North East Dessert Great British Menu

This week on Great British Menu -

two of the north-east's brightest talents in the kitchen.

Returning contender Mini Patel, who is going for glory.

The pressure now...ahh...

And Tommy Banks, youngest British holder of a Michelin star.

Tell you what - this one is going to smack him in the chops, I reckon.

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

the chefs are paying tribute to everyday Great Britons

honoured throughout her reign,

and competing for a chance to cook at a banquet at the Palace of Westminster.

On Tuesday, there was a shock departure

when the third chef, Chris Archer,

was taken ill after the fish course and was forced to leave the competition,

leaving Tommy and Mini to go head-to-head.

I really want to keep eking points out of Tom Aikens.

Let battle commence.

Once again, Tommy wowed veteran Tom

with his main course, scoring an impressive nine.

Excellent cooking, almost a ten.

But Mini was left disappointed with a score of seven.

Oh!

They may both be guaranteed to cook for the judges

but the banquet is still a long way off

and to stand a chance of getting there,

both have their sights set on scoring that perfect ten.

That's why it's real. Great British Menu, break a man.

You're supposed to be at the pass now.

-BEEPING

-I'll see you later.

It's dessert day,

and judging these dishes for ground-breaking culinary brilliance

is veteran Tom Aikens.

Having made it to the banquet himself, he knows exactly what it takes.

I want these Great Britons to have the most memorable dessert

that is truly elevated to make us proud.

Tommy, dessert course - how do you feel?

I think it is going to be the hardest course.

I have got a lot of work to do. I'm pretty nervous.

Execution again is everything. I'm desperate for that ten.

I will really be gunning for it.

I feel I've come so close to a ten, I just really want it this time.

First up is Tommy. He's topped the leaderboard all week,

but is yet to achieve that elusive top score from veteran Tom.

However, Tommy believes with his dessert,

he has saved the best till last.

I have got to dust myself off and go again, get this ten from Tom Aikens.

I can't have him leave this week without having had a perfect dish

because it will just grate on me.

Hello, chef.

Tell me about your dish.

This is a dish for my grandfather. I'm calling it My Great Briton.

-OK.

-He played a massive part in my life.

He was a big figurehead in our local community.

If he was still here now,

he would be the same age as the Queen, born in the same year.

Oh, really? Wow. Tell me, the components...

-Douglas fir.

-One of the things my grandfather did in the local community

was looked after the Kilburn White Horse,

a giant white horse structure, built into the side of the hill,

so this is the Douglas fir from the forest surrounding it.

I have got Douglas fir oil here. I'm going to make a parfait out of that.

-Right.

-And also with the Douglas fir, I'm going to make a sherbet.

I've got some Douglas fir and lemon verbena vodka there.

I'll make you a drink later, because I know that you like a tipple!

-And then the white chocolate?

-I'm going to make a little...

tuile, and that disc will just go either side of the parfait.

I'm going to make a vinegar out of the lemon verbena

and then make a lemon verbena curd.

I'm also going to make a fluid gel out of that as well

using the galangal.

It's got a yoghurt sorbet as well, to go on the top.

-And a parfait...

-Yeah.

-..and a curd...

And a gel. Yeah, I've got a lot of stuff to do.

It's going to get hot in here.

You're going to be sweating this time.

Yeah, I am. I really want a good mark, it really means a lot to me.

-Good luck.

-Thanks, chef.

Tommy's dish, I have to say,

probably one of the most contemporary dishes he has done all week.

My only worry, with all that's going on, is he going to get it done in time?

Next up is Mini.

Despite a guaranteed place in the judging chamber this year,

Mini wants to plate a perfect dessert

to give him the confidence he needs to cook tomorrow.

I'm super excited about my dessert course. I really need a ten.

I'm going to have to cook my heart out today.

-How do.

-How are you?

-I'm very well.

-So, dessert.

Explain your dish.

The name of my dish is Exploring New Frontiers,

and the one frontier that I'm going to be representing with this dish

is the exploration and the conquering of Mount Everest.

I'm going to almost create a mountain made of meringues.

A meringue mountain?

-Yeah.

-OK.

It ties in very closely to the day of the Queen's Coronation,

very special time, very special moment in British history,

and that is what I have come to celebrate.

And how do these ingredients tell that story?

I've got the English blackberry.

It was a British exploration team that actually conquered Mount Everest,

but in that team, there was a Kiwi, Sir Edmund Hillary,

so I'm going to be making sorbet with it.

