London and South East Dessert Great British Menu

This year on Great British Menu,

24 of the country's top chefs...

This is it, I'm just going to go for it.

..are competing to cook at a glorious Taste Of Summer banquet...

-Everything's got to be perfect.

-I'm going to flip out!

..celebrating 140 years of the iconic Wimbledon Championships,

the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament in the world.

This week, battling to represent London and the South East

in the national finals are three newcomers to the competition.

-That's brave!

-Brave or stupid?

Selin Kiazim, whose Turkish-Cypriot-inspired main course

kept her at the top of the scoreboard...

That's impressive. Is that just for one?

Yeah, this is just your portion!

..Tom Kemble, whose outstanding main course

put him in joint first place...

I thought it was a lovely plate of food.

I thought you cooked that lamb beautifully.

Nine.

..and Mike Reid, whose risky techniques...

Pat Cash, baby!

..saw him slip narrowly into third.

I didn't think that Wagyu beef had the barbecue flavour to it.

Today, it's the dessert course, and the chefs' last chance to impress...

Nerves getting to you?

..but with only two going through to the judges' chamber,

and just one point in it, who will be going home today?

I'm just going to do one more,

otherwise the whole dish is going to collapse.

To get to Friday's regional final,

the chefs must create outstanding dishes

that celebrate a taste of summer,

and pay tribute to 140 years of the Wimbledon Championships.

With three courses down,

Mike is just behind in third, with 22 points.

Obviously, to be in front is a better place to be,

but it's one point, it's nothing. If I nail my dish,

then I reckon I'll be going through tomorrow to the judges.

His competitors, Tom and Selin,

are both in first place on 23 points.

-So, dessert course.

-I'm really excited to get going.

It's so close between us all, so I'm hoping for a good score.

You must be feeling good, though, with your nine.

I feel good, but I need to deliver on this.

I mean, no-one can really relax today, someone's going home.

I'm hoping it's not me.

See what happens when he gets a nine?

Judging this week is Michelin-starred chef

and six-time veteran, Angela Hartnett.

Morning, Chefs. Are you all right?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, not too bad.

Feeling ready for desserts?

Yeah, very excited for desserts.

OK, well, someone has to go home, unfortunately.

Let's see some brilliant cooking.

Good luck.

The dessert needs to be absolutely a show-stopper.

I would like to give a ten, but a ten basically says it's perfect,

and I'm afraid none of their dishes so far have been perfect.

In joint first place, Tom earned an impressive nine for his main,

only dropping a point for failing to hit the brief.

Today, he's hoping to go one better,

with his delicate dessert From The Hedgerows.

Hey, Tom. Feeling confident going into this round?

I am. I really believe in this dessert.

How does it connect to the brief?

Well, this dish is all based from my childhood memories of summer.

I used to pick fresh berries from the hedgerows.

So tell me what the dish is.

So it's going to be stacked up in various layers.

There'll be a little bit of fresh raspberry, a little bit of sorbet,

another layer of tuile.

I want to make a vanilla cream, a creme diplomat.

OK. And what are you doing with this elderflower?

So this is home-made elderflower cordial,

and I want to be using that as a base for my sorbet.

Oh, smells delicious.

-And I'm using a sourdough to make a tuile.

-Oh, right, OK.

Dusting over the tuiles, freeze-dried raspberry power,

which will add a really nice element of acidity to it.

With dessert, for me, I hate over-sweet things.

Oh, well, that works for me. I don't have a sweet tooth.

I think you'll like this dessert.

So anything you're worried about

that you think could trip you up in this round?

The temperature of the kitchen,

and getting everything stacked up without, kind of, collapsing,

would be great.

I love the sound of Tom's dessert -

but Tom's weakness is hitting that brief each time,

and making it banquet-worthy.

Mind your back, please, Mike.

Also in first is Selin,

who's been criticised by Angela for serving too many elements.

Today, she's doing a more restrained dish -

her homage to Wimbledon's greatest women players,

Ladies Dressed In White.

OK, Selin, what's your dessert?

I'm going to be doing a dessert which encompasses the flavours

of strawberries and cream.

-OK.

-My version is a little bit different, though.

So, what is it, in a nutshell?

So it's going to be an orange blossom and yoghurt parfait...

-Yeah.

-..with a strawberry sorbet, a pistachio cream,

with meringue shards.

And I've also got this pastry here.

-So this is what we call kadayif.

-Kadayif.

-Yeah.

So I'm going to make a vanilla cream cheese

and use some of the marinated strawberry to go inside of it,

and then wrap it in the pastry, and deep fry it.

