Northern Ireland Starter Great British Menu

This year on Great British Menu...

I'm really feeling the pressure.

Argh!

I think it's too close to call.

..the country's best chefs are competing

to showcase contemporary British cooking.

Go time!

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

the chefs are celebrating the everyday Great Britons

she's honoured for their extraordinary achievements.

It's the most amazing thing you could ever receive.

The prize - to cook at the ultimate banquet

held at the historic Palace of Westminster.

Here, they must demonstrate the coming-of-age of British cuisine.

If everyone's going for top of the leaderboard, then I want to be the one that's there.

You think you're on track, then, all of a sudden, something's missing.

That's the magic right there, in the pan.

That was a stunning dish.

This year, the chefs have been meeting Great Britons who've been

honoured by the Queen for their endeavours.

Welcome to St Anne's.

This is the MBE, which Prince Charles gave me.

Inspired by these impressive individuals,

the chefs must demonstrate the transformation of British food

during the Queen's historic reign.

I can't criticise this dish.

Their challenge - to produce a lasting legacy...

I've seen many things in my time but I've never seen anything like that.

..to this new Elizabethan age.

This week, competing to become Northern Irish champion

are three ambitious chefs.

Third time contender, Chris McGowan, who has the banquet in his sights.

Great to be here. First year, got to the final.

Second year, got to Judges' Chamber.

Third year, all the way for me.

Making his competition debut, Eddie Atwell,

whose food philosophy is focused on the land.

I hope that my unique, natural approach with local and seasonal

produce should take me to the banquet.

And finally, fellow newcomer and Daniel Clifford's head chef,

Mark Abbott.

As a chef, I've always pushed the boundaries.

I'm going to do that this week and that is going to give me the edge.

Judging the chefs this week is a banquet winner

whose cutting-edge style left its mark on the Great British Menu.

Anybody you don't want?

-Do you want a list?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Holder of a Michelin star and a first-time winner...

I think they're all going to be daunting.

I don't think it's going to change my nerves any more.

I want to be physically sick.

..Michael O'Hare.

-Good morning, gentlemen.

-ALL:

-Good morning, Chef.

Chris, three years in the competition now.

-Third time lucky, I hope.

-Mark, you're head chef at

Daniel Clifford's two Michelin star restaurant.

-Are you feeling confident with that?

-I'm here just to give the

-competition everything that I have.

-And, Eddie, new to the competition.

Yourself walking through the door, it's one of those,

just keep my head down.

So, guys, you know, this time last year, I was in your shoes.

Arguably slightly nicer shoes!

They're pretty impressive!

Can't argue with that, can't argue with that!

I'm looking for authenticity, originality and great tasting food.

I look forward to eating it all. Best of luck.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-Wow!

-Wow! Yeah.

Definitely wasn't on my radar.

That's definitely... Do you know what I mean?

No, I... Yeah, that surprised me.

First up and competing for the third time, Chris McGowan.

-Good morning, Michael.

-Chris, how are you feeling?

-I'm very good, yeah, good.

-What is your starter

and what is the inspiration behind it?

This is Hugh. Hugh won the World Champion Plough Championships

three years in a row in the late '50s, early '60s.

Hugh's being honoured by the Queen with an MBE this year.

-OK, what are you cooking?

-It's a kind of take on a ploughman's.

It would be something that Hugh would identify with.

It's called Hugh's Piece Box.

Piece would be a slang in Northern Ireland for a sandwich.

We've got ham knuckle. We're going to kind of roll that in a ballotine.

We're going to wrap it in some of this fantastic Cumbrian ham.

-OK.

-We're going to take this English mature cheddar and we're going to

make a little mature cheddar soup from that.

We're going to take some spring onions and make a little onion bread

and then were going to do a little ham knuckle crubeens.

-Sorry, crubeens?

-Crubeens, it's kind of like a ham knuckle

that's been pulled, but it's got pigskin in it as well

and we're going to wrap it in pork fat crackling

and then fry it, so it's like a little crispy ham knuckle.

-Really healthy!

-Yeah, it's good, do you know what I mean? That's...

You know, you're out in the field, you're ploughing every day, you want substance, you know?

So they're really humble ingredients but hopefully I'm able to elevate

-them to a winning dish.

