South West Fish Great British Menu

This week on Great British Menu,

three of the southwest's most talented chefs.

Michelin-starred Josh Eggleton,

who narrowly missed out on getting to the banquet last year.

I'm feeling the pressure.

Jude Kereama, who crashed out of the competition last time,

failing to cook for the judges.

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

And new to the competition, Chris Wheeler,

a classically trained chef with a taste for the theatrical.

I just catch the kitchen on fire, you know.

In the year of the Queen's 90th birthday,

the chefs are celebrating the everyday Great Britons

honoured throughout her reign

and competing for the chance to cook for them at a special banquet

at the iconic Palace of Westminster.

Josh took the lead for the starter course

with an ambitious take on coronation chicken.

The terrine looked stunning, the lobster was perfect.

Under pressure in the kitchen,

Jude failed to serve one element of his dish.

I think he forgot his fried lotus root.

I'm quite sad they're not here, to be fair.

And newcomer Chris tried to do too much.

I felt that it didn't quite work.

In today's fish course, Josh is hoping to stay on top.

I might be in the lead, but I've got loads and loads and loads to do.

Jude has his sights set on closing the gap.

Dish is going to be different to Josh's.

Firstly, it's going to have more curry flavour in it.

While Chris, in third place, is hoping to impress

with technical skills and flamboyant presentation.

The chefs have been challenged to create dishes

that are a fitting legacy to our new Elizabethan age

and a celebration of the complete transformation of British cuisine

during the Queen's historic reign.

Judging today is Michelin-starred chef

and former banquet champion Lisa Allen.

Lisa has a shellfish allergy

so she has enlisted the help of two Michelin-starred Simon Rogan.

The starter, I don't think we saw the best of the chefs,

they've definitely got more to give.

So today I want to see higher scores on their fish dishes.

You have to get your timings absolutely spot-on

and bring in all those ingredients together in perfect harmony.

How do you feel about the fish course?

I've a lot to do again. If I get everything right

I'll be all right. How about you, Chris?

CHRIS: Obviously I want to get a better score than yesterday.

I want to really fight to get up there with you guys.

Two points between us, that's nothing, so...

JOSH: Yeah, it's not much.

First up is Chris Wheeler.

Veteran judge Lisa scored his starter just five

for attempting too much and failing to execute each element perfectly.

Chris is hoping not to make the same mistake again today.

Obviously I'm going gun-blazing now. I'm in bottom place,

I don't want to be there after today, after the fish,

so I'm going to pull out all the stops

and hopefully, you know, move up the leaderboard.

Hi, Chris. Hi, how are you?

Good. You? Yeah, really good.

Excellent. So, a new course, fish course.

Obviously you're in third position at the minute

but there is still time to claw those points back.

No, it wasn't obviously the score I wanted but it's my first time,

so hopefully...only one way is up, isn't there?

Tell me about what you've got in the box

and the dish that you're cooking. So the name of the dish is

Swimming Through The Paths Of Time.

My inspiration behind the dish is how society and culture has changed

during the Queen's reign. So we're doing mackerel four ways.

So the first way I'm going to do is pickling.

So years ago we used to pickle the fish,

so I'm going to do a mackerel escabeche.

You're choosing your take on it so you're not...

I'm not doing a classic pickling.

Yeah. I'm doing sort of a modern take on pickling.

Then I'm going to move on to obviously mackerel fish and chip.

Some lovely chips. Then I'm going to move on to Oriental mackerel,

so I'm going to do some... with some soy sauce.

Some...got some lovely bean sprouts here. Lovely.

And then finally I'm going to do a mackerel nage.

How are you serving the nage?

I'm just going to do the nage in a little shell with some samphire,

some little julienne of vegetables and some queen scallops on the top.

So it's like a little soup. Like a little soup, yeah. OK.

Simon, he does seem like he's a bit of a busy boy again, doesn't he?

It looks that way.

But, you know, mackerel, my favourite fish,

love the concept of the dish,

so I hope you can execute it fully to bring it to the table.

Obviously the mackerel's got to be cooked perfectly.

Fish and chips, everyone loves a good fish and chips

so it's getting really nice, crispy batter.

This dish sounds a lot more coherent, a lot less gimmicky.

Hopefully Chris' true cooking ability can show through.