-A sorbet out of kiwi?

-Yeah.

It's going to have kiwi and blackberry sorbet inside the mountain.

You know what, I've never ever had a kiwi sorbet.

So that's a first for me.

I'm going to be taking the eggs

to make a creme pat,

and flavour that with a bit of blackberry.

And then I have got yuzu powder.

-OK.

-Yuzu is like an Asian lemon.

I'm going to make a soil with that, almost like snow,

it's going to be white, using the white chocolate for that,

and try to create a little mist.

I'm going to smoke dried lavender with a little bit of juniper.

-Interesting.

-OK.

-A hint of mint.

-I like it.

See that man there, knock him off his mountain!

I don't know about knock him off his mountain

but I'm going to try to give him a run for his money today.

-Go for it, both of you.

-Thanks, chef.

-Good luck.

In Mini's dessert he has a lot of flavours going on.

My only slight worry is are they going to be in harmony

or are they going to battle each other?

Cooking starts and already the chefs are feeling the pressure

of producing a first-class dessert.

How did you find doing dessert last year?

It was really hard. I did two desserts with an ice cream, a sorbet, it was intense.

I've always enjoyed doing pastry.

I've taught myself so much about pastry.

You might be at an advantage today, then.

With nine complex elements to perfect, Mini has his own mountain to climb.

He starts on his creme patissiere

and it is not long before disaster strikes.

What's going on here?

Tommy, I've been a chef for 15 years

and I've never seen milk split just from putting some temperature into it.

It's Great British Menu, Mini!

Mini Patel starts his creme pat again,

by bringing milk flavoured with vanilla to the boil.

He pours the warmed milk onto a mixture of egg yolk, sugar and flour.

And lastly, adds white chocolate.

I think the pastry fairy just needs a little kiss,

and then she will come back round again and give me a bit of support, won't she?

Mini flavours sweetened whipped cream with a blackberry coulis,

which he'll later add to his cooled creme patissiere.

I'm using that as the glue to stick the shards of meringue to my sorbet.

It's supposed to look like a mountain.

It might end up looking like an Eton Mess! I don't know.

Tommy is working on the main element to his dish,

a parfait flavoured with Douglas fir.

It's in honour of my grandfather, so I'm using the needles from the Douglas fir to make a parfait.

That sounds nice, innit.

For the parfait, Tommy has to heat the sugar and glucose to exactly 112 degrees.

Tommy, you've got a lot to do today.

Does that mean you're going to be sweating?

I don't know about me sweating, but this probe is going to give up.

-The screen has started discolouring from the heat!

-MINI LAUGHS

Once at the right temperature,

Tommy pours the hot sugar mixture on to beaten egg yolk.

Next he adds gelatine to help the parfait set,

and Douglas fir oil, for flavour.

Tommy then whisks double cream with mascarpone,

folds it into the Douglas fir mixture, and pipes into individual moulds, to freeze.

Mini is also working on his frozen elements -

not one, but two sorbets.

-Mini, I think that Tom thought it was a little bit amusing that you were using a kiwi fruit.

-Really?

Definitely hitting the brief on being modern and contemporary, I suppose.

Hadn't thought of that - thank you.

LAUGHTER

For the kiwi sorbet, Mini combines sugar with fresh kiwi,

water and then glucose, before bringing to the boil.

He then blends, adds citric acid for sharpness, and freezes.

Mini then repeats the process using blackberries,

with the addition of a blackberry liquor.

I've got the pastry fairies working with me,

hopefully with them on my side...

Let's hope they're not sugar goblins.

Tommy has now moved on to one of his trickiest elements.

-Which job are you on now?

-This is my white chocolate tuile.

It's important this goes right, cos I ain't got time to do it again.

He starts by melting white chocolate,

then heating fondant and glucose to 165 degrees,

to achieve the right setting texture.

Once at the correct temperature, Tommy adds the white chocolate,

and rolls the mixture out into a thin sheet,

before transferring to the oven.

-What's going on?

-Two more white chocolate tuiles,

it's one of the tricky jobs.

What is going to happen with the tuile?

You're rolling it out to get it thin.

Keep bringing it out and working it.

-It needs to be really hot to be able to move it.

-Sure.

But then I've got to get it cut before it sets and breaks....

Mini, do you like seeing him sweat?

Yeah, yeah.