-I'm certainly intrigued

-to try that soup. Best of luck.

-Thank you.

I'm a little nervous for Chris on this.

It seems like it's essentially soup and a sandwich,

so it'll be interesting to see if he can elevate that

to make it a banquet-worthy dish.

Next is Mark Abbott, with a box of surprisingly ordinary ingredients.

Mark.

-Good morning, Chef.

-Welcome.

Has Daniel Clifford signed off all your dishes?

We've talked about it, but this is Mark Abbott on plates.

Glad to hear it. Your starter, what's it called?

Ordinary To Extraordinary.

-And in it?

-Well, as you can see, there's quite a few potatoes.

-Yeah!

-Throughout my research into the brief,

I kept coming across humble, genuine people,

which have done fantastic things for other people.

That got me thinking - what is the most humble ingredient?

The basic potato. I want to elevate and create a dish which is exciting,

starting off with this particular variety.

What I'm going to do, I'm going to bake these

and I'm going to turn that into a croquette

and then I'm going to wrap that all in pork skin.

-OK.

-I'm going to make a buttermilk mash potato.

-Mm-hm.

I love potato salad.

So what I'm going to do, I'm going to make a nice little bacon cone

and then I'm going to fill that with purple potatoes.

Also, I'm going to make potato crisps.

So they're going to be puffed up and the top of that's

going to be covered in a bacon jelly.

I'm also going to be doing little garlic scooped out

potatoes rolled in their own skins.

-Good luck with it.

-Thank you very much.

Serving potatoes in six different ways,

it's really clever and it's really original,

but I'm worried that it's not going to excite the people at the banquet.

Last up is Eddie Atwell, who grows many of his own ingredients.

-Good morning, Chef.

-Welcome.

-Hiya.

-How are you feeling?

Yeah, I'll get there.

-Nervous?

-A wee bit, but more anxious to get cooking.

Good. Your starter, what's the name of it?

So it's called A Royal Condiment.

So basically the main element of it is...it's the HP brown sauce.

So, for me, it was the royal warrant, the Royal Standard.

Are you making your own brown sauce?

Basically, we're starting off with soaking tamarind,

which is the main base behind brown sauce.

Every ingredient has a standard on it as well.

Every ingredient has a mark and they're all working together

to create this. What I'm thinking is this is me championing

all the standards together into warrants to make this brown sauce.

The other thing I'm using is a pork. I'm using pork, going from

nose to the tail of the pork, really, with this.

So, again, it's British pork but maybe the most unused products.

So you're cooking the... pig's tails, are you?

I am indeed, I am. Exactly. The head's probably one of the

first things that I've ever prepped when I was a young chef.

Let's have a look at your head. Yeah, looks good.

I love a pig's head. They're delicious as well.

So, basically, remove the meat with the skin on,

the two sides and that'll reveal the meat inside, so the cheeks,

-nice brown meat, and along the snout as well.

-Excellent.

And what else is in the box?

So, we've got some white pudding as well and with that I'm going to be

using that with the white meat.

Again, with the capers as well, just to get that little bit of vinegar.

It looks really interesting. It looks like a great few starters

-we could have here, so best of luck to all of you...

-Thanks, Chef.

..and I look forward to tasting it.

-Thanks a lot.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

Eddie's Royal Condiment, the ingredients in this box

look phenomenal and I'm excited to see this dish.

I think it's going to taste great.

As the chefs start cooking,

Chris's experience in the competition

is the talk of the kitchen.

I've had mixed reviews over my starters.

I know how important it is to get off to a kind of good start.

It's about delivering it, isn't it?

It's getting what you want out of your food on that plate

under this pressure, under this environment.

All three chefs are using pork today.

Eddie is championing underused cuts from the pig's head and tail,

which he prepares by scorching with a blowtorch and brining.

Mark is using bacon to make a savoury jelly,

a crispy topping and a basket for his potato salad.

Chris is using ham knuckle in his ballotine and crubeens.

He's cooking the meat in a pressure cooker with a mirepoix -

chopped carrots, celery and onion.

Chris, the pressure's on, mate.

-The pressure is on!

-THEY LAUGH

We want to represent Northern Ireland, don't we?

That's what it's all about, that's why we're here.

Exactly, yeah. What a privilege it would be.