Next, Jude Kereama,

who let the pressure get to him in the first round

and forgot to serve his lotus crisps.

Lisa scored him six points,

putting him in second place on the leaderboard.

I'm determined to get a better score for my fish course

than my starter. I need to get in front of Josh this time.

Hello, Jude. Hello, Chef.

How are you? Very good, yourself?

Good. The name of my dish is Britannia Rules The Waves.

I'm trying to celebrate great British ingredients,

in particular the ingredients of the southwest,

so I'm going to use lobster.

I'm going to change it up by doing coronation chicken flavours with it.

So... Oh. ..similar to what Josh has done. The question is,

is yours going to be a better coronation chicken or not?

The proof is in the tasting.

Certainly is. We've got the mangoes,

this is going to make a dressing,

and I'm going to do some compressed mango as well with that.

And then I've got some quinoa here.

It's going to be the kind of rice element in the coronation lobster.

Simon, what do you think of this one?

Great box of ingredients. Mm.

What's the three ways, the lobster, how are you doing that?

So the lobster, I've got a bud of poached tail,

I've got a tempura claw

and a little bit of lobster meat is going to be just poached again

and then it's going to be made into a rice salad with the quinoa.

Right, sounds fantastic. Well, it sounds lovely,

very exciting. Looking forward to trying.

Thank you, Chef. 'So Jude's dish,

'he's doing a take on a coronation chicken,'

so it'll be interesting to see if he's listened about what we said

about Josh's coronation chicken,

that he gets enough flavour of curry into it

to actually have an essence within the dish.

And not overpowering that lovely lobster that he's got,

very delicate.

Finally, Josh Eggleton.

The Michelin-starred chef topped the leaderboard with a score of seven.

Now he needs to serve an impressive fish dish to hold his ground.

I pushed myself as hard as I can with my fish course,

a real celebration of British seafood, really.

If I get everything right it could be a strong dish for me.

Hello, Josh, you all right? Hey, how you doing?

Excellent. So how are you feeling? Doing OK, good. Yeah?

This course is called For Services To Maritime Safety.

Really it's dedicated to all the people

that have given up their time, mainly volunteers,

and who've honoured by the Queen through their time in the RNLI.

Yeah. So I've got some sardines here,

you can make it into a ragu or a bolognese. Right, OK.

So I'm actually going to mince these. Interesting.

That's going to go on a spoon and on top of that,

I'm going to pan fry just a piece of mackerel.

I've got some hake here,

I'm going to turn that into a fishcake.

I'm not going to use any potato, though,

I'm going to make a mousse. Porthilly oyster -

I'm going to make an oyster butter

and then I'm going to turn that into an emulsion.

And then here we have some fresh scallops.

So I'm going to take the scallops out,

I'm going to dehydrate the scallop roe,

salt it, turn it into a powder... Yeah. ..and then pan fry the scallop

in the scallop roe.

And then with the remainder of the shellfish I'm going to make...

inspired from pickled cockles behind the bar at a pub

or down at the seaside. Yeah, yeah. OK?

I'm going to use some champagne vinegar.

A fantastic box of ingredients, Simon,

there's a lot going on there - what do you think? Yeah.

I love the way you cook the scallops, by the way,

with the season of the roe.

It's one of my favourites so, yeah, looking forward to that.

So, guys, what do you think?

That's a really big box there and, yeah,

it's going to be great to see you running around, Chef.

Again. Again!

What do you think about him using a mousse instead of potato

in a fishcake? It's risky.

He obviously thinks he's onto something,

so let's see what happens.

I'm hoping it's going to be something unique and different.

With cooking under way,

attention turns to the chefs' chosen main ingredients.

So, what are you doing, then, Jude?

I'm doing lobster three different ways.

What you doing, your dish?

I'm doing a pickled mackerel. Yeah.

I'm doing fish and chips with mackerel.

And then I'm doing an Oriental mackerel

and then I'm doing like a lighter version of a mackerel dish, a nage.

And yourself, how are you doing your mackerel?

I'm just pan-frying it.

Last year, Josh's fish course scored a respectable seven points.

His fish dish this time is made up of six elements

and includes an original take on bolognese.

You do have a lot of ingredients. Are you worried about any of them?

Yeah, I'm worried about all of them. I've got to get them all perfect.

You've got to get it right, you know? Yeah.

