South West Starter Great British Menu

This year on Great British Menu...

Hey!

..24 of the country's most talented chefs...

-Hold on to your hats.

-The pressure's on.

..are fighting it out in the toughest competition of their lives.

-Everything's got to be perfect.

-That's what we're here for it, ain't it?

-I need to keep pushing here.

-As previous competitors...

-Literally blood, sweat and tears.

-..and ambitious newcomers...

Don't jinx me.

..go head-to-head for the chance to cook at this year's banquet...

..celebrating 140 years of the iconic Wimbledon Championships,

the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament in the world.

Go, go, go!

To get there, the chefs must create outstanding dishes which match the

exceptional skill and flair of the tournament's greatest champions...

-Perfect harmony.

-..and celebrate the incredible smells,

colours and tastes...

-Beautiful.

-..of the best of British summertime.

I've never tasted a plate of food like that.

First they'll have to impress a formidable veteran of the competition...

I wasn't sure if it came together as a dish.

..who between them hold a total of eight Michelin stars.

The presentation of this dish was stunning.

This week, competing to represent the South West,

a chef hoping it's third time lucky...

Let's push the tents, rock and roll.

..who's being challenged by two newcomers.

I'm not going to give you boys an easy day.

If I get this one right, it's a ten all day long.

But which two will make it through to cook for the judges on Friday?

Was that a little dig there, bro?

We've got to watch this Tom!

This year marks the 140th anniversary of the Wimbledon

tennis championships.

The competition first took place in 1877 and since then...

You cannot be serious!

..has become the ultimate Grand Slam tournament...

That's absolutely fantastic.

..attracting the greatest players from around the globe and signalling

the start of the British summer.

Straight sets again.

Wimbledon champion again!

This week, battling to become South West champion,

third time competitor Dominic Chapman,

who's determined this year to make it through to the finals.

Spirit is a beautiful thing. I've been in the judge's chamber,

this time they're not sending me home.

-I'm going to win.

-Making his competition debut,

proud Cornishman and seafood specialist Tom Brown.

It would mean so much to get through and represent the South West.

It's where my heart is. I'm really, really confident in what I'm doing,

and I think I'm going to smash it.

And fellow newcomer Andy Clatworthy, who's keen to make his mark.

I'm not here to make up the numbers,

I'm here to make sure that I cook for the judges on Friday

and ultimately get through to the banquet.

Judging this week is a chef familiar with the pressures of the

Great British Menu kitchen.

Finding who the veteran is is the highlight of the week.

It will be very interesting to see who walks through that door.

A former banquet champion and the holder of one Michelin star,

who's renowned for his flamboyant style.

I don't want someone that's going to come in looking for big,

showy presentation. It's not really what I'm about.

Whoever the veteran is, they're going to expect the best.

Michael O'Hare.

-Chefs, welcome.

-Morning.

-Morning.

-Dom, you must be used to this?

I don't think you ever get used to it. The nerves are going even more than usual.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah, they are!

-And Tom?

-I'm feeling really confident about it, yeah,

but just hoping you're going to like me food.

And Andy, first time here, how does that feel, a little bit of pressure with these guys?

I've got nothing to lose, I'm just here to cook good food.

This year's brief is an excellent one, you know the taste of the summer.

As chefs, that's a time of year that we all love cooking.

I'm looking for creativity and beautiful produce and ingredients.

So best of luck to you all.

-Thank you.

-I'll see you in the kitchen.

-Thank you.

Oh, that's unreal, you know!

How quickly do you think I can get a disco ball?

THEY LAUGH

If the chefs are to make it through to the regional final,

they'll need to impress Michael with food that captures the taste of

summer, worthy of a banquet held in honour of Wimbledon.

The brief this year, a taste of summer.

There's so much great produce out there.

But I'm looking for someone that can produce a great plate of food

that's new and exciting.

And I really hope that these chefs can deliver.

On his third attempt to make it through to the national finals is

Dominic Chapman. He's hoping to win over Michael with a salad

celebrating summer garden produce -

It's A Summer Bonanza.

So, Dom, talk to me about your starter.

My starter's very simple - summer,

fresh produce that's grown in a British garden.

-Is it cold, hot, salad?

-It's going to be a salad.

-Yeah. I'm going to stuff the courgette.

-What are you stuffing those with?

The flowers are going to be stuffed with buffalo ricotta, direct from Italy.

-Yep.

-Through the buffalo ricotta is going to be a little bit of truffle,

a little bit of black olive, then I'm going to cook my beetroot

in a pickle vinegar. The same with the artichokes.

Some lovely herbs, some chervil, some basil.

It's a really fresh dish.