Tommy's dessert is dedicated to his late grandfather, Fred Banks.

Fred played a huge part in Tommy's life.

Alongside his Auntie Lucy,

Tommy returned to the famous Kilburn White Horse,

which his grandfather helped maintain for visitors.

Here we are. Wow, what a view.

It's magnificent, isn't it? I love coming up here.

You see why Fred spent so much time up here.

Absolutely. He used to love coming up here.

Kind of an annual thing,

we'd come up with Grandad and put fresh chalk chippings on the horse,

to keep it looking white.

There's some old photos of it.

I don't know how old they are. That's me in the corner with a shovel,

my dad and Grandad. It must have been a while ago,

cos my dad's got quite a lot more hair.

Tommy wanted to honour his grandfather for more than just his work

preserving the white horse.

The reason why I really want to honour him with all the work he did

in the community, the way he looked after people.

In fact, he was a really good neighbour.

Tommy, you heard the story about the man that broke down near the farm.

As I understand it, there's a guy on his way up to Scotland for,

I think it was, a family christening. He had broken down.

Fred, having never met this guy in his life,

lent him his own car and said,

"Bring it back on your way back down."

And by the time this guy got back, Fred had fixed his own car and given it back to him.

I can't think many people would do that.

That was typical of him. He was a really generous and kind man, definitely.

In keeping with his ethos of foraging and great British ingredients,

Tommy's dessert originates from the local area.

For me, what has been the inspiration is the fir trees,

and I really wanted to use an ingredient that was local to this location,

that is why I'm doing the Douglas fir dessert for him.

Tommy has brought along a Douglas fir sour,

which he will be serving with his dish.

Look at the colour of that, looks fantastic.

-Cheers.

-Cheers. Here's to Fred.

That is fantastic, Tommy.

-I hope I can do him proud.

-I'm sure you can.

Because it's honouring my grandad

and he played a massive part in my life,

this is the one I would really like to get to the banquet.

Back in the kitchen, Tommy's feeling the strain.

For his lemon verbena gel,

he mixes the setting agent gellan gum with a sugar syrup

and leaves to solidify.

-Smell that, chef!

-Wow!

Once cooled, he blitzes the gel with fresh lemon verbena leaves.

He also makes a curd

by blending fresh verbena leaves

with home-made lemon verbena vinegar,

eggs, sugar and gelatine,

at precisely 80 degrees.

To finish, he adds unsalted butter, then chills.

Tommy, he's running round.

You're sweating.

Wow.

Finally!

If that dish is like any of the others, it's probably going to be...

a high score!

I don't like him any more(!)

Mini also has his work cut out.

To create the appearance of snow-covered Everest,

he is using thin sheets of dehydrated meringue, broken into shards.

Not content with just one meringue, Mini is making a second type.

-What have you got here?

-Sugar water...

Tiny bit of white wine vinegar,

that is going to go into making my Italian meringue.

Is this flavoured with anything?

-No.

-OK.

I have to say, Mini, you seem pretty calm, you're not sweating.

Possibly I haven't got quite as much to do as Tommy over there.

With the Italian meringue that Mini is making,

he is not adding any flavouring at all to it,

so I'm not sure what that is going to bring.

BEEPING

I'll see you later.

In his quest for perfection,

Tommy decides to remake his white chocolate tuile.

It's quite a temperamental little beast. What the hell am I doing?

-What's going on?

-I've made my tuiles.

They're all right.

I've made them better before.

-So I'm going to make another batch.

-Have you got time?

I'll have to, won't I? I want that ten.

It's got to be perfect if you want to get that ten.

-You all right, Tommy?

-Yeah, I'm coming back from adversity.

Droplet of sweat on his forehead!

-What's this?

-I'd say it's an eight tuile.

It's not going to get me a ten, that tuile.

Come on!

I think Tommy is at last feeling the pressure in there.

He's redoing his tuiles.

I'm not sure if he's going to have enough time to do everything.

-Five minutes behind where I want to be but I'll just have to move my

-BLEEP!

I'll get there.

Mini is also up against it, with yet more elements to prepare.

He makes a yuzu soil by melting cocoa butter with white chocolate

and adding yuzu powder.

To create a soil texture, Mini uses a specialist dehydrating powder,

maltodextrin.

I do know what's going on, I just have no control over it.

That's how I feel! That's how I feel. I've got three things working,

I need them all in ten minutes.

Mini will be first to the pass, and time is running out.