Josh prepares his twist on a bolognese sauce

by blending sardines to replicate the texture of ground beef.

He moves on to the pickled vegetables

which will accompany the shellfish.

I've really got to push on.

I might be in the lead but, you know, it's only by one point

and I've got loads and loads and loads to do.

Jude is just one point behind Josh and is desperate to get a high score

with his contemporary take on a British classic.

Josh came out and did a starter version of coronation chicken,

his take on coronation chicken. This is mine.

I've taken on board some of the criticism

of not enough curry flavour from the judges.

It might give me an edge on the curry wars.

Jude starts with the lobster claw,

which he'll deep fry in tempura batter at the last minute,

then moves on to the tail, which he's cooking sous-vide

with a butter emulsion.

He'll use the remaining flesh for the lobster quinoa.

True to form, Chris is attempting an ambitious dish.

Mackerel is the star ingredient.

He starts by preparing the fillets

which will make up the four complex elements of his fish course.

Everybody's really concentrating today.

I think the scores were a little bit low yesterday, especially mine.

One piece of mackerel will be battered and deep-fried -

a risky decision

because an oily fish can easily result in soggy batter.

My first job was working in a fish and chip shop.

Yeah? So was mine, actually. Yeah?

JUDE: My parents had a fish and chip shop once upon a time.

I can still remember the smell. JOSH: Did they? JUDE: Yeah.

JOSH: Yeah, you come home stinking.

Well, hopefully with my fish and chips,

you won't all go home smelling tonight. No.

Next is the escabeche used for poaching the mackerel,

made by sauteing peppers and onions with aromats

before adding vinegar and orange juice.

Chris, how you doing? Very well, yeah. I'm on time, I'm doing well.

What have you got here? I've got my mackerel escabeche here.

So popped the fish in,

so I'm just going to let the fish pickle in the liquid.

Yep. So you'll find there's some white wine,

some peppers, onions, saffron. OK. Like a modern...

And orange juice as well, did you say? Orange juice, yeah. Brilliant.

Using that as the vinegar to help pickle the fish.

Well, you look under control and that was great,

so very much looking forward to trying it.

So good luck. Thank you.

Josh is also cooking mackerel fillets

which he'll pan-fry at the last minute.

He moves on to the hake fishcake which he's binding with a mousse

of hake and egg white instead of the usual potato.

This dish is really important to me.

It's been inspired by the RNLI and the volunteers

and all their time they give up. It's a worthwhile charity, isn't it?

Josh travelled to Poole in Dorset

to meet the RNLI volunteers who've inspired his dish.

So, first time I've been out on a lifeboat

and apparently if someone gives a mayday,

you've got to go and rescue them. So we'll see what happens.

Josh has joined a regular training session.

Man overboard.

OK, commence the exercise, please. Man overboard, man overboard.

So you release that.

The lifeboat crew members respond to call-outs 24 hours a day,

365 days a year.

Man overboard recovered.

Up you go, just keep squeezing the power on. That's amazing.

Need to do it more often.

Less cooking.

Josh is in esteemed company.

Many of the volunteers have been honoured by the Queen,

including Steven Davis,

a veteran of the Horton and Port Eynon Lifeboat Station in Swansea.

This year on the year honours

I received an MBE from the Queen which I picked up in April... Wow.

..which was exciting, very humbling.

Because we just do the job, we get out there, we enjoy it.

That's amazing.

Damien Bolton and Nicola Bradbury were also honoured by the RNLI

for their part in a dangerous rescue close to Port Isaac in Cornwall.

I was awarded the Bronze Medal for Gallantry for bravery at sea

and Damien was awarded the Silver Medal... Yeah.

..for a report of a father and son in the water.

It was intense.

You know, the situation we were in was very exposed and...

risky but, you know...

..these guys did a great job that day.

As a small thank you for their extraordinary endeavours,

Josh has prepared a sample of his fish course

for the crew members to enjoy.

This is a take on pickled cockles

but we've also razor clams, cockles and mussels in here.

Very crunchy vegetables. Yeah.

The juice it's in is really making it for me.

Nice and subtle. Yeah, yeah.

Do you think it'll be good enough? Winner. Yeah?

Yeah, absolutely. Definitely.

As veteran Lisa has a shellfish allergy,

Simon checks on Josh's progress.