Humble ingredients that are very, very true to summertime.

-What do you think, guys?

-Oh, yeah,

it's going to be a great celebration of British summer

with the Italian cheese and the French-inspired courgette flowers.

THEY LAUGH

Dom's dish is definitely on brief.

But essentially it is just a salad and as delicious as that may be,

I'm not sure that's exciting enough to be a banquet-winning dish.

Next, newcomer Tom Brown,

who's showcasing ingredients from his home county, Cornwall,

with his summer update of a traditional Cornish fisherman's soup.

Tom.

-Good to meet you.

-Talk to me about your dish, what's the name of it?

So the name of it is cowl bysk.

-Cowl bysk?

-Cowl bysk.

It's a really old Cornish tomato and bacon soup with lobster.

My whole menu is based around summers I spent growing up there.

My first ever job was on a little boat pulling in the lobster pots.

-All right.

-I've got beautiful lobsters here from St Ives in Cornwall.

For the bacon element of the soup I've got this lovely cured Mangalitsa pork belly.

And what are you going to do with that?

I'm going to serve that raw, very thinly sliced but raw on the dish.

-Kind of like lardo?

-Exactly.

So I've got these beautiful tomatoes,

and these are grown in the Tamar Valley in Cornwall.

Hopefully it's just going to really sing about summer.

Tom's dish looks great.

These are ingredients that are close to his heart.

It sounds a lot like a fish course and not a starter but he's clearly

very passionate about it.

Fellow newcomer Andy Clatworthy's food style is inspired by the land.

His dish pays tribute to the park near the Wimbledon Championships.

-Andy.

-Michael.

-Welcome to the kitchen.

-Thank you very much.

-What's the title of your dish?

Walking Through Wimbledon Common.

-And what is it?

-Essentially, mushrooms on toast.

-What mushrooms are you using?

-So we've got micro-button mushroom,

we've got the dried mushrooms, we've got the gnocchi mushrooms,

we're going to be doing some mousse, some biscuits, some mushroom vinegar,

and we're also going to make a mushroom tea,

which is going to be infused with green tea and lots of lemons

to make it quite fresh and lively.

It doesn't scream summer to me.

It will when you see it on a plate.

Credit to you for originality.

Thank you very much. Cheers.

I really don't understand Andy's dish at all.

The mushrooms on toast is incredibly autumnal

and says nothing about the celebration of the British summer.

He's going to have to do an awful lot to surprise me,

because my initial thoughts are that he's completely missed the point.

Dom, you've got tons of ingredients going on there, mate.

Yeah, there's a bit to do. You can't turn up here and do a burger,

-can you?

-Well, it's been done, hasn't it?

What about turning up to do a bowl of soup?

Nothing wrong with a bowl of soup. Simplicity is beautiful, you know.

It's got to be a good one though, ain't it!

Third-timer Dom's going all out to win over Michael with his intricate

salad, It's A Summer Bonanza.

He's hoping it will see him through to cook for the judges on Friday.

So, Dom, it's your third time back here?

Third time. Sent out by the kids, you got to win.

Sent out by the kids, against the kids, yeah.

-How old are you boys? 30?

-32.

-29.

-How old are you, sir?

-I'm 42 for another week.

-For another week?

-Yeah.

How long have you been saying that for?

We got to watch this Tom - the old gloves are off now, ain't they, you know?

Dom's using 12 different ingredients including globe artichokes,

which he's poaching, and beetroot, which he's lightly pickling,

techniques he hopes will showcase the summer flavours.

-There's some beautiful colours going on over there.

-That's the thing,

-all the dishes should be very, very colourful today.

-Yeah.

Having worked for top chefs like Heston Blumenthal

and won a Michelin star,

Dominic Chapman now runs his own restaurant,

The Beehive in Berkshire.

Within be a year of opening, it was awarded two AA Rosettes.

It doesn't knock my confidence having been in the competition

twice before. If anything, it makes me stronger to come back and give it a better shot.

I reckon I've got a great chance to be at that banquet.

To get inspiration for his summer menu,

Dom went to visit his local vegetable supplier

Susie Watt in her kitchen garden...

-Hi, Susie.

-Hi, Dom, welcome to my garden.

Nice to see you.

..where she grows over 50 varieties of vibrant fruit and vegetables.

Oh, look at those, fresh borlotti beans.

Absolutely amazing.

Go ahead, try a raspberry.

Delicious.

Tasting a raspberry like that, I mean that's just blown my head off.

Susie also grows courgettes and Dom needs their flowers for his

summery starter.

This is what I'm after. That is the perfect courgette flour.

And you can make that taste delicious with a lot of love.

