herself, she's expecting

exceptional contemporary main courses.

There's very little in it at this stage.

I want to see some great dishes today,

so one of their dishes gets to the banquet.

Danny, smashing it, in front at the minute, mate.

Happy with my score for the fish yesterday.

I've put yesterday behind me, I'm going to get my head down,

now my dish will score really highly today.

I'm just going to go for it, I'm just going to do what I do,

pack my flavours, go for that. I've got to deliver.

Good luck.

You, too.

Andrew Scott is first.

So far, he hasn't plated the contemporary, show-stopping dishes

veteran Angela is looking for, and is in third place,

but he's staying positive.

There's only a couple of points' margin.

I've definitely got it in me to catch up the other guys, I'm not going to give up.

Morning, Andrew, how are you? I'm good, thank you, Chef.

Not feeling down after yesterday? No, it's only a couple of points. I'm going to smash them today.

So what's the dish today? Ma'am's Balmoral Birthday Venison.

OK. Tongue twister.

This is all inspired by the Queen's 90th birthday.

I'm cooking some of her favourite things, Balmoral venison,

from her estate. I'm going to mince the trimming and make a ragu,

and simply roast the loin.

What are you doing with these blackberries?

I'm just going to freeze them quickly with some liquid nitrogen.

OK. A bit more of a modern turn.

A modern twist on it.

Cabbage, I'm going to sous-vide this in the water bath with juniper and bacon butter.

The garnish is all based around the forest floor, where the deer are,

so I've got mushrooms, pine.

I'm going to serve a spiced bread sauce with it as well.

And some game chips, with pine salt.

Oh, that sounds interesting.

What are you doing with the Dubonnet?

I'm going to make a cocktail, I have done a lot of research into what the Queen's favourite tipple is,

and occasionally she'll have a Dubonnet and gin cocktail.

OK. Perfect. Good luck.

Thank you very much.

I'm looking forward to tasting Andrew's dish.

All the flavours work together.

The bread sauce, the game chips, the venison, the blackberries.

But he has to make sure that he does not overcook that venison.

Next up, Daniel Smith.

He's cooked consistently and is just one point behind leader Danny.

He's confident he can make it to the judging chamber on Friday.

I think I'm in a great position,

I've just got to deliver the best flavour I can give.

I've just got to show Angela exactly what I'm made of.

Morning, Daniel. How are you? Very well.

How are you feeling generally in the competition?

I'm happy where I'm positioned at the moment, got it all to prove,

still two courses to go.

Tell me the name of this dish.

Great British Heritage.

Our heritage of roast beef, so it's a bit of a play on a Sunday lunch.

Once again, all my Norfolk produce, a lovely shin of beef there,

which is representing the ordinary people that have received awards from the Queen.

I suppose the fillet is the Queen, the luxury...

From the reign, the shin of beef was regarded as the ordinary thing,

now it's probably gone the other way round.

Who'd have thought that now we're putting it on a menu?

What do you charge, 50 quid a head for that? Of course!

I'm going to make a cauliflower puree, some fantastic Romanesque as well, certainly visual.

What you doing with the potatoes?

I've got some red Desiree here, great for mashing,

I'm going to add that to choux pastry,

deep-fried with beef dripping.

What do you call that traditionally? Pommes dauphine, or something?

Pommes dauphine, cos they look like a roast potato.

But obviously, they are drastically different.

What do you think of this, Andrew?

Sounds like a luxury Sunday lunch. With French roast potatoes.

LAUGHTER

He's cheeky, isn't he?!

'Daniel's dish, I like the way it shows'

how meat was 60, 80 years ago and how we use it now,

but he has to make sure the shin of beef is cooked long enough,

otherwise it's going to be tough.

Last up, and top of the leaderboard, is Daniel Clifford's protege,

Danny Gill.

He's served technically difficult and complex dishes all week

and it paid off with his fish course, scoring nine -

the highest mark of the week.

I have cooked my heart out on the past two courses, really pushed myself.

I've got to keep on going. Hopefully I can see it all the way through to the judges' chamber.

Good morning, Danny, how are you? Very well, thank you.

Top of the leaderboard. Yeah, I feel great but I'm not taking anything for granted.

Make sure I don't slip up.

What's the name of the dish?

Fallow the Dream. "Fallow the Dream", OK.

Fallow deer, using venison.

The inspiration behind this dish was my dad.

He was a chef in the RAF for 25 years.

All over the world, and at various royal banquets.

Fantastic, so did he cook for the Queen at one stage?