Sounds good. You've got less on this dish

-than any of your previous dishes.

-I do!

Anything you're worried about, nervous?

I guess just getting the parfait set on time,

and obviously making sure that the sorbet's nice and set as well.

So, yeah, timings.

She's got to make sure that parfait is set correctly.

She doesn't want it rock-solid,

she wants it unctuous enough that you can cut it with a spoon.

I just hope she can pull it off.

In third place, just one point behind Tom and Selin, is Mike,

who is hoping to score highly with his dessert, Wimbledon Whites,

inspired by the players' dress code and flavours of the Caribbean.

-Hi, Mike, are you OK?

-Feeling good, feeling good.

So, why Wimbledon Whites?

Wimbledon's the only championship now

where the players still have to wear white.

So everything on the dish that's going to be visible

-will be white.

-So, tell me, what's involved?

I've got a white chocolate and elderflower mousse, a coconut sago,

a smoked mango puree, and then I've got some yoghurt here.

-Yeah.

-I'm going to make a yoghurt sponge, as well.

OK. And this is?

-So this is yuzu.

-Yuzu? Oh, Japanese...

Exactly, like a Japanese lemon.

I'm going to turn it into a gel, to give a bit of tartness.

OK. Obviously, Selin's got her whites.

A bit of a competition, just in you two, you know.

-Yeah.

-I'm just hoping that my one is better!

Any hiccups, anything you're worried about, that you think, "Oh?"

There's a lot to get done.

I've just got to make sure I perfect everything,

and then I'm sure I'll make it through to tomorrow's final.

Mike's quite ambitious with his dessert.

If he pulls that one off, it could beat the other two -

but there's lots going on.

He needs to make sure he nails every element of it.

Behind you, please, Chef.

There's a lot of pressure on this course.

Yeah, I mean, even getting a good score in the meat course,

I still feel, you know, vulnerable.

Desserts can be so temperamental,

anything can go wrong,

it's all about temperatures and being absolutely precise.

Tom's working on his technical dish From The Hedgerows.

He is creating a delicately stacked tuile,

raspberry and elderflower dessert -

but, to support the layers,

each component must be set at just the right consistency.

I just feel really focused, I want to knock out this dish and, yeah,

try to stay in the competition.

He begins by stiffening a vanilla-infused milk

for his creme diplomat,

which will be used as a base for his sourdough tuile.

After leaving to set, he moves on to his elderflower sorbet,

but he's worried about the heat from Mike's barbecue.

-Are you going to smoke out the whole kitchen?

-Yeah, absolutely, Tom.

-Excellent.

-I'm going to try and melt your parfait and ice creams!

Selin has two key elements she needs to set for her dish,

Ladies Dressed In White, a yoghurt parfait and a strawberry sorbet.

So I decided to go with raspberries,

cos I didn't want to do the obvious thing of using strawberries, Selin.

Do you think you're going to get marked down for an obvious choice?

No, not at all. I think there is no way that you can be celebrating

140 years of Wimbledon without strawberries and cream.

She starts by making her semi-frozen yoghurt parfait,

which she's flavouring with orange blossom

to capture the taste of summer.

That's really intense. Someone will be going home at the end of today,

and I really don't want it to be me.

So, you know, I'm feeling pretty anxious about that.

Mike is working on his tribute to the Wimbledon dress code,

Wimbledon Whites, inspired by the tastes of the Caribbean.

He begins by slow-smoking mangoes to intensify their flavour.

So, Mike, we're both going for the white theme, here,

with our desserts.

Yeah - I think they're both very different.

I'm very confident that my dish will be the standout one.

Mangoes aren't very Wimbledon!

Yeah, but they're very summer.

Next, he starts on the first white element of his dish,

his tropical twist on a traditional rice pudding,

made with sago pearls and lemon grass.

What have we got here?

So this is the coconut sago element of my dish.

-You would have had that as a school dinner?

-Absolutely, absolutely.

Good old rice pudding, but done with sago.

But that, trust me, tastes a lot better!

It's sweet, but it's not too sweet,

so by the time I add the white chocolate,

which is obviously my other sweet element,

all the other flavours should bring it into nice balance.

-Good luck.

-Cheers.

Mike's dish is inspired by the all-white Wimbledon dress code,

which the modern players must observe -

but throughout the tournament's history,

both the outfits and the rules have changed.

Hi, Mike. Really nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you, as well.

-Welcome to Wimbledon.

To find out more, Mike's come to meet Anna Renton,

curator of the Wimbledon Museum.

I wanted to start off by showing you the origins

-of lawn tennis costume for women.

-Wow.

Did they actually wear that to play tennis?