How are you doing, then? Yeah, not bad.

How's your sardine bolognese? I'm very intrigued by that.

Sardine bolognese is here. Oh, here we are.

So it's ground-down sardines.

There's a spoon there if you want to try. Oh, wow. Yeah.

It does look like bolognese.

It actually gets a bit richer and more indulgent as it goes down.

That's intense. Yeah. Not too intense.

Just going to give a little bit...

Sort of almost takes on a beef mince flavour, so... Yeah, yeah.

A little fish element to it. That's really, really good.

Where has the inspiration for that come from?

Er, squid bolognese, really. Oh, right, OK. Yeah.

A squid bolognese with just some handmade pasta.

Sounds really, really great. You have the most on this time.

Yeah. You OK, yeah? Yeah, I think I'll be all right.

Jude is working on an original fusion of Indian

and East Asian flavours to accompany his lobster.

He marinades diced mango in a vanilla and lime syrup,

then makes the foam with ginger and yuzu, an Asian citrus fruit.

Next, he adds curry spices to his mayonnaise.

Jude. Hello, Chef. How's it going? Yeah, good, thank you.

Yeah? Good, good. All under control? Yep, under control.

Well, last time I was under control I forgot something.

Your curry element on this dish.

The curry element is the mayonnaise...

Here we go, I've got a spoon, if you'd like to try.

Hopefully it might be a little bit pokier. I'm just interested. Yeah.

OK.

And how are you going to combine all these ingredients?

The yuzu will cut through it.

I've got the richness of the lobster stock in there as well,

the underlying flavour of lobster, and hopefully I can pull it all off.

Yeah. Seems like you've got a lot more content in this

than you did in your starter.

Yeah, the starter was definitely a lot simpler.

Went on a holiday for your starter, didn't you?

Well... You're back in town now. Yeah, I'm back in town.

I thought it would be nice to ease my way in there.

That was a foolish move. Well, I wish you luck.

Thank you, Chef. Looks like you're doing a good job

and I look forward to trying it. Thank you.

Jude's curry mayonnaise had a slightly stronger flavour

than Josh's but I'm still worried about how he will incorporate that

into the dish.

Chris is working on a nage, a light soup he's flavouring with fennel,

carrot, chives and dill.

Yes, I'm going to literally just poach the fish in a nage

with some little summer vegetables and then some queen scallops.

He then moves on to preparing his tartare sauce.

Josh, meanwhile, is seasoning the scallops with the roe.

First they're dehydrated, then ground to a fine powder

which is dusted onto the scallops before cooking.

Josh's dishes are really complicated.

I think he's taken over from mine on the first course.

Chris is first to serve his fish dish,

which represents the evolution of cooking techniques

during the Queen's reign.

It'll be served in a seaside presentation.

First, he puts his tartare sauce into a mini bucket.

Next, he pan-fries mackerel in sesame oil

and seasons vegetables with soy and lime juice.

He adds to a serving bowl and tops with micro coriander.

Next, mackerel fish and chips,

served in traditional paper and a basket.

Then the samphire and mackerel nage,

followed by mackerel escabeche served in a sardine tin.

Could one of you give me a hand to take it to the pass, please?

JUDE: Yeah, sure. JOSH: Yeah.

Wow. Reminds you of the seaside. It certainly does.

We are at the seaside.

I was thinking it was going to be a simpler offering on this occasion.

What do you think, boys? JUDE: It looks great.

JOSH: Looks amazing. OK, well, I think we should go and taste it.

SIMON: Yup, let's go.

Does it speak to you, Swimming Through The Paths Of Time,

or does it feel a bit more kind of British seaside?

It does feel a little bit more British seaside.

Are you happy with the balance of the flavours in the escabeche?

In my opinion, it works really well with the saffron and the Tabasco,

so it's just a little bit of a kick at the end of it.

JOSH: As an escabeche, it needs to have slight more acidity.

Are you happy with the crispness of the batter?

Yeah, I think it did crispen up really well

and got a little crunch to it, which was the effect I was after.

It could be definitely a little bit crisper for me

but it's good, it tastes good, doesn't it? Yep.

SIMON: Do you think you've got the balance of the soy sauce correct?

Just put a little bit of soy sauce in the mackerel to give it the glaze

so when you eat it together, I didn't want to overpower

the soy sauce, and I think it works quite well. Sure.

