Central Judging Great British Menu

It's been one of the most competitive weeks ever

on Great British Menu.

-What's going on?

-World War Three, at the moment!

-A bit of drama there.

Some of us will sleep really well tonight and some of us will have nightmares!

We've witnessed the titans of the culinary world pushed to tears

in the battle for the Central region.

Daniel, I ain't going to mess around, mate. I almost started crying.

And an unprecedented turn of events...

-It's not working.

-BLEEP.

..has seen last year's star being dramatically knocked out.

Well done to Paul, well done to Daniel.

So which of these two revolutionary chefs will blow the judges away?

-I'm happy and excited already.

-People would eat this with an enormous amount of pleasure.

It could really end up at the banquet.

Will they think that Daniel's unique menu

and headline chicken dish is worthy of a place in the final?

I want to go home, I want to see my kids, I want to see a smile on their face.

I want this more than anything.

Or will it be Paul's daring menu of rare wild foraged ingredients

that will bowl the judges over?

This is it, I'm not here to have fun, I'm here to win today.

That's it?

Happiness is here, I'm happy.

There's only room for one in the national final.

The chef who will be going forward will be...

Regional finalists Daniel and Paul

have cooked their hearts out to be here today and a place in

the prestigious Great British Menu final is now at stake.

I'm going to lie to you - I haven't come down here to come second.

Neither have I, chef.

Two Michelin-starred Daniel Clifford has so far led the way

with extraordinary twists on everyday ingredients.

It's all about the brief this year,

and my food is absolutely killing it.

I've just got to prove to the judges now.

Hot on his heels is new boy Paul Foster, whose daring menu

and unusual ingredients have marked him out

as a force to be reckoned with.

It could go either way today.

We've got different judges, different palettes, and different opinions.

Both chefs have come up with groundbreaking menus that reflect

the ambition behind the Olympic spirit.

Who goes forward to represent the Central region in the national finals

is down to our three discerning judges,

Prue Leith, Oliver Peyