Scotland Main Great British Menu

This week on Great British Menu,

three of Scotland's most dynamic chefs.

Think we're all very confident with this one.

Michael Bremner, who's not afraid to take risks.

This dish means a lot to me, this is probably my favourite dish to do.

Adam Handling, the youngest chef in the kitchen.

I'm gunning for a ten, I believe in this dish.

And Ally McGrath, who's putting bold flavours first.

It's easy. It's only cooking!

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

the chefs will be 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, Michael's fish course wowed veteran Daniel.

I can't criticise this dish. Scoring a perfect ten...

I think it's probably one of the best dishes

I've ever tasted in this kitchen.

..putting him in joint top place with Adam.

Ally remains bottom of the leaderboard.

He has to plate a winning main course to stay in the running.

I love my dish, I'm confident with my dish.

And with Adam and Michael each battling for pole position...

I'm really hoping for a big score today.

If this is better than your fish dish, I think we're all BLEEP.

If this is better than his fish dish, then someone's cheating.

The competition is heating up.

Does that normally happen? Yes.

BLEEP, that one's too smoked.

It's going to be interesting to see how this comes out.

No pressure, then? No pressure at all.

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 Daniel Clifford.

As a main course banquet winner,

he's expecting exceptional contemporary cooking.

What I'm looking for is the hunger and the amount of drive

they've got to get their dish all the way.

Great day for you yesterday. How are you feeling about today?

This is the course that I really love.

So, hopefully, I can get a high score today as well. Like 11? Yeah.

You've got to aim big. I'm two points behind you guys.

So, I need a big score.

I'm looking forward to this one.

As long as I cook it correctly,

I think it's going to be great as well.

Today's going to be an exciting day. Fingers crossed.

Michael Bremner is up first.

He's now equal with Adam at the top of the leaderboard.

But he's hoping to overtake him with another high-scoring dish.

How many people's ever done a double ten? Is there many?

I'm going for a double ten!

This dish represents something that I strongly believe in.

Good morning, Chef. Good morning. How are you? I'm good.

How are you feeling? Over the moon. Yesterday was a great day.

You've set the bar so high,

you've got to keep that standard now, haven't you? I know.

What's the name of the dish?

This dish is called The Rose Of Eskdalemuir.

There's, basically, a forest next to Loch Lomond called Eskdalemuir. OK.

There was a gamekeeper there, he's passed away now, called Ronnie Rose,

who has an MBE for his services and what he did for the wildlife.

He basically increased the bird population by 300%. Wow.

He's a true Great Briton. Take me through the box.

One of my favourite ingredients - mallard.

I'm going to make confit leg stovies,

which is something that I love.

Game, is that going to be everyone's cup of tea?

I think for how I do the game, it doesn't come across really gamey.

All right. And then, the different components

I'm going to serve with it.

Blackberry, which I'm going to confit in some beeswax.

Beeswax and blackberries?

It adds more of a scent than it does a flavour. OK.

I'm going to make a clove oil, I love that.

Truffle?

Yeah, I'm going to be serving that with some, I call it turnip,

you'll probably call it a swede.

OK, so the mallard is the key ingredient, but I'm going to have

different elements to eat with that mallard? Exactly.

I really love this dish.

Michael's dish, The Rose Of Eskdalemuir.

Mallard is a strong flavour.

The ingredients that he puts with this are going to have to

better stand up to it.

He's got to make sure it's absolutely perfect.

Next is Ally McGrath.

His fish course showed more refinement than his starter.

But he has to deliver more than just big, bold flavours.

I got a six in my starter, I got an eight with my fish course.

I need to score high today. I love my main course, it's really good.

But I'm up against two very strong chefs.

Good morning, Chef. How are you? I'm good, thank you. I'm good.

Six, eight, you climbing today? Yeah.

I need to score big with this, yes.

This dish, hopefully will do that. So, what's it called?

It's called Backbone Of Britain.

Great name. What's the inspiration?

The people that are the backbone of their country

and give themselves wholeheartedly.

Whether it's raising money for charity and working on the NHS,

social services, all the rest of it.

Take me through it and explain to me how you're going to make this a ten.

OK, so I've got a beautiful bit of Scottish sirloin here.

We've got the bone marrow there. OK.

I'm going to smoke the bone marrow very lightly.

I've got beef shin, which is my favourite.

We're going to shred it and we're

going to serve that in the bone

with the smoked bone marrow on top.

The mushrooms, I'm going to do a mushroom ketchup, so that...

Mushroom ketchup? Yes, that helps balance the whole dish.

It's a classical box of ingredients. Yes, Chef. Mushroom ketchup.

Is that your modern edge?

It brings that little bit extra something to the plate.

Is this your strongest dish of the week?

I think it needs to be.

I might never be in this room again,

so I've come all guns blazing.

Ally's Backbone Of Britain,

it looks like it's going to be a rustic plate of food.

He's added a mushroom ketchup.

Is that enough to modernise his cooking?

Last up is Adam Handling.

So far, he's delivered consistently good dishes.

He's been top all week and wants to maintain that lead

to make it through to the judging chamber.

I'm feeling very confident that I'll get there on Friday.

I've still got a couple of things up my sleeve,

so I'm going to give it my all.

How are you feeling? Good, good.

So, is this the dish that's going to take you

to the top of the leaderboard? I hope so.

OK, what's the inspiration?

My inspiration is to make the ultimate Great British dinner

to give back to the Great Britons. Right.

Everything that they would have all known as

a roast dinner with the family.

You know, carving the meat and quite modern

in terms of the influence of Asia, which I truly love.

Ingredients-wise, what are you actually cooking?

Roast beef, really. But using Scottish beef.

It's amazing. Yes, I can see it.

Scottish Wagyu, amazing stuff.

I can see langoustines. Yes, great langoustines.

Are they missing from yesterday's box? No, surf and turf.

I'm just going to poach them and then I'm going to make

a mousse, flavour it with ginger and lime.

So, this is your Asian influence. Yes. OK?

Courgette flowers. What are we doing with those?

The mousse is going inside them and then the courgettes will be roasted.

Two completely different beefs here. Yeah. Yeah.

Absolutely. Are you looking forward to a bit of Wagyu, Chefs?

ALLY AND MICHAEL: Oh, yeah. Looking forward to it!

Adam's dish, The Great British Dinner.

He's got a beautiful piece of Wagyu,

but he's got limes and ginger in the box.

Is his Asian influence going to kill the Great British Sunday roast?

As they get cooking, the chefs are focused on the leaderboard.

So, who wants this main course dish?

I'm really hoping for a big score today.

Not as big as mine, Chef. Or mine. We'll see.

I think we're all very confident with this one.

You know, I'm sensing that as well.

Michael is using wild duck in his dish,

in honour of gamekeeper Ronnie Rose, MBE.

He's confiting mallard leg and cooking the breast meat

in a brine water bath.

After his winning fish course,

Michael's just as confident that he's on brief today.

I've done a lot of research about it.

More so, I think, than my fish dish.

Your fish dish was great.

And if this is better than your fish dish...

I think we're all BLEEP.

If this is better than his fish dish, then someone's cheating.

All week, Michael has used unusual ingredients and techniques

to impress veteran Daniel.

And today is no exception.

Michael, how is it going? Good, thank you. You all right? Yeah.

I'm just in the process of doing my confit blackberries. OK.

This is in the beeswax, yeah? Yeah. This is completely unique.

I've never seen this before.

Yeah, I've done a few things

that involve using beeswax as preservation

to sort of ripen things and so on and so forth. Yeah.

What's this going to add to the blackberry?

It's to add a flavour in the background,

it's going to be... You'll definitely taste the beeswax.

I'm going to puree it.

So, make it... All this hard work and then you puree it. Pureeing it.

Good luck. Thank you. Good luck!

Michael is confiting beautiful blackberries in beeswax.

The bit I don't understand is why have such an amazing product

and then pureeing it.

Adam and Ally are both using Scottish beef in their dishes.

Adam's Great British Dinner is a twist on a traditional roast.

He's using Scottish Wagyu,

a premium-grade meat with rich, fatty marbling.

It's going to get smoky now.

Is this some sort of mind trick to put us off our course?

Mate, everything I do is for a reason.

This dish will be glazed in bulgogi, which is a Korean marinade.

It means meat fire.

Are you roasting your one like that? I'm not doing that, no.

Ally's natural style is classical.

However, he knows he needs to demonstrate some innovative ideas

to score highly in the competition.

For his beef dish,

he's adding sweetbreads and smoked bone marrow to a roast sirloin.

I desperately need to get a high score.

I need to bring myself back up.

I love my dish, I'm confident with my dish.

There's no point worrying about what they do.

I'll worry about mine and make sure that's good.

Ally's Backbone Of British dish pays homage to the everyday Britons

honoured by the Queen.

He's hoping the strong message will result in high scores.

It's for the people that fought tirelessly, fundraising for

exceptionally good causes and raising millions on the back of it

and at the same time, they were holding down jobs,

they're holding families together, and it's kind of an ode to them.

That's great. It's a good reason.

Back home in Scotland, Ally visited a local Great Briton

who'll be invited to the banquet.

Lynne McNicoll was honoured with an OBE for her work fundraising

in aid of young people with cancer.

We're on our way in this absolutely amazing part of the world.

Off to meet a woman who can be the epitome of the dish we've created.

She gives so much for her charity, I'm really quite excited about this.

Ten years after setting up her It's Good 2 Give charity,

Lynne has helped raise ?1.3 million...

It's just going to be so spectacular.

..and is overseeing the building of her prized project,

the Ripple Retreat on the shore of Loch Venachar, in Stirling.

Hi, Lynne. Hi, Ally. Nice to meet you. And you, and you.

What an amazing place and set-up you've got here.

So, what's the retreat all about?

Well, our charity supports young cancer patients

in the whole of Scotland.

What we wanted to do was to give them somewhere they could go

to have time together as a family.

The retreat has been designed to reflect the ripples of the loch

and its glass walls will give each room stunning views.

Fantastic, that. It is. Absolutely amazing design.

It is, very proud of it.

The fundraising, how's it managed to raise all this money?

It's very much community fundraising.

So, we do all kinds of events.

We've got a signature event called Blingo,

which is bingo and dinner for ladies -

it's a sell-out every year.

We've had schools getting involved,

businesses have taken us on as Charity Of The Year.

And this year, we had a group of people who went out

and did the Arctic for us, an Arctic challenge.

The charity has become even more significant to Lynne this year.

Don't usually have a haircut like this.

I've had my own battles with cancer, ironically.

I've definitely learned just how horrible the treatments are.

And how special a place like this will be. Yes.

I just love doing this. And you've raised an awful lot of money.

As Ally's dish is dedicated to the selfless efforts of people

like Lynne, he wants to see what she thinks of his beef and bone marrow.

That looks really nice. Thank you.

The smell is delicious!

The bone marrow is really nice.

It's the first time I've ever had it.

It is, this is quite possibly the least stressful dish.

If you can do it at lochside, you can do it in the kitchen.

Oh, thank you very much!

All week, Ally's challenged himself to produce bold dishes

with many components.

His Backbone Of Britain beef dish is no exception.

He works on his vegetable garnishes - artichoke puree...

Should have got a bigger one! Ha!

You are one of the most crazy people I've met.

..and leeks, which he'll cook sous-vide before roasting.

You look extremely organised.

Compared to yesterday, Chef, I am.

So, this is the mushroom ketchup? That's the mushroom ketchup, Chef.

With everything else on the plate, it works well.

What's going to give you the edge? That's what we're looking for.

Hopefully, the food... Have you got a dynamic way of serving this?

The shin in the bone marrow is going on the bone,

representing the backbone of Britain.

It's going on a beautiful board. I'm really happy with this dish.

Fighting spirit, good luck.

Adam is busy prepping his garlic parsley veloute.

He's a bit behind with his Wagyu beef dish.

BLEEP, that looks too smoked.

An Asian-influenced take on a roast dinner.

You think that's risky, doing a classic dish that everyone knows,

to kind of mix it up a bit?

It's a very risky challenge, but we all know what my food's like.

If I don't take risks... Bland! ..it's just boring.

Adam, what are you doing?

I'm just going to fill the courgette flowers with a langoustine,

ginger, and spring onion mousse.

I am slightly concerned.

You need to explain that to me. I love the flavour.

The Wagyu is very delicate and langoustine's also very delicate.

I think it works great.