A touch too much soy, I reckon. Yep.

Do you think you've got enough nage in there to call it a nage?

Yeah, I mean, there's a little bit in the bottom,

in the bottom of the shell.

He said he was going to do less,

it looks like he's done more and I think he's almost pulled it off.

I think so.

If you were to score your own dish, what would it be?

I'm really happy with this dish. I think, you know...

Eight?

Jude is next to plate up his spin on a coronation chicken,

using lobster to showcase British seafood.

How are you doing, Chris? Thanks.

Brilliant. Yeah, that went much better.

That was much better today. Obviously you can't tell

with the veteran chefs, but I think they enjoyed it.

I thought it was an excellent dish. Really good.

JOSH: It was lovely. Do you need any help at all or...?

No, I'm OK at the moment.

Jude starts by adding mango puree

and curry mayonnaise to a serving plate,

then lobster and quinoa salad goes into a mould,

followed by marinated mango.

Next, the butter-poached lobster tail,

tempura lobster claw

and a samphire garnish.

So, is this your lobster foam?

It is, mate. How's it looking?

It's looking all right. It's foamed up nicely.

Ginger yuzu foam goes on to the lobster tail.

Finally, purple butterfly sorrel and coriander cress.

Wow, very vibrant colours.

Nice, more like Brazil on the beach, isn't it?

THEY LAUGH Yeah.

So what's the name of your dish?

It's called Britannia Rules The Waves.

Boys, what do you think of the dish? JOSH: It looks great. Very pretty.

Lovely colours. CHRIS: Yeah, colours are amazing.

Let's go and taste it. Definitely. Thank you.

So the curry flavour, do you think it's strong enough

to penetrate through the dish?

I think it's got the hint of, you know,

the spices that I want so it didn't overpower the lobster too much.

It hasn't got a massive curry taste.

It could do with a touch more. Yeah, I know. Yeah.

SIMON: Happy with the cooking of the lobster?

Looking at the lobster, I think it could've been maybe a touch more.

I can't really get the buttery flavour.

Well, you know, cos you've got quite a lot of the...

everything else going on. Yeah, yeah.

Does the samphire add to the dish?

I wanted it to help season a little bit of the...

of the lobster and, you know,

and the taste of the sea.

JOSH: Samphire adds a nice, sort of, just a nice little bit of saltiness

to go with all the sweetness from the mango.

And if you were to score your own dish, what would it be?

If I get a six for it, I'd be really chuffed.

To get more points, what would you do differently?

Slightly longer on the lobster tail. Yeah.

Josh is last to plate up his contemporary seafood platter

in honour of the volunteers at the RNLI.

Hey, guys, how are you? You OK? Yeah, all right.

How did it go in there? You know, there were a couple of things

I wasn't, you know, happy about.

But the lobster was slightly under for some bizarre reason.

Painful. Annoying.

Can I help, Chef, with your ten million things?

He said he's under control. JOSH: I expect in a minute, yeah.

Josh adds pickled clams,

mussels and cockles to a cup with the pickling liquor

and pan-fries scallops in the dehydrated roe seasoning,

then cooks the mackerel.

He adds poached oyster to the shell with oyster emulsion,

then the hake fishcake,

adds the sardine bolognese to a spoon

and tops with pan-fried mackerel.

Have you got your checklist?

THEY LAUGH Right, shall we go?

Lovely. Seafood platter, seafood platter for one.

I love your spoons. Little anchor spoons.

Little anchor in there. Blacksmith hated me for that.

What do you think, Chris? CHRIS: Yeah, it's very impressive.

Love the plate. Lots of, you know, all the elements are there.

Can't wait to taste it. Right, let's go and try.

SIMON: Shall I take this one? Yep. OK. JUDE: Well done, Chef.

SIMON: Where do we start? With the oyster at the top? Yeah.

You happy with the cooking of that?

I just wanted to warm it up. I didn't want to overcook it.

I just wanted it to be just warm.

The oyster's just poached, isn't it? It's poached perfectly.

Just poached.

The hake fishcake is... Without any potato.

Actually, I don't think it needs potato, does it?

I mean, there's that creamy mousse inside it.

SIMON: Do you think the roe gives it enough... Yeah. ..seasoning?