Chris McGowan worked in some of London's top restaurants

for over 12 years and, last year, moved back to Northern Ireland

to start his own restaurant, Wine & Brine.

Chris is approaching his third time in the competition

with even more grit and a new strategy.

This year, my style of food is probably a little less frenetic,

a little bit more focused.

Really hungry to get back in there.

Hopefully I can get all the way to the banquet this year.

For his menu, Chris is celebrating extraordinary Britons

from ordinary backgrounds, honoured by the Queen.

This is Hillsborough Castle.

Chris lives in Hillsborough with wife Davina,

just minutes from the Queen's Royal residence.

-Very grand, isn't it?

-It's beautiful.

It's the perfect place to taste a sample of Chris's starter.

Mmm.

That's delicious.

The brief this year is about Great Britons and, you know,

-Hugh is a Great Briton.

-Yeah.

-I mean, he's a fantastic man,

he's really humble.

-I think he would love this.

-I think he would love it, yeah.

In the kitchen, Chris is baking onion bread.

And making a caper and raisin puree

by blending golden raisins with capers.

He starts making his cheddar soup,

frying off onions and garlic before reducing with white wine

and adding fresh thyme, milk and cream.

For his ambitious dish of potatoes six ways,

Mark has several pans on the go.

So you're planting those spuds today anyway?

Oh, yeah, it seems like potatoes everywhere.

He bakes Yukon Gold potatoes.

He's using the flesh for the mash, and the croquette

and the skins will be used for the infusion.

Mark also makes potato puffs

by deep-frying granules of wheat and potato that inflate when fried.

You see Daniel Clifford, who's your mentor,

and you think about what he's been able to deliver

in this kitchen, you know.

He's inspiring. I want to do him proud.

-Yeah.

-I want to do the restaurant proud,

-I want to do my family proud.

-Yeah.

For me, that's the most important thing.

OK, two canapes away, table seven.

Mark Abbott is currently head chef

at Midsummer House under GBM veteran, Daniel Clifford.

Service! Come on, let's wake up!

Winning the competition's everything.

I will not accept second best.

I'll be pushing myself to the complete maximum

and hopefully that'll be enough.

A farmer's boy at heart,

Mark returned to his roots in County Antrim,

where his family still lives.

Well, Mark, many a fond memory you've spent here on the farm.

Being brought up on a farm, it was just a fantastic opportunity,

and there's things, even now, I take inspiration for the dishes

which we come up with.

Well, I've actually got some of the elements from the starter with me.

It's also bringing in potatoes,

which is something which would never have not been on dinner.

That's right. The humble spud, in some shape or form every day.

Mark wanted to try out his starter on some real potato connoisseurs -

his family.

So that's a potato which has been cooked in garlic and cream

and then rolled in its own skins.

Potatoes don't normally taste this good at the dinner table

at night-time.

Darling, we'll have to get a new menu for our cook.

Very different to what we have normally have, but it was lovely.

Make it again.

In the kitchen, Mark is making his bacon jelly.

He brings a bacon stock to the boil with a gelling agent,

then leaves to cool and set on a flat tray.

Next, he moves on to one of his trickiest elements -

the pommes souffle.

-What have we got going on here?

-So this is my pommes souffles.

So I'm literally just taking the two slices of potato,

gluing them together with an egg white and cornflour solution.

-OK.

-And then put them in dehydrator and then fry them.

Fingers crossed, they puff up.

You haven't given yourself too much to do?

No, there's not much. All it is is a potato, at the end of the day.

Fellow newcomer, Eddie, is starting the star element of his dish -

brown sauce.

He cooks down tamarind pulp before adding tomato, onions, dates,

black treacle and dark brown sugar.

For piquancy, Eddie adds malt vinegar,

English mustard and Worcestershire sauce.

I hope there's enough vinegar coming off this

-to knock your taste buds off.

-I can get it from here, mate.

He simmers his brown sauce under a cartouche before blending.

Eddie, probably for a lot of people on Great British Menu,

you're probably a bit of an unknown quantity.

I'm inspired to be where you guys are.

I want to try and get as much out of this.

I'm just going to get on with it.

Eddie Atwell was head chef at the acclaimed Ardtara Country House

in Maghera, Northern Ireland for a year.