My brief is about every Briton with a mountain to climb.

BEEPING

I've got Everest straight in front of me. I'll see you later.

Hey Mini, how long does it take to build a mountain?

-Mate, with this gold leaf, it is going to take

-BLEEP!

-millennia!

It is doing everything apart from sticking to the meringue.

Next, Mini moves on to his mountain mist. He combines dried lavender,

juniper berries and peppermint oil,

which he'll smoke just before service.

Across the kitchen,

Tommy is not happy with his second batch of tuiles.

He's decided to make them again.

That's my tuile.

Yes!

Great British Menu can break a man.

I've burnt a few sugar syrups.

I've broken a thermometer, I've melted a whisk to my hand,

I've got a few burns.

It has gone far from to plan but I'll get this dish out.

Parfait, done!

Gel, done. Curd, done.

Biscuits, done. Sorbet not.

Gum's in there.

Right.

Sorbet time!

Mini is first to plate up his Breaking New Frontiers,

an ambitious dessert paying homage to the British-led expedition team

which conquered Mount Everest.

But in his effort to impress, Mini has overstretched himself,

and run out of time.

You're supposed to be at the pass, now.

I'm going to need about two minutes, please, Tom.

Two minutes? Are you sure? You're building a mountain, not a molehill.

I'm building mountains, you're right. I might need three or four.

-Is it going to be two, or four?

-I'll take four, please.

Sorry.

On to chilled slate plates goes the blackberry sorbet and the unusual kiwi sorbet.

Next, Mini pipes on white chocolate and blackberry creme patissiere,

which he also uses to secure carefully placed shards of meringue

-to build his mountain.

-Looking good, chef.

It's like a jigsaw, innit.

Mini then adds compressed blackberry, and fresh kiwi.

Coming over four minutes, chef.

I am 30 seconds, a minute...

And pipes on glossy Italian meringue.

Actually six minutes...!

He completes his dessert with a sprinkling of yuzu soil

before filling the cloche with his mountain mist.

-Gold leaf?

-I forgot the gold leaf...

A dusting of matcha tea powder,

and Mini's dessert is finally ready to serve.

It's a big mountain you've climbed today, chef.

I'm really sorry, I want to apologise, seven minutes.

So, Mini, the name of the dish?

Tom, this is called Breaking New Frontiers.

-And I think you've broken a few.

-Yeah!

Let's go and try it.

Quite a pungent smell, you've got there, I definitely got a hit.

HE COUGHS SLIGHTLY

Wow.

Can you smell the mint, the lavender, the juniper?

Yeah, definitely.

Meringue crispy enough for you?

Crispy enough, cos there's quite a bit of it.

I think the smoke is possibly affecting quite a bit of the dessert.

-Yeah.

-The meringue tastes like burned lavender.

So the smoke flavour's totally taken over that dish.

The blackberry and kiwi sorbet, they taste OK for you?

I like the blackberry. It's not really been affected too much by the smoke.

Blackberry sorbet, perfectly made.

Kiwi sorbet. They are absolutely delicious.

They've managed to evade the smoke by being in the mountain of meringue.

What would you give your dish?

I don't think it's more than a six.

I mean, that smoke's really overpowered the dish.

Right. What the hell am I doing?

Now it's Tommy's turn to present his dessert, My Great Briton.

After keeping his cool all week, he's finally feeling the strain.

How do you think you got on?

The smoke was too much.

Yeah, I totally agreed. What do you think Tom thought?

I don't know. I really don't know.

So, you're plating up next.

Yeah, I'm just pretty busy. I've got some stuff going on in the back,

I've got some stuff going on over there.

Five minutes, I've got, to run around. I've got to make a cocktail and, yeah.

I'm busy, mate. Let's do it.

For his dish, Tommy uses his lemon verbena curd

to secure his Douglas fir parfait on to a disc of his challenging white chocolate tuile.

He tops with another tuile decorated with lemon verbena curd and lemon verbena gel.

Next, a quenelle of ewe's milk yoghurt sorbet

and a dusting of Douglas fir sherbet.

Tommy serves his dessert with a Douglas fir sour cocktail,

and presents with a bonsai fir

inspired by the trees growing on the site

of the Kilburn White Horse,

which was maintained by his late grandfather.

-Camouflage?

-Yeah, it's so I can hide behind it

when you give me a low score.

OK. This is my dessert,

My Great Briton. Can we get the lights down, please?