I think it could just do with one,

literally one flake of salt on top, for me.

The scallop roe seasoning on the scallop is really delicious.

It really underlines that scallop flavour, doesn't it? Definitely.

Are you happy with the consistency of the bolognese?

Yeah, I'm happy with the consistency.

It's got a nice richness and I just want that to kind of go

with the mackerel as almost, as like a seasoning, you know? Mm-hm.

JUDE: It's nice. I like it. Yeah.

But I don't know if it's going to be everybody's cup of tea.

And overall, if you were to score your own dish...

I'd like to think I could get a seven or an eight for this one.

There are some perfect elements. With just a couple of little tweaks,

you know, this could possibly be a ten.

Afraid so.

You all right? Hey, mate, you all right? Yeah, good.

CHRIS: How did it go in there? It's hard to tell, isn't it?

JUDE: I thought it was a really good dish. I enjoyed it.

CHRIS: It definitely hit the brief, I think.

JUDE: How about you, Chris?

CHRIS: I feel my dish went really well.

Hopefully I'm going to claw back some points to catch you two up

and hopefully, you know, be on par by the end of today. Yeah.

With a few tweaks, it could be banquet worthy.

Absolutely. There are some high-quality ingredients there.

I had high hopes for this dish.

In practice it went perfectly,

and it didn't go as perfectly as I'd like, so who knows?

It's up to them, isn't it, you know?

Hello, Chefs. How are you all feeling?

OK.

OK, so, Chris, we're going to start with you.

Swimming Through The Paths Of Time.

The dish was a big improvement on your starter.

The pickled mackerel was delicious.

Good crunch from the peppers in there

and the orange and the saffron really came through.

And the deep-fried mackerel was not overdone.

However...

..the batter was a bit soggy and then frying an oily fish

will make the batter go soggy quite quickly.

The Oriental part of the dish felt like the soy sauce overpowered.

And the presentation needed a bit of explaining.

To me, it said seaside rather than swimming through the paths of time.

Jude, for your dish, Britannia Rules The Waves...

Presentation-wise,

it was very colourful but didn't say anything about Britain.

The star of the show was the lobster.

Simon thought it was undercooked.

There wasn't enough curry flavour to tell me

that it was a reinvention of coronation chicken

and the mayonnaise had split.

But...

..it was really tasty.

Putting all those components together was very clever

and the mixture was really good.

Josh, for your dish,

For Services To Maritime Safety...

..it was bang on the brief.

The mackerel and the sardine bolognese was amazing.

Simon said the pickled cockles,

the clams and the mussels were outstanding.

Perfectly balanced.

But...

the texture of the fishcake was a bit grainy and split,

so therefore I think that you would be better using potato in there,

and also it would give it substance and a carbohydrate. Yeah.

Now for the scores.

OK, Chris.

I'm going to give you the score of...

..seven.

Jude, I'm going to give you the score of...

..six.

Josh.

I'm going to give you the score of...

..nine. Oh, thank you.

This dish has massive potential

and I think with those few tweaks on there... Yeah.

..you can etch back on that perfect score, which is a ten.

OK, thank you.

Well done, chefs.

Tomorrow I want to see Chris and Jude close that gap on Josh, yeah?

And I look forward to seeing you tomorrow for the main course.

Thank you very much. Cheers.

Well done, mate. Thank you. Well done. JUDE: Well done, mate.

Great. Well done. I know, good.

Got a nine so nearly a ten. JOSH: Yeah.

A bit of a twist and you'll be there.

JUDE: Well done, it's a good dish. Great dish. Thank you.

With two courses down, Josh holds his lead,

with Jude and Chris trailing four points behind in joint second place.

I am ahead, four points, but it only takes one trip-up on one course

and, you know, it's like snakes and ladders,

you'll be going straight back down.

I'm not where I wanted to be after two courses

so tomorrow, I'm really going to go out there, I'm going to nail it

and get some points.

I like to call it joint second rather than joint last.

So, you know, hopefully...

I got two more points on my fish dish.

If I can get two more on meat dish, hopefully I can catch Josh up...

and overtake Jude.

A garden takes time to perfect.

It needs patience to get just right.

It's a real labour of love.

That's why we're giving you extra tips...

There are some really, really easy solutions.

..and extra time to get it perfect.

Sounds good to me.