Seeing the beautiful produce that are grown in British gardens,

it's just brilliant. I'm going to take my vegetable starter to the

competition and I want to take it all the way to the banquet.

First time competitor Tom's focus is on Cornish summer ingredients in his cowl bysk,

a two-part dish of lobster salad and tomato soup.

He starts by preparing his lobster, which he'll steam later.

I did a soup in my first year here for the starter.

-How did that go?

-I went home on Thursday.

Cheers, chef!

Cornish born and bred Tom Brown

is head chef of the Michelin-starred Outlaws at the Capital

in London's Knightsbridge.

This is actually the first Michelin-starred kitchen

I've been running. Yeah, I'd say there's a little bit of pressure,

a few sleepless nights trying to make sure that we maintain their standards.

To get his break, he took his destiny into his own hands

and has quickly risen through the ranks.

I actually just wrote to a lot of people that were actually on

Great British Menu and Bryn Williams phoned me back so I went to

Odette's in Camden, now, which was amazing.

Tom's Cornish heritage is a big influence on his competition menu.

Having grown up near Portreath,

he has fond memories of fishing in the summer with his dad, Jeff.

Tom's starter is inspired by his old Saturday job,

helping out on the lobster boats.

You don't get fresher than that, do you?

Beautiful. Where's the best meat there, the tail?

Yeah, inside the tail. This is what I'm about,

this is what Cornwall's about, this is what the taste of summer really,

really means to me. I think because of these memories that I have,

that personal touch is really going to come through in the food, hopefully.

He works very hard, he puts so much into it,

I'm very proud of him, he's really done well.

Lovely lobsters, worth every penny.

Newcomer Andy is pulling out all the stops with his starter,

Walking Through Wimbledon Common,

featuring seven different mushroom elements.

-What's going on over there?

-This is called being organised.

He's making a mushroom stock,

which he'll use to flavour his mushroom mousse biscuits and mushroom tea

with a mix of porcini mushrooms, cinnamon and yeast extract,

a potent combination of flavours

he's hoping won't overpower the dish.

I do think this is the riskiest dish out of the three.

I also think that it's going to pay off.

He's also making a rye roll,

flavoured with lovage, a powerful herb with an intense celery flavour.

Andy, what are you grinding over there?

The herb powders - lovage, sage, rosemary.

Are you using lovage quite a lot, are you?

I'm using it in all four of my dishes, actually.

What if Michael don't like lovage?

I don't know too many people that don't like it.

I hate lovage.

Do you?

Well, you're going to hate all my dishes.

Having made his name at a top Bristol eatery,

Andy Clatworthy joined the city's Brigstow Bar & Kitchen as head chef

in early 2016.

I'm just obsessed with food.

It takes over my entire life.

It's what we do for work.

I basically get paid to do my hobby.

His unique food style combines his passion for historical British food

with Scandinavian influences and techniques.

My style of cooking is taking nature and putting it back on a plate

the way that you'd expect to see it out in the wild by using

the right ingredients.

To create his summer menu,

Andy is experimenting with summer ingredients from Castle Park,

part of the Edible Bristol project that plants herb and vegetable

patches around the city.

These are borage flowers.

We use a lot of them in the summer, and they are incredibly cucumbery.

This is fennel - the flavour that comes out of the pollen is just

incredible, it's so intense.

I love foraging. I love taking things from nature just simply

because of how fresh it is, and it is just absolutely delicious.

Amazing.

Back in the kitchen, Dom's moved on to the courgette flower centrepiece

for his summer salad.

He starts by making a mix of Italian buffalo ricotta,

with chopped courgette and grated summer truffle.

-How are we getting on?

-Good.

I'm now just starting to make the stuffing.

-The infamous ricotta.

-Yeah, it's quite plain.

I need to get loads of flavour in there, and it's a great texture as well.

Particularly buffalo ricotta, which is a little more creamy,

rather than the standard ricotta which can separate sometimes.

Obviously it's not finished yet.

I don't find it a particularly enjoyable taste but you've got stuff to do to make it...

Yeah.

Dom's Ricotta worries me. It's incredibly bland as a flavour.

He said he's going to add more to that and adjust the seasoning,

so maybe he's going to pull it out of the bag and surprise me

when I taste the finished product.

Across the kitchen, Tom's working on his tomato soup which he'll serve on

the side, ready to be poured over his lobster salad.

He adds deseeded, overripe heritage tomatoes to garlic

with thyme and basil.

-What's this?

-This is sort of the soup base.

So it's like a tomato tea.

The way the dish is served, it's going to have a tomato salad.

That will be cold?

It's a cold dish. I'm serving it like a gazpacho.