He's cooked for the Queen, yep.

Brilliant. On a couple of occasions.

Returning troops coming back from tour,

Wellington was always the main course banquet.

So this is going to be a venison Wellington.

Yeah. It's very traditional. I've been guilty of maybe doing a little too much with the food

the past couple of courses.

So there's no bells or whistles, this is just classic, solid cooking.

And you're using some lovely ceps?

Yeah, some British ceps, this is going to be in a duxelle

and roasted. British truffle as well. A little bit of luxury,

making a beautiful caramelised celeriac puree.

And... I've got these... Oops!

LAUGHTER

So, I've got these beautiful British...

LAUGHTER

They are top notch!

So beautiful British blush pears,

I'm going to be serving pine and pear puree.

You've got pine as well, and venison.

And venison. What does his dish sound like to you?

Sounds lovely, I love a Wellington, you can't beat it.

Well, hopefully I can! Today!

LAUGHTER

So Danny's dish, cooking his venison Wellington, it can be a risk,

cos until you cut into it, you really don't know that it's cooked correctly.

As the chefs get cooking, they're firmly focused on the competition.

What dish would you want to get on the banquet if you could get one on?

All of 'em.

Your guv'nor, Daniel Clifford, he got a dish on the banquet.

You think you feel a bit more under pressure because you have Daniel to

represent as well as yourself?

Every chef wants the main course at the banquet, it's the main event.

For Daniel's refined roast beef dish, he's searing the beef shin,

which he will then braise in a pressure cooker, with stock, red wine,

vegetables and herbs,

but it's what he's NOT cooking that is raising eyebrows.

You're not doing Yorkshire pudding with it? No Yorkshires today.

But what's a Sunday lunch without Yorkshire pudding? Well, I'm not pitching it as a Sunday roast,

it's roast beef, a couple ways.

Do you want me to make some Yorkshire pudding for you?

He's also making choux pastry for his dauphine potatoes.

All right, Daniel?

Yeah, yeah, I'm good. This is my choux pastry.

That's a lot of choux pastry!

Yeah, it's quite a big batch, I've got my potato here,

I'm going to mash... So how do you make these, do you bake them?

Little bit of salt on them, add it to the choux paste,

I'm going to combine the two together, bit of nutmeg,

salt and pepper, then literally deep-fry them.

I'm doing a quenelle in beef dripping,

complementing my shin and my fillet.

And you're not worried that it is a French-style potato?

But it's a different remake on a potato. And it's also quite light.

OK. Good luck, Daniel. We love beef with potatoes. Thank you.

In third place, Andrew is hoping he will score more highly

with a complex main dish which pays attention to the brief.

I've got lots going on. Hopefully going to look quite simple on the plate,

but there's a lot of processes. I'm going to go for it.

Andrew is serving venison from the Queen's Balmoral Estate two ways -

making a ragu using the trim, and roasting the loin.

He's serving both with a rich venison sauce.

I feel that today is a real big chance for me to catch up points-wise.

I want to come top, I don't want to come second to Danny, either,

I want to smash both of them.

Andrew's going head-to-head with Danny, who's also using venison.

I know we've got a couple of the same ingredients,

but I think our food styles are quite different.

This is nothing like what I've done in the past two courses.

Danny's opting for a more simple dish. Although he is leading,

he's dropped points on previous courses for overly complicated cooking.

Angela's highlighted to maybe not go as far,

sometimes with the amount of elements on the plate.

This one I feel is probably my simplest,

so I hope it doesn't go from one extreme to another.

Danny is under extra pressure, as his dish has personal significance.

Wellington is a speciality of his dad, a former RAF chef.

I don't want to let my old man down.

He's cooked for the Queen, all the royal family,

servicemen and women up and down the country, at banquets, so...

I can't get this one wrong.

Danny travelled to Anglesey in north Wales,

to meet a servicewoman and great Briton who he hopes to honour with his dish.

Coming back to an RAF base where I spent many years with my dad,

it's kind of all bringing it back.

Up until 2015, RAF Valley was home to the Search and Rescue Squadron,

which operated over the treacherous Irish Sea.

Hi, Rachael. Hi, Danny. Lovely to meet you.

Danny met Sergeant Rachael Robinson,

who was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal

for her part in a daring sea rescue.

There was a fisherman that had been injured on a fishing vessel,

he had a really bad head injury.

Unfortunately, the weather was really bad,

and we had 30-40ft waves to contend with.

That's me. It's like a scene out of a film!

I'd been bounced off the vessel six or seven times at that point.