His obsession with food is all-consuming.

All right, check on one beetroot, one beef. Service.

Eddie's used his training and passion to cultivate his own style,

and he's using his own culinary journey to inspire his menu.

My style of cooking's evolved with the people I've worked with.

So started off sort of classical French and moving into more

modern British and then moving towards sort of the

more natural side of growing and foraging.

Eddie's passion lies with using seasonal ingredients close to home,

either foraged or grown by himself.

There's no food miles. It's steps, you know,

from the back of the restaurant into the garden.

Within a couple of hours, someone's going to be eating that now.

Eddie was keen to see what sous-chef Kev made of his rolled pig's head

with brown sauce.

-Brown sauce is amazing.

-Yeah?

I'm glad you brought two vats,

because I think I could eat more.

-I think I'm happy enough with that.

-Oh, if anyone got that,

they'd be happy.

Eddie is now working on his pigs' tails by stripping the cooked meat

from the bones. He also separates the white and brown head meat.

-What are you doing?

-Just finished my pigs' tails and my head,

so I'm just getting ready. My sauce has come out, so I'm just getting

ready for that now and trying to get the balance right in the flavour.

Again, it's something I don't want to be overpowering too much.

I want to make it work.

-Working hard.

-A wee bit.

Like a busy fool, isn't it?

It's like a Turkish sauna.

Chris is finishing his ham knuckle ballotine.

He shreds some of the meat, adds chopped parsley,

capers and mustard and binds with a reduced stock and gelatine solution.

He assembles the ballotine using knuckle meat and air-dried ham,

then chills.

When you come to this kitchen, you want to throw your

heart and soul into it. I mean, this is what we do.

We do this for our passion.

Next, it's on to an Irish speciality.

-What are you on with?

-This is our crubeens, yeah.

So this is a very traditional Northern Irish,

this would be the kind of thing that you would have got when you come in

-off the field.

-OK. So this is something I've never seen before.

Have you never had it before? So, what we've done is a white sauce.

Basically, a little bit of mustard in there,

all the ham that's been pulled in, a little bit of parsley.

And how are you looking for time? Feeling confident?

No. No pain, no gain, Chef. Do you know what I mean?

That's why we're here, isn't it, you know?

Just had a look at Chris's crubeens.

All the sizes are different and I'm worried that he hasn't quite

got that precision that he really needs to elevate a dish

in this competition.

Not content with the first batch,

Mark is making his pommes souffle again.

How's the pommes souffle, Chef?

Pommes souffles are being pommes souffles.

Adapt and overcome, chief.

Mark then assembles his purple potato salad and finishes his

champ croquette by rolling in dehydrated pork crackling

before deep-frying.

Souffle's a bit of a knock-back,

but, as chefs, we always come back fighting for more,

so that's what I'm doing now.

Eddie is also on to the final elements of his starter.

He combines the cooked white meat from the pig's head

with white pudding, capers, lemon and parsley.

And rolls half in the skin with some brown meat,

then uses the remaining mixture to stuff the tails,

which he'll deep-fry.

I've got my head straight now and I think I'm feeling

a bit more confident about everything, so let's see.

Chris is first to the pass with his take on a ploughman's lunch,

inspired by celebrated ploughman, Hugh Barry Barr.

He finishes off by deep-frying his crubeens.

Onto a board go individual loaves of onion bread.

Next, slices of ham knuckle ballotine.

The pressure in this kitchen is absolutely immense.

Chris then adds cubes of pickled apple and the ham knuckle crubeen.

Next, droplets of caper and raisin puree

and a shard of pork scratching.

Chris garnishes with radish and baby leaves

and serves in a ploughman's presentation box.

The mature cheddar soup is poured into an enamel vintage flask.

-So, Chris, can I have a look inside?

-Yeah, absolutely.

Hugh Barry Barr is a Northern Irish ploughman,

awarded his MBE for services to ploughing in 2015.

He celebrates his 90th birthday with the Queen this year.

-Right, shall we go and taste it, Chris?

-Yes, yes, please.

-It's beautiful, Chris, well done.

-Good luck, Chef.

How do we eat it? Does it come out the box?

I think, yeah. I'll take it out the box for you, Michael.

We'll just take it out. Oh, pardon me.

It certainly looks stunning.

You can smell it as well. You can smell everything coming out,

so it's beautiful.

And then try the soup.

Yeah. Should I drink it or...?

I think, yeah, drink it, yeah.

I find with the soup, it's a beautiful rounded flavour.

If you imagine sitting out in the field drinking that,

-you'd be a happy man.

-Absolutely.

That's the thickness you were looking for?

Yeah, I think, you know what I mean, it's quite creamy,

it's quite velvety.

-Are you happy with the seasoning on that?

-I am, yeah.

You know, sometimes knuckles can be a little bit over seasoned

and I've been conscious of that.

Yeah, so the knuckle's got a great flavour, hasn't it?

I mean, it's so moist, beautiful.

The crubeen. You happy with it?

Yeah, I was relatively happy with that.

The little crubeen on the side,

can you get around the fact of - you could lift somebody's teeth out?

Do you think that you've elevated that ploughman's?

I think so. I think it's a great dish,

I think it's a tasty dish.

So, finally, Chris, what would you score this?

In and around a seven and eight would be a respectable score.

-Sevens all-round?

-Absolutely, I'd say sevens.

Next to the pass is Eddie,

who's putting the finishing touches to his starter, A Royal Condiment.

-Good luck, guys.

-Well done, Chef. How did it go?

-Yeah, I don't know.

I was relatively happy with it, you know.

There's always room for improvement in this competition, you know.

For extra flavour, Eddie scorches his rolled pig's head

with a blowtorch.

First into the bowl is apple gel, followed by apple balls.

Next, rolled, stuffed pig's head,

dressed with a dash of Eddie's brown sauce.

He adds crispy nuggets of stuffed pig's tail

and hand-foraged sea beads.

Finally, pickled cockles in a cider and cream sauce,

caramelised banana shallots and crispy topping.

Are you ready to come to the pass, Eddie? Yes, Chef.

Eddie's brown sauce is served in a separate bottle.

-Eddie, how are you feeling?

-Anxious.

You could see that Eddie threw his heart into that.

-It looks stunning.

-Right, let's go and eat it.

-This way, Chef.

That's the most sweating I've seen anyone do in that kitchen.

Absolutely. Yeah, no, I think I lost about a stone there after that.

-You can see his passion in this.

-Yeah.

-Nose to tail eating.

-Yeah.

-Brown sauce.

-I don't think I'm on for any copyright laws,

but I think it's doing what I need.

-Packs a punch.

-It does, yeah, doesn't it, do you know what I mean?

I really like it.

Texture of that pig's head. Happy with that?

Indeed.

What I'm impressed about is cooking it in the time.

-It was a brave choice, you know, and it takes a lot of skill.

-Yeah.

This is the tail, the crispy tail.

Very rich for what it is. I love the product.

Pig's tail, I really like,

-and a small bit of the brown sauce on there works wonders.

-Yeah.

It's quite an intricate bowl you've got there.

Are you happy with the mechanics of how you actually eat out of that?

I didn't want to go flat on a plate.

I wanted any juice that was coming out of any element of that

to be still in there, and to be ate.

To me, we're celebrating the brown sauce.

-Yeah.

-And I find it a little bit peculiar

we're eating it out of a bowl.

So, if you had to score it out of ten, what would you give that?

I'm pretty modest, I'd say seven.

Last to the pass is Mark, with his complex starter

of potato served six ways.

So, Eddie, how are you doing, boss?

-Well, perspiration's stopped anyway, so...

-Yeah. Were you happy?

It's what I intended. I'm happy it came out like that.

Mark starts by layering discs of bacon jelly

on his pommes souffle and topping with chopped crispy bacon.

These are presented on potato puffs served in potato skins.

Everything come out as expected, the pommes souffles?

Honestly, they haven't came up completely perfect.

Into a bowl, buttermilk mash,

followed by a layer of crispy potato puffs.

-Are you up against it?

-I think I've been up against it

as soon as I walked in these doors.

Next, spheres of creamy garlic potato in a crispy potato skin crumb

and purple potato salad in a bacon basket.

Then, champ croquette,

baby onion shells and droplets of pickled onion puree.

Mark garnishes the dish with nasturtium leaves

and chopped chives.

The dish is served with a separate baked potato infusion.