They actually did.

Lawn tennis came about

as an extension of the Victorian garden party,

so women played in dresses,

complete with corsets and petticoats.

We've got here just some weights.

The left is what a male tennis player was wearing in 1881,

and that's 2.4 kilos -

and then, on the right-hand side...

HE LAUGHS

..a lady would be wearing 4.9 kilos.

Wow. That's considerably heavier.

How did they play with all of that weight?

It was really quite a challenge -

and that's kind of where the white clothing thing comes in,

because the idea of being seen to perspire was not seen as ladylike.

-Not very ladylike.

-No, not at all.

-How dare they sweat?

Absolutely.

In Victorian times, male tennis players also dressed formally,

but throughout the tournament's history,

the clothing has changed dramatically.

So, this is a blanket coat.

-Would you like to try it on?

-I'd love to!

-OK.

-It looks huge.

It was said to kind of give the players a bit of an advantage

so that they didn't cool down.

What you're wearing there wasn't very controversial -

but by the 1930s,

some men's clothing was becoming a bit more controversial.

I'll show you in here - we've got a pair of shorts.

Oh!

So the first man to wear shorts on Centre Court was Bunny Austin.

These kicked up a storm?

They really did.

Wow.

Over the years, more and more colour began to creep in to tennis outfits,

and, in 1963, Wimbledon introduced their first written rule

stating all clothing had to be predominantly white.

This is Djokovic's kit from the 2015 final.

And you can see here there is some colour trim allowed.

I love the fact you can have a little bit of colour.

It's actually something I could bring to my dish.

Thank you so much for this.

-It's been incredible.

-You're welcome.

It's been a real pleasure showing you around.

Thank you. So, this coat's mine to keep now, yeah?

I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for it back!

Back in the kitchen, Tom's working on the elderflower sorbet

which he'll use to support the sourdough tuiles

for the layers in his dessert.

So what are you doing there, Tom?

I'm just doing some quenelles of my sorbet already,

it's going to hold them in the freezer, just in case.

I do not want to get affected by the heat in this kitchen.

Next he checks on his delicate tuiles...

It hasn't worked out.

..but, in the heat of the oven,

the wafers have cracked.

I just saw you bring out the tuile.

It had holes in it. Is that how it's supposed to be, Tom?

Um, yeah, but I want to make sure I've got nice pieces

for the dish, as well, so I'm just going to do one more.

I want a few holes, but I don't want too many holes,

otherwise the whole dish is going to collapse.

With time running out,

Selin's still working on the centrepiece of her dessert,

her orange blossom yoghurt parfaits,

which she coats in toasted pistachio nuts

before returning to the freezer.

Next she turns to the riskiest element of her dish, the kadayif,

a deep-fried Turkish pastry with a frozen cream cheese centre.

OK, Selin, how are you getting on?

-I'm up against it.

-OK.

What are these? These are the little ones...

So this is the vanilla cream cheese,

so I'm going to put a little compressed strawberry in there,

which has some syrup going through it.

I'm going to chill them down as much as I can,

and then wrap them in the kadayif pastry.

So you really need these to set?

-Yes.

-Good. All right. I'll let you get on.

Thank you very much.

It's cheese filling for a pastry.

She needs to make sure it's set and sealed,

cos when she deep-fries it, if it's not, it's going to disintegrate.

Across the kitchen, Mike's moved on to his milk crumb,

which he'll use as a topping for his all-white dish.

Nerves getting to you?

I'm moving at such a fast pace.

I've got a lot of elements to get done, so accidents happen.

He begins by combining milk powder, butter and sugar,

then bakes in the oven

before mixing with melted white chocolate.

Next he turns to his yoghurt sponge,

which he's cooking using an unconventional method -

with a plastic cup.

Why are you piercing them?

-It's cos I'm cooking it in the microwave.

-How long does that take?

-Pretty quick, no?

-About 30 seconds.

Yeah. Nothing wrong with a normal sponge, then?

You know me, Tom, I like to push myself.

Pushing yourself by making a sponge in 30 seconds?

Yeah!

Selin is first to plate up her dish, Ladies Dressed In White,

a homage to Wimbledon's female champions.

She starts by pouring her strawberry gel into bottles

before topping with champagne, and corking.

It's definitely a little bit of a struggle using this.

-Do you need a hand?

-No, all good.

She adds a personalised note,

then moves on to her frozen strawberry and cream cheese spheres,

which she covers in kadayif pastry.

OK, Selin, on time?

Erm...I hope so.

She deep-fries the balls, hoping the filling stays set...

..and dusts with icing sugar.