After being thrown against the boat for more than an hour,

Rachael was finally able to get aboard,

winch the injured man into the helicopter and fly him to hospital.

This is the Queen's Gallantry Medal.

I take this on for the whole of Search and Rescue, really,

because I think that anybody on duty that day would have done the same

as what I did, and the crew did.

Looks stunning. Thank you.

As one of the Queen's great Britons,

Danny was keen his dish got Rachael's approval.

Smells gorgeous!

Listening to your story has given me the extra inspiration that I needed.

They say ordinary people doing extraordinary things,

but I think you've got to be pretty extraordinary to throw yourself off a helicopter!

I think my job's easy compared to this, to be honest!

Burn everything! Maybe we should do a job swap! Definitely!

THEY LAUGH

OK, I'm going for it.

Mmm.

Wow! That is so tender.

That is gorgeous. Do you think I'll get that dish to the banquet?

Definitely. Awesome.

Thank you. Really good.

In the kitchen, Danny is making his celeriac puree by blending caramelised celeriac,

chicken stock and cream with brown butter.

Although he's cooking a simpler dish than his previous courses,

he's still adding modern touches - compressed pears -

and combining lightly-cooked pears with pear and pine liquor to make

a second puree.

How come you're not making a sauce for your venison?

Heavy sauces is quite old school.

There's two purees on the plate, enough moisture,

I want the flavour of the pine, the flavour of the pear.

Does it smell like air freshener?

No. Sure? Positive.

Got the sweetness and the kind of earthiness.

All works really well together.

What do you think? You've got some nice beef gravy, haven't you?

I've got some lovely gravy coming up out of here!

Danny is ready to assemble his Wellington for the oven.

It requires exact cooking to ensure the venison is medium rare inside,

and the pastry is crisp on the outside.

OK, Danny, what are you burning?

The stove.

Brilliant. Oh, this is you searing off your venison.

Searing that off. Pancakes.

And this is the duxelle you've made with the ceps, yeah?

Ceps, buttered mushroom, truffle, shallots, thyme,

a little bit of garlic.

You've obviously timed this, haven't you? Yes.

So what is it, how many minutes in the oven?

12, and then eight minutes minimum resting time. OK.

Pastry cooked nice and crisp, no soggy bits.

I've practised it,

not necessarily in these ovens, but a poor workman blames his tools.

I've just got to nail this one.

Good, looking forward to tasting that. Thank you.

For his refined take on roast beef,

Daniel is preparing cauliflower puree

and roasting shallots in butter and sugar,

to accompany his beef two ways.

Horseradish sauce? No horseradish, my man.

So it's roast beef with no horseradish...

Yeah. No Yorkshire.

Correct.

I'd send it back(!)

But he's worried the pressure cooker isn't working properly.

If the shin of beef isn't cooked thoroughly, it'll be tough to eat.

I'm concerned with my pressure cooker, it's chucking it out the side and not out the top.

Is it a case of having all the gear and no idea on this?

Could be! Maybe I don't know how to put the lid on right.

Is this going to work?

I hope so, for your sake, mate.

Stressful, isn't it? Andrew could be catching me up,

depending on how he delivers on this course and depending on how I do on

this course. I'm as pressurised as that pressure cooker,

because I want to get high scores.

Andrew is hoping to impress with contemporary cooking by freezing

blackberries in liquid nitrogen and making a juniper and bacon butter.

That's going to go in with the cabbage and cook in the water bath.

And then take it out, pan-fry it with more of the butter.

So it's really intense. Sounds lovely.

He's also adding a modern pine seasoning,

to traditional thinly-cut game chips.

He hopes this will elevate his dish, which is inspired by the Queen's birthday.

That's quite classic, isn't it, the old game chip?

Yeah, I've done a couple of classic accompaniments.

It's the Queen's...

Instead of seasoning these with normal salt,

I've got some pine, dried it in the dehydrator,

blitzed it up with sea salt.

I'm just going to season the potato chips with those.

Smells delicious, doesn't it?

Nice. Just a little twist.

Are you feeling confident?

Yes, I'm always feeling confident.

Very little in it, remember.

Yep. Thank you, Chef. Good luck.

Danny is first to plate up his venison Wellington dish,

inspired by his RAF dad and honoured military servicemen and women.

Backs, backs, backs.

Still running around, Danny.

Yeah, it's the only way. Go hard or go home.

He's hoping a nod to mentor and GBM veteran Daniel Clifford

will help him win points.