-OK, Mark. The name of the dish?

-Ordinary To Extraordinary.

-Gents?

-It's unbelievable.

-Shall we go and taste it?

-I'd love to, Chef.

-Thank you very much.

-Will do.

Are you happy with how that went?

For me, this is me on a plate.

From Ordinary To Extraordinary, he's definitely done that,

-hasn't he?

-Absolutely, times six.

The potato souffles.

You've got the crispiness of the potato and then you have that

really intense jelly on top.

That's good, isn't it? Do you know what I mean? That's good.

And now the onions. What have we got in the centre?

Just a little onion puree.

-I like those.

-They're nice, aren't they? Nice texture to the onion.

With the champ croquette, are you happy with the crispness

-on the outside, the pork skin?

-Yeah, yeah, I'm very happy with that.

-I suppose that's a little nod to Northern Ireland.

-Absolutely.

The champ, spring onion, do you know what I mean?

Potato salad's how you wanted it?

Yeah, it's quite moist and the bacon itself, it's not too crispy.

I like that sort of soft texture.

This is the little bacon basket, is it?

-With the little potato salad.

-Nice the way it's coming out like that.

-Yeah.

-You get the crisp to it, you get the potato salad.

-Yeah.

The skill factor that went into that, you know what I mean,

you can definitely see that the boy's got talent.

-He's definitely rumbled me.

-Yeah.

If you had to score it out of ten?

-Nine.

-Why nine? Why the mark off?

Because I'm upset about my pommes souffles.

What bothers you about the pommes souffles?

They're not perfectly round.

All right, lads?

-How was that?

-I wasn't 100% happy with my souffles.

He was giving me nothing.

It makes you doubt yourself, doesn't it?

-It does.

-It does, this is the nervous, anxious wait.

-Hi, chefs.

-Hi.

Well done. I'm going to start with you, Eddie, and your dish,

A Royal Condiment.

I thought, essentially, this was a

beautiful, accomplished piece of cooking.

The pig's head was amazing and I thought the crispy tail was lovely.

I think this really hit the brief and it was very original cooking.

But the star of the show was the brown sauce.

For me, it didn't shine through.

I though it was maybe overly sharp.

I would have liked to have seen more done

with the presentation of the brown sauce.

I think the bowl made it difficult to spread that sauce throughout.

Chris, for your dish, Hugh's Piece Box...

..I think this really hit the brief.

The ham hock and the crubeen, they're really tasty

and I think every single part of your dish was cooked really well.

I thought the bread was outstanding.

The soup was interesting and a different flavour.

But it's too big of a flavour to drink from the cup like that.

I would have liked to eat it with a spoon.

My main criticism is I think it was lacking a little bit of originality.

It was essentially ham hock and soup and I think that's something that

we've seen quite a lot of.

Mark, for your dish, Ordinary To Extraordinary,

when I saw your box of ingredients, it's arguably the most uninspiring

thing I've ever seen in my life.

And from it came this incredible plate of food.

There was a lot of elements on the plate,

but I think every single one of them needed to exist there.

The champ was delicious.

With your pommes souffle, you weren't 100% happy with them

because they weren't perfectly round.

Who cares?

The onion puree underneath, it was unexpected and it made it...

..really, really good. This was a phenomenal dish.

So, to the scores.

Eddie, for your dish...

..I'm scoring you...

..eight.

Chris, for your dish...

..I'm giving you a seven.

Mark, for your dish, I'm scoring you...

..ten.

I thought it was flawless. Really enjoyable plate of food.

So, well done, guys. Great start for the region and I look forward to

-seeing what you've got for fish.

-Thanks, Chef.

-Thanks a lot.

-Thank you.

Wow!

-Well done, mate.

-I didn't expect that.

-Yeah? Well done.

I put me all into that and there was a lot of emotion,

family from that, my background.

And, yeah... I'm speechless.

I got an eight. It was pretty much down to presentation to improve it,

but, you know, I think I could do that given another chance.

There's a ten. Hopefully there's a few more in the bag.

So it was a seven, it wasn't a five, so it's not the end of the world.

I've come from behind before.

I hope the story of my menu kind of comes through at the end, you know?

I could not believe when he opened his mouth and said,

"You've got a ten."

It's hilarious!