She plates her orange blossom parfait then adds pistachio cream,

a quenelle of strawberry sorbet and compressed strawberries.

-Are you nearly there?

-Yep.

-Nearly there, I just need to...

-You're quite late, yeah?

Sorry.

To reflect the name of the dish,

Selin finishes with white meringue shards.

OK. I'm ready.

Hi.

Right. A nice little note for me, there, I see.

"Dear Angela, in honour of the female Wimbledon greats,

"you are cordially invited to a dessert of strawberries and cream.

"Dress code - please wear white."

That's very cute. If you want to take the dessert,

and I'll take the booze. Right, enjoy, chaps.

Oh, nice little pop.

So this is a strawberry Bellini, is that right?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-That's a really lovely touch. I like that.

-Cheers.

-Yeah, that's nice.

-You see, when I saw you making that,

I thought it was going to fall apart in the fryer.

Did you wet this pastry to roll it?

No. If it's a good pastry, it works.

-Well, we'll see if it's worked.

-Yeah.

OK.

Mm.

Not for me.

It's such a kind of, um, lacy pastry,

that there's so much oil that just sits in there.

Yeah, I agree.

Wow. There is your summer on a plate.

You do get the orange flavour with that parfait.

I think if you put it in, it could kill the whole dessert,

but it's worked well with it.

Are you happy with the setting?

No, I think it's a little bit too hard-set.

Nice texture to it. If you taste the pistachio cream with the parfait,

I think you completely lose the parfait,

you just get that pistachio flavour kind of dominating.

So how would you score that?

I think I'd give myself a nine.

I don't think it's one of her strongest dishes.

I think it's a little bit style over substance.

-Hey, guys.

-How was it?

I think the parfait, I should have taken out a little sooner

from the blast chiller, but I was happy with all the flavours.

I thought the flavours were great.

-I didn't think it needed the kadayif pastry.

-OK.

I think it was a really good plate of food.

Thank you very much.

Tom is next to plate up his summer-themed layered dessert

From The Hedgerows. He starts his stack with raspberry foam.

He adds fresh raspberries

before topping with a quenelle of elderflower sorbet.

Next, using a sourdough tuile, he creates a second tier,

which he tops with creme diplomat

and raspberries drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

Are you happy with those tuiles, Tom?

Yeah, I am. I wasn't feeling good about half an hour ago.

How many batches have you made?

Only three!

Finally, he places another tuile on top,

dusted with freeze-dried raspberry powder.

-Are you ready to come up to the pass, Tom?

-Yes, I am, Angela.

-From The Hedgerows.

-What do you think?

Nice and vibrant colours.

This one definitely smacks of summer.

So, what are you saying, his last ones didn't?

-Is that what...?

-Oh, you said that, Angela, not me.

Right, you want to bring that through, Tom?

We'll take it to the chamber.

-It's holding well.

-Some kind of glue in there, or something?

-Yeah!

Is that the right flavour you wanted,

and the consistency you wanted in the sorbet?

Yeah. I'm really happy with it. The home-made kind of syrup,

it really gives a really vibrant elderflower flavour to the dish.

The elderflower sorbet is beautiful, quite a fragrant flavour to it.

The little sourdough tuiles?

-Happy with those?

-I am.

They are kind of paper-thin, which is what I wanted.

It's really delicious. I'm loving the texture

that the sourdough tuile is bringing.

Creme diplomat.

With the vanilla through that.

You know, it is lovely.

Maybe a touch less creme diplomat,

so the sorbet flavour would come through a little better.

Maybe could have just dialled it down a touch,

but that's nit-picking, you know?

You're fine with the balance of sweetness to savoury?

I think it could do with a little bit more balsamic vinegar.

I love that aged balsamic, you know. It adds a really nice sharpness.

Yeah, I would have liked a little bit more of it.

What score would you give it?

So I'm going to score myself with a nine.

He's pulled one out the bag here.

Yeah, it's got me quite worried, actually.

-How did it go?

-You never know, do you?

I thought it was really delicious, actually, Tom.

I think it's been your best course of the week.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Great.

Mike is last to the pass with his dish, Wimbledon Whites,

inspired by the flavours of the Caribbean.

Any props with this one, Mike?

-Tennis court?

-Andy Murray?

Tennis court, maybe!

I tried Andy, he wasn't available.

He begins with the coconut sago,

his tropical take on traditional rice pudding.

-What's going on the plate, Mike?

-Smoked mango.

Ah, so you pureed it? That's all the barbecued mango, yeah?

Yeah, exactly.

He adds white chocolate and elderflower mousse.

Next, his unusually-cooked yoghurt sponge...