You know, Asian influence nowadays is

a massive input into British food. Oh, massive.

If it's an amazing plate of food,

no-one can argue with that, can they?

I'm really stressed. Take a deep breath.

Michael's taking a risk with his mallard too.

He's preparing his stovies,

a Scottish dish traditionally made from leftovers.

He's hoping by layering thinly-sliced potatoes, onion

and pieces of confit mallard leg, he'll refine this rustic staple.

Quite a different way of doing stovies, Chef.

Everyone's got memories of stovies.

I mean, it's a classic Scottish thing.

I had it at my wedding, you know.

It's going to be interesting to see how this comes out.

No pressure, then. No pressure at all.

Adam's first to plate up his Great British Dinner

with an Asian twist.

First onto the serving plate are courgette flowers

stuffed with ginger, spring onion and langoustine mousse.

They smell amazing.

They taste even better.

Then roasted courgette,

charred savoy cabbage

and poached langoustine.

Garnished with bronze fennel and nasturtium leaves.

Looks really good, looks good on the plate. Thank you very much.

The garlic parsley veloute is served in jugs.

The Wagyu beef will be carved at the table.

Diversity, Britain. Give us a demo.

And if you want more, there's some left. Right, enjoy.

I hope none of you had breakfast,

cos today we're going to eat well.

Roast dinner.

His take on it is way out there.

The Wagyu. Is that the consistency you were looking for? 100%.

It also tastes really nice.

Wow.

That's good. That...

I now see why everyone talks about it like that.

I'll just take that bit home.

You barely need to chew that. I know, it's mad!

This is the courgette flower, the langoustine mousse? Yeah.

Happy with the way it's cooked?

Perfectly well.

I'm not sure about the mix in the middle. Yeah.

I don't know if it's not cooked enough.

So, the langoustine, is it working for you?

I think it does, very much so.

I, personally, like the langoustine. I think he's cooked it well.

Is the dish too light for a main course?

No.

Not 100% convinced it hits the brief.

This is 100% of how I wanted to describe it.

What would you give that?

Seven. A seven? Yeah.

What would you score it?

I would score it a nine.

Ally is next to plate up his Backbone Of Britain dish.

He cooked the beef sirloin in a water bath

and is now finishing it by caramelising in butter and thyme.

How did it go? I'm happy with the flavours, I am.

I just need something to make the message more clearer

to what's in my mind about the brief.

What did you think of it?

I thought the Wagyu was amazing.

Artichoke puree is first onto Ally's serving boards.

Then mashed potato,

and slices of sirloin.

Then braised beef shin with smoked bone marrow crumb,

presented in a bone.

Beef jus is served in individual jugs.

Big Scottish portions, I see.

Hearty, Chef. Hearty?

Roasted celeriac and leeks are next.

Everything coming together? Yes, Chef.

Finished with mushroom ketchup.

And fried sweetbreads.

Right, OK, here we go.

Boys, what do you think?

I think it looks great. Thank you. Adam? Very nice.

Is this the Backbone Of Britain? For me, it is, yeah.

Enjoy it, boys. Thank you.

Is it how you wanted it to come out? Yes, Chef.

It's a proper

Scottish party dish.

It's bigger. Very big, very big portion.

Let's taste the beef first

before it leaks all over the table.

Is that seasoned correctly?

I'm happy with this, yeah.

Tender? Yes, Chef.

It's nice. Mm-hm. It's nicely cooked.

The mushroom ketchup? Mm-hm.

It's a very rich dish,

so I think it does work well, it helps cut through everything.

The mushroom ketchup is perfect.

That is.

So, this is the backbone? This is the backbone, Chef.

This is where it all comes on.

It's where the party starts. Yes.

You happy with the smoked?

I just wanted it to be light, Chef.

I don't want the smokiness taking over everything.

Can you taste the smoked bone marrow? Not massively.

Are all the ingredients working together?

Yes, Chef. They all work together. I'm happy with it.

I actually think he's hit

the brief pretty well.

I think I'd score it an eight.

Same as me, I'd score it an eight as well.

Hey, man. How you doing?

Glad it's over. Yeah? What did you think?

I think it needs to be...

It is a big plate of food and I think serving it on a bigger board,

so it's more of a sharing platter, would have worked better.