These are the same plates Chef used for the chicken dish on the Great British Menu. Mr Clifford.

Mr Clifford. A lot of pressure on those plates, then.

Good karma.

First onto the plates is the unusual pear and pine puree.

Air freshener and pear, yeah?

The vegetable accompaniments include raw and sauteed ceps,

pear compressed in pine liquor, and black truffle.

Next, is celeriac puree.

This is a lot simpler than a lot of my other courses,

but the technicality of all the cooking needs to be nailed

absolutely bang on or it's home time.

Finally, it's time to carve the venison Wellington.

It's only now Danny can tell if it's cooked correctly.

He garnishes with wood sorrel.

What do you think, Daniel? Looks amazing.

Some really lovely ingredients that go together.

Right, let's go and taste it.

I think the venison Wellington needed one or two more minutes resting,

the blood is starting to come out here, which isn't great.

Happy with the cooking of the venison?

It maybe could have gone a little bit longer,

but I personally like my meat quite rare.

And what about your pastry? Cooked enough for you?

There doesn't seem to be any soggy bits in there.

There's definitely some crunch to it but obviously it could maybe be

slightly crispier.

You're happy that you didn't put a sauce on there?

Yeah.

The caramelised celeriac puree...

Consistency, flavour, works for you?

Yeah, I'm happy with that.

I'm missing the sauce, I quite like a bit of sauce, do you? Yeah.

Are you happy with the pear puree and the decompressed pears?

Yeah, I think pear works really, really well with venison.

It's a nice freshness.

I think the ceps are beautiful, I actually really like the pear on this.

It doesn't taste like air freshener, that's for sure!

You're going to take that back? No!

I understand the story with your father being in the Air Force.

How, as a guest, would you understand that on the plate?

It's a banquet for special people.

Special ingredients.

It's a special, erm...

I think if he'd have just had a story or a photo of his dad.

I'm a bit lost if I was at the banquet.

What would you mark it?

I think there's a lot of skill on that plate. Around an eight.

All right, bud?

How's it going? Did she say anything?

Didn't give nothing away.

Just the normal? The norm.

Poker face.

Andrew is next, to plate up his Balmoral venison dish,

honouring the Queen's 90th birthday.

He's hoping modern techniques and standout presentation

will win him more points.

He seasons his game chips with pine salt.

Is this the Queen's china, Andrew?

It is, I went up and she let me borrow it.

Did she? That was nice of her.

First onto his regal plates is the venison ragu.

Then hispi cabbage cooked with juniper and bacon butter.

The venison loin tops the ragu.

Girolle mushrooms are added as garnish,

with liquid nitrogen blackberries and wood sorrel.

Venison sauce is presented in a hip flask.

And the dish is served with a drink.

What's in the cocktail? Gin and a fortified sweet wine

with bitter lemon.

So, Chef, this is Ma'am's Balmoral Birthday Venison.

And what's in here? This is just a knife to eat your meat with and it's

just got the 90th engraved in there for her birthday.

Right, you bring the plates and sauce.

I'm sure the Queen would have had a butler.

You've let me down. I know, I'm really sorry. Right, let's go.

The hip flask is obviously a nod to the Balmoral Estate. Yeah.

You've got the beautiful napkin, the china,

the engraving on the knife.

It's a real show-stopper in terms of presentation.

Oh, that's strong, isn't it?

Yeah.

Happy with the cooking of the venison?

Yeah, you know, I've just roasted it quite traditionally in a pan.

The flavour of the meat's lovely. You can really taste the marinade.

Lovely, lovely meat. For me, I'm not so keen on the ragu.

I don't see why you need that.

I'm happy with the ragu.

You wanted it that rich? Mm.

The sauce, you wanted that sweetness coming through?

Yeah, definitely.

It needs a bit of sweetness because it's such a rich meat.

What about the game chips?

They're nice.

It's got crunch, they're not oily or greasy.

And the cabbage, you wanted it crispy?

Sort of al dente, it's got a bit of crunch,

which is nice on the dish for a little bit of extra texture.

I find the bread sauce a touch overpowering.

Matt has got some serious oomph to that.

There's a lot of spice going on here.

I might pull back on the spice in the bread sauce.

Do you think this is your best course yet?

Yes. So far, this is the one I'm most happy with.

Would you be happy to serve this dish at the banquet?

I think it would fit really well.

How did it go, my man? All right, boys? Yeah, good. Yeah, happy?

I was happy with it. It looked good.

So, still, again, I keep learning every time I do a course in here so,

you know, I think it's the same for all of us, isn't it? Yeah.