..followed by his buttermilk crumb.

-OK, Mike.

-Yeah.

What's our little bit of grass here for?

Just to serve up on, Angela. Just to take you to Wimbledon,

so that the white dish really pops.

He tops with coconut powder and apple blossom

to create the all-white effect.

OK, are you ready?

-I forgot one element.

-What are you putting on there, Mike?

Just the yuzu, which is really important.

It's like it never happened.

OK.

Wimbledon Whites.

-What do you think, Tom?

-Yeah, it looks really impressive.

Really nice and clean. I love that look.

Right, let's go.

It certainly is white.

It's biscuity. What's the biscuity thing?

-That's the milk crumb.

-Really?

Yeah, you know, it's a fancy way of making a crumble.

I wouldn't know it was made from milk.

I think maybe it's just got lost with everything.

-You certainly get that smokiness with the mango.

-Yeah.

It's surprising, actually.

It's got a really nice balance of the barbecued flavour

but also kind of still keeping that mango flavour, as well.

-Where's the sponge in that?

-As you're cutting, you should get

-a little bit of the bite of the sponge.

-Right, yeah, I see that.

So you should get a little bit of sourness from that.

It is yoghurty, but I just think that there's not much sponge texture

to it. It's quite dense.

-Yeah.

-You've got that subtlety of the coconut in the sago.

It's not overpowering.

I wanted to keep the sago really airy, and not too in your face.

-I just think that there's too much going on in this dish.

-I agree.

-I think you could have stripped it back.

-Some mouthfuls, the flavours

-all work, but otherwise, it's kind of a bit pot luck.

-Yeah.

How did that go for you?

I'm so glad that's over!

I was happy with it. What did you guys think?

The yoghurt sponge was a bit flat.

I think there was a bit too much going on,

which is quite rich coming from me, probably!

Hoping Angela doesn't agree with either of you!

It so close between us, it really is about this dessert,

and I'd be gutted if I went out.

I'd be devastated.

Don't look so nervous!

Selin, I'm going to start with your dish...

I like the marinated strawberries, they were really lovely.

And I really like that deep-fried kadayif.

You pulled it off - you had the crunchiness there of that pastry,

you had the softness there of the cream cheese in the middle

with the strawberry...

..but, as you pointed out, the parfait was a little bit firm.

You didn't need the pistachio cream.

You had all the flavour with the pistachios round the parfait.

Tom, your dish...

I thought it was a very refined dessert.

I liked the creme diplomat,

I thought that was smart not to be whipped cream that would sink.

It was brilliant that I could take my spoon and literally cut

right through to the bottom of that dessert.

It just showed that you had the most amazing consistency

with that sorbet.

That beautiful pink powder on top of your sourdough tuile,

that just shone, you know, it made that dish sort of alive.

However...

there were a few sharp elements on your plate,

like the raspberries and elderflower.

A little bit more of that balsamic vinegar

would have given that extra sweetness

and brought that little stickiness to it.

Mike.

Your dish...

I like the sago.

It wasn't overly sharp.

I like the smoked mango, and I thought your yuzu was delicious.

You needed that to cut through that sweetness.

However...

I felt the milk crumb was too sweet.

The yoghurt sponge did feel a bit rubbery,

and you couldn't taste the yoghurt.

So, to the scores.

With a score of nine...

..and going straight through to tomorrow's final...

..is Tom.

Well done, Tom. How do you feel?

That's a great score, yeah.

-I'm really relieved.

-So that leaves you, Mike, and you, Selin.

Mike, you were on 22, and, Selin, you were on 23.

So, Mike...

..I'm giving you...

..a seven.

Selin, I'm giving you...

..an eight. So, Selin, well done,

that means you'll go through to the final for the judges tomorrow.

-Thank you.

-How do you feel?

Yeah, amazing.

Yeah, really amazing.

-Mike, commiserations.

-Thank you.

It's been a real pleasure working with you.

-Well done, all of you.

-Thank you very much.

Good luck tomorrow.

Make sure someone from London and the South East

-gets through to the banquet. OK?

-Thank you.

-Good luck to you both.

-Thank you.

-Cheers.

-Out by two points.

I feel gutted, gutted.

You know? I put my heart and soul into it.

I think it's going to be really interesting.

We've got such different food.

I feel ecstatic. I really wanted to get the opportunity

to showcase my food to the judges,

and now I want to get through to the final.

It feels amazing.

-Yeah.

-Not so much.

-SELIN:

-Tomorrow I'm going to have the upper hand on Tom,

and be able to maybe even pull out a ten out of the bag somewhere.

Well done.

ALL: Awww!