-Can I taste this?

-Yeah, please.

It's nice and sweet. Will the flavour change a great deal when it's chilled?

When it's chilled it will have slightly less flavour because it's cold,

so I need to make sure that the flavour is really, really potent now.

-You'll have it chilled on time?

-Yeah, it'll be chilled on time,

-no worries.

-Good luck.

-It will be as chilled as I am!

Andy still has several elements to complete for his mushroom-themed dish.

He rolls his lovage rye dough and shapes into logs ready to bake.

I'm quite worried about Andy's dish.

I think the guy's a bit of a dark horse.

I think he might pull this one out of the bag.

Next, Andy checks on his mushrooms stocks.

-How's the mushrooms coming along?

-Yeah. Lots of them.

This is the master mushroom stock which I need for three different

elements, so this is the most important pot.

It looks like a forest floor at the moment.

It tastes like Wimbledon Common.

I've never eaten it.

So this is your main stock. This one?

This one's for the mushroom tea.

We've got another tea, a tomato and a mushroom tea?

-Yeah.

-Tom, how do you think his tea will compare?

-The battle of the teas.

-Everyone loves a brew, don't they?

-It's definitely intriguing.

-Thank you.

Andy's mushroom tea actually tastes really great.

I'm still not convinced that's a summery flavour.

It's going to need some sharpness and freshness put into it

before he puts that on the pass.

Tom is first to plate up with his contemporary take on a traditional

Cornish fisherman's soup, cowl bysk.

-The lobster is cooked how you want it?

-Yeah, it's spot on.

First he places the steamed lobster tail and claw meat.

Next he adds a mix of blanched heritage tomatoes.

Tom slices cured Mangalitsa pork and dresses onto his dish.

He serves his tomato tea and finishes with Cornish rapeseed oil.

Finally, he adds a quenelle of tangy green sauce.

-What's that?

-Cornish salsa verde.

-Nice.

-Chefs, what do you think?

-Visually stunning.

-Beautiful, yeah.

Really fresh. It's all about the ingredients.

-Shall we go and taste it?

-Let's go, yeah.

That's beautiful, isn't it?

It's a lovely little dish. Simplicity on a plate.

So the idea is you pour the tea on.

The lobster melts, doesn't it?

That's incredible.

The lobster's cooked really nicely.

Cheers.

This is tomato soup.

-Yeah, lovely.

-That's clean, it's fresh, it's summer.

-I really like the tomato tea.

-Thank you.

I think as soon as you pour it into that dish, though,

you lose any effort you put into the presentation

and it looks sloppy.

It's a scary start, isn't it?

-High quality cooking.

-It's beautiful ingredients.

What about size, do you think this is a starter size?

There's a fair amount of food there but I think the lightness doesn't

make it too heavy as a first course.

I would question if it's a starter.

I would say this would be a very strong fish course.

What would you score this dish?

I'd be gutted if I got less than an eight.

-Hello.

-Hey, Tom, how did you go?

-Yeah, it was good, yeah.

-Were you happy with the dish?

-I was really happy with it, yeah. Did you like it?

-Thought it was stunning, yeah.

We just said it might be the fish course.

Next to the pass is Dom with his It's A Summer Bonanza,

celebrating seasonal garden produce.

He fills his courgette flowers with his truffle and black olive ricotta

and puts them in the oven.

You can't beat a courgette flower.

They're summer, and so many people love them,

so I hope Michael does.

He starts by piping ricotta as a base

to hold his stuffed courgette flower.

Next he dresses the plate with golden sultanas, toasted pine nuts,

tomatoes and slices of raw courgette.

Beautiful colours on that, chef.

That's the key, the colours, you know.

He adds poached artichokes and pickled beetroot.

A few little peas.

Then tops with chopped basil,

salad leaves and edible flowers before sprinkling with vinaigrette.

Finished with a lovely olive oil.

He serves his salad in a vegetable box, covered with artificial grass.

-Any problems?

-I'll tell you when we eat it!

-Chefs, what do you think?

-Very vibrant.

-Certainly summery, yes.

-Shall we go and eat this?

-Let's go and eat it, yeah.

Dom, what do you think about the veg box?

Do you think that's a little gimmicky?

I've fallen down in this competition before for not trying with props.

So I'm trying to use my experience.

It just looks a little predictable.

-Yep.

-Quite keen to try this ricotta.

-It's nice.

-It is nice.

You know what, I think my ricotta's slightly separated.

The beetroot, is really, really delicious.

For me, your beetroots outshine your courgette flower.

As it is, that's not going to the banquet.

-No.