OK, so you're about to hear my grandad's voice,

just to explain where we are.

'You're on the famous Kilburn White Horse.

'It was designed by Kilburn schoolmaster John Hodgson

'and cut by the villagers in 1857.

'The idea came from Thomas Turner. He was a Kilburn man

'who saw the White Horse in the south of England

'and wanted Yorkshire to have a bigger, better horse than the rest.

'Enjoy the view.'

Fantastic.

-Happy, Tommy?

-I am, yes.

Mini, what do you think?

Yeah, it's epic. It's fantastic.

Thanks, Chef. That was my grandad.

Brilliant. Well, I think we all got the message on that one.

-Emotional, yes?

-Very.

In a lot of ways. Yeah, very.

OK. I guess we don't carry this?

-No. Let's go and try the dessert, please.

-Let's go.

You'd better get the door.

You put hell and high water into that dessert.

Yeah. It was a push.

This is another wow, I think.

Is it time to pull out another wow? Presentation, amazing.

So, the parfait. Have you got enough of the Douglas fir flavour?

Yeah, I think so.

Nice colour, nice flavour.

It holds its place but it doesn't dominate anything.

-The chocolate tuile...

-Yeah, it brings texture to the dish.

My only criticism would be that the biscuit tuile is just a touch too hard.

Do you think the flavour of the verbena in the gel and the curd come through?

Yeah, I do. I really like that acidity.

You can taste the lemon and verbena.

Could he have put a little bit more on so it doesn't get quite so lost?

Possibly.

So, explain what we have in the cup.

Yeah, so it's like a sour-style cocktail.

It's perfect. It's really, really nice.

I definitely want the recipe for that.

-Right level of alcohol?

-Yeah.

I'll have a bit more.

What score would you give your dish?

I'm going to say... I want that ten, Tom.

I've been wanting it all week. And this is the dish.

Well done. Another fine dish.

Thanks, Mini. I think I'm quite happy with that.

You should be.

I just didn't enjoy the process to get there at all.

Ten, I think, is out the window for me.

I think that went up in smoke, to be fair.

I like doing cooking, but I don't like waiting to find out.

In that time, the stress goes through the roof.

-There is nothing more we can do now.

-No. That's it.

Hi, chefs. Dessert course done,

and your last chance to push for that elusive ten.

Mini, I'm going to be starting with you and your dish,

Breaking New Frontiers.

The dish, I thought, had so much promise.

All the flavours you described to me sounded really interesting.

And I thought the presentation had real theatre.

Even the story behind it was spot-on.

But...

You need bigger shards of meringue.

It was more of a molehill than a mountain.

The smoke overpowered everything.

You could have really convinced me about that kiwi sorbet,

but I'm afraid to say it was destroyed by the smoke.

Tommy...

for your My Great Briton,

I loved the theatrics of the presentation.

Hearing your grandfather's voice telling that story was amazing.

-Thank you.

-The lemon verbena gel and curd were spot-on.

The white chocolate tuile, although you struggled a bit,

gave it a really nice crunch.

The Douglas fir and verbena cocktail, another nice touch.

And, I have to say, the Douglas fir parfait was perfect.

Thank you, Chef.

The dish, altogether, showed really great skill.

-And I know it meant a lot to you.

-Thank you, Tom.

So, to the scores.

Mini, I'm giving you a score...

..of six.

Tommy...

..I'm giving you...

-A ten.

-Yes!

Thank you.

-Well done.

-Cheers, Mini.

-Well deserved.

-Everything on that dish earned its place.

Perfectly executed.

One other thing. That gives you the joint highest ever score

across the week in Great British Menu history.

Mate!

No way!

No way!

-Cheers, Chef.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

Wow.

Congratulations.

So, as you know, both of you are cooking for the judges tomorrow.

Make sure that you cook your hearts out tomorrow.

-Well done.

-Thanks, Tom.

Thank you.

Joint highest scorer of Great British Menu all-time,

I just can't believe I've been put on the pedestal with them.

It's unbelievable.

I can't believe that... What he just said.

I can. I've been eating your food all week. I can.

It's my second time in the competition,

I've never cooked for the judges,

so I'm looking forward to the opportunity tomorrow.

You want to come back tomorrow now because you've got it there, haven't you?

I wanted to cook a faultless dish this week, and I'm delighted.

But it's more than that.

With the reason for the dish as well, it means a lot for me.