Daniel is last to plate up.

He's hoping his Great British Heritage beef

will secure enough points to give him the lead over Danny.

Beef sauce is presented in silverware,

along with his dauphine potatoes.

On his plates, Daniel serves cauliflower puree,

butternut squash and Romanesco broccoli.

Next is the shin of beef, which he was worried hadn't cooked properly.

Are you happy with the cooking of all the meat?

Yeah, definitely, yeah.

Roasted shallots,

beef fillet

and shallot puree complete the dish.

OK, Daniel. Name of your dish? Great British Heritage.

Really lovely, yeah, really grand.

Yeah, I love the, love the cloches.

Makes me feel all patriotic.

So we think beef's going to win it over venison?

We'll see. All right, let's go.

A little bit of sauce. Yeah.

Sauce is lovely. It's got good consistency.

But I don't know if it's beefy enough.

So how long did we cook the shin for?

This was cooked for the best part of two hours in the pressure cooker.

Really? Wow. Yes.

I think he's absolutely nailed that.

Good skill. That cauliflower puree is absolutely stunning. Yeah.

And the Romanesco.

It's slightly unusual. Not everyone's aware of that vegetable.

And then the fillet of beef.

Not too pink.

These pommes dauphines are a little heavy.

He's trying to elevate for a Sunday sort of lunch dish.

I'd prefer a roast potato, to be honest.

Your pommes dauphine...

Did you feel you need any sort of crunch or texture to it?

I like the textures together.

The texture of the shallots is a bit slimy in your mouth.

I just don't think it needs that shallot.

If I was at the banquet, do you think it would tell a story?

I believe so, yes. I've got the cloche. I feel that goes together well.

I'm just not sure if it's special enough for the banquet.

How you doing there, boys? Well done, mate.

How did you feel it went in there? Who knows? I don't know.

You know as well as I do, you don't get nothing back.

I need to catch up with Danny.

I don't want to slip up on any points. I don't want to start chasing you boys now.

I need the best mark out of the three of us, to be honest, to be in with a fighting chance tomorrow.

How are we feeling after the main courses?

Yeah, it was a tough one. Well, I'm going to start with you, Danny,

and "Fallow the Dream".

I liked your pear puree, you know, that's Danny putting his little twist.

The celeriac puree was delicious.

The duxelle was really tasty.

The marriage of all those flavours worked well together.

And I really thought the dish overall, it just looked stunning.

However, your venison, as you said,

needed a touch more cooking and I did feel the pastry

was a little bit soggy.

How could we tell it was related to your father in the RAF

and that nod to the Queen? OK.

Where's the brief? Nowhere.

Daniel, with your dish, "Great British Heritage".

Love the cauliflower puree, love the shallot puree

and even though everyone was ribbing you about your French potatoes,

they were lovely and your beef was cooked nicely.

But was it a roasted shallot?

Really should have had that caramelisation on it.

Romanesco, just thought it was a bit bland

and I don't think you hit the brief.

I understood we have the flag, but if we took away the extra bits,

what did that plate of food tell me?

Andrew, your dish, "Ma'am's Balmoral Birthday Venison".

I'm not sure you needed the ragu with that.

You know, tasty as it was,

it felt a lot of meat on that plate

and the bread sauce, far too spicy.

It really sort of killed it a bit.

But...liked the flavour of the cabbage,

thought that was great with the streaky bacon coming through.

The venison, nicely cooked venison.

The chips, I love them.

You had really thought about that brief.

You feel the Queen, you feel Balmoral.

Now to the scores.

Danny, I'm going to start with you.

And I'm giving you...

..an eight.

Daniel, I'm scoring you...

..a seven.

Andrew,

I'm giving you...

..a score of eight.

Despite a few technical things,

you out of everyone have nailed that brief.

Chefs, so tight now, OK?

Dessert is the final course.

It's not just about good cooking. Relate it to that brief.

Good luck. Thank you.

Thank you. Well done, boys.

Oh, mate, it's getting closer and closer.

Well done, great score.

With one course to go, Danny remains in the lead.

Daniel is two points behind and Andrew is in third place.

I'm definitely going from strength to strength.

I'm trying to eliminate stupid mistakes

and hopefully I can build on an eight.

All good fun.

I'm not in a bad position at all.

It's still all to play for in this last course.

I've never done anything so hard in my life!

We've still got another one to go and it's even harder than that one!

I'm over the moon to be top of the leaderboard, still,

but I need to push even harder now, make sure I'm there at the end of the week.

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