-But if he looks at the little mistakes he's made, tidies them up,

then it's definitely more than any old salad.

So, Dom, what would you have scored this dish?

I'd be disappointed with less than a seven.

-All right, chef. How was that?

-I need to make improvements.

-The filling, you know.

-Curdled, didn't it?

-That's what I thought.

-Yeah, I know. Disappointing, really.

Last to plate up is Andy

with his homage to Walking On Wimbledon Common.

What if I said to you, drop the props?

-Huh?

-Nothing.

With time running out,

Andy still has to finish the last of his seven mushroom elements.

You are looking a bit under pressure, there, chef.

Course I'm under pressure.

Give yourself a bit too much to do?

Always.

With his mushroom biscuits done,

he starts his plates with his mushroom mousse...

..and adds biscuit soil...

..followed by dried herbs.

Next his lovage rye roll,

then red wine poached mushrooms...

..salted enoki mushrooms and raw, sliced button mushrooms.

-What's that?

-This is just a little bit of fennel pollen and dill pollen

to really, really set it off.

He adds mushroom vinegar and nasturtium leaves.

A lot going on on a plate.

Yeah, but it's controlled.

He tops with dill and a twig-shaped breadstick.

He places the dish in a tray covered with leaves.

Finally, he pours his mushroom tea over fresh rosemary and lovage.

This is a mushroom with rosemary tea just to have on the side.

It's incredibly fragrant, is it not?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Shall we go and taste it?

-I'd love to.

-Enjoy.

Would you think people will look at this box of food and think,

"Summer, Wimbledon?"

They had the title to read and say Walking Through Wimbledon Common,

it would hit them straight away.

To be fair, it's quite impressive.

-Yeah, massively.

-But I don't think it fits the brief.

It's almost got like an espresso kick to it.

I like my tea strong.

It's really...

It's hitting me in the back of the throat.

It's not nice.

-What is this bread?

-So that's a rye roll.

Have you tasted it?

I find the bread quite chewy.

-Yep.

-There's so many flavours here,

that red wine mushroom is so strong next to this tea which is so strong.

As a positive, it's definitely not bland.

Mm-hm.

The little breadstick with some truffle is not bad.

You can't fault him for ambition.

What would you score this dish, Andy?

For me it would be a high seven, eight.

-How did you go?

-Not brilliant. There's definitely...

-It needs improving.

-I mean, I find the flavours too strong.

It was a bit like...

-You know, I didn't put up the dish I wanted to.

-I didn't put the dish up I wanted to.

But hopefully it's not going to be the end of the world.

You've got to remember it's a starter. You've got a long way to go.

Hi, chefs. First course of the week, done.

-How did you find it?

-Yeah, pressurised.

I'm going to start with you, Tom,

and your cowl bysk.

The lobster was cooked beautifully.

I felt the tomatoes were lovely.

Really fresh, really vibrant and really summery.

I really can't fault the cooking in it, and this is a cooking competition.

Thank you.

However...

..the presentation of it served on just a duck egg-blue plate -

I don't think enough thought had gone into that at all.

I think you need to refine that dish to slice that lobster,

maybe portion that ham fat so it eats a lot easier.

Dom, It's A Summer Bonanza.

I thought of the three dishes today, this was the most vibrant

and colourful, it really told the story of summer.

The beetroots were delicious.

But...

stuffing that courgette flower with the ricotta, it didn't work for me.

The texture was grainy and I couldn't taste that black truffle.

The black truffle with the olive, I think they are combating each other.

I'd much rather eat the black truffle.

Andy, your dish, Walking Through Wimbledon Common.

This for me was the most inventive dish of the day

and it was the most ambitious

and you used a lot of interesting cooking techniques.

But...

..you completely ignored the brief. I think you're miles off.

It looks like autumn on a plate.

The mushroom tea was far too intense for me.

The bread was difficult to eat and it was chewy.

So to the scores.

I'm going to start with you, Tom.

I'm giving you a score...

..of seven.

Dom, I'm going to give you...

..a six.

Andy...

..I'm scoring you a five.

Don't worry. I got a four for my starter and still got a dish to the

banquet. So it's early doors yet.

Starters done, look forward to seeing your fish.

-Thanks, chef.

-Thank you very much.

-Well done.

-Congratulations.

Yeah, it's good to be in front. But I'm not resting on my laurels just

yet. I think the other guys are going to keep me on my toes.

There we go, we can all improve a little bit, can't we?

A bit disappointed with my score

but I'm looking forward to the next course.

-Early doors.

-Yeah.

-Very early doors.

-Very early doors, yeah.

I took a big risk with the brief.

It hasn't paid off. There's one point in it, let's go.