We'll see.

Michael is last to plate up.

The Rose Of Eskdalemuir pays homage

to famous Scottish gamekeeper Ronnie Rose.

The ingredients will all be served separately

on a specially-designed board.

First, he plates his modern take on traditional stovies.

Then king oyster and girolle mushrooms,

turnips topped with grated truffle...

..and fondant onion.

Michael seems to be as calm as ever, annoyingly.

The unusual blackberry and honey puree is next.

He brushes the mallard with mallard jus and tops with

a crumb made from the duck's crispy skin,

which is served on top of the stovies.

And in a tiny pipette - clove oil.

What do you think, boys?

I think it looks great. Yeah.

Are you worried? A little bit, yes. Yeah.

Shall we go and enjoy it? Yes.

Thank you.

I first thought,

"I need some cutlery."

It's built into the chopping board, Chef.

Very nice.

Fantastic, it looks absolutely incredible.

So, this is the mallard breast? Yeah.

The cooking, you happy with the way it's cooked? Yeah.

I cooked it in the water bath at 58 degrees.

Mallard is tasty, very nice.

Well seasoned.

This is the stovie, yeah? Yeah.

And this has got the... Confit duck.

The confit duck leg in? Yeah.

The stovies are superb.

It's not what I remember stovies to be like

when my mother used to make them.

It's certainly like no other

stovies I've ever had.

And this is the blackberries?

Is the beeswax taking over the blackberry? No.

I've never tasted beeswax, but that tastes delicious.

So, this is the yellow turnip?

Yeah, they're hard.

I'm disappointed by that.

The dish in general, is it working? I think so, yeah.

It shouts out Scotland, that dish.

If there's stories behind these dishes, they're fantastic.

They are. Very annoying.

Do you think he's going to double ten?

I do, I think it's a great dish. Yeah, I agree.

How are you doing, lads? How did that go for you?

It was all right, a few things I was disappointed with,

but let's see what he thinks.

I need to score big.

I'm hoping for a high score.

I need an eight, at least, but I don't know if I'm going to get that.

Good afternoon, Chefs. Afternoon.

Adam? I'm going to start with you.

For your Great British Dinner...

..the cooking of the dish and the respect for the ingredients

I thought was great.

However,

the mousse inside the courgette I felt was slightly watery.

I think the dish would be brilliant for lunch, but I think it needs

a little bit work to go for a dinner menu.

Ally.

For your Backbone Of Britain.

The portion size is really big. Yeah.

The sirloin, it needed to be rested more, cos the blood

just went all over the plate. Yes, Chef.

I thought the bone marrow was slightly over-smoked.

But...

..I really liked the mushroom ketchup.

It really complemented the beef well. Thank you.

The story and the title of your dish,

and the impact that it made on the plate was excellent.

Michael.

For your dish, The Rose Of Eskdalemuir.

It looked really impressive.

I loved the idea behind it.

The flavour combinations worked really, really well.

And the hidden cutlery...

just a touch of class.

However,

the blackberries, for me, I thought if you'd served them poached,

I think it would go with the dish better

and they would burst in your mouth.

I didn't really like the mallard.

I thought it needed a bit of a roasted flavour.

Michael, you sold me this dish as your dish of the week.

I'm not sure if it was.

So, to the scores for the main course.

Ally.

Ally, I'm going to give you a seven.

Adam.

I'm going to give you a seven.

Michael.

I'm going to give you a seven.

Today's been tough.

I really hope desserts,

we're going to get back into the scores like the fish.

Thank you very much. I'll see you tomorrow.

With only one course to go, Ally remains in third place,

two points behind joint leaders Adam and Michael.

I'm obviously gutted from going from a ten to a seven.

But I just need to focus on my dessert

and get a good score on that.

It's all about desserts now.

Good, my stronger course, I feel happy.

Not one single one of us have secured a spot for Friday yet.

One more time to shine.

It could go either way for me, I think.

We're all in with a chance, there's only two points in it.

Game on. Yeah.

Still all to play for.

Behind the genteel facades of Victorian London's streets,

life was bitterly hard.

Can't believe people had to live like this all their life.

BBC Two will bring a 19th-century slum back to life...

I'm starving - that's what's making me a bit emotional.

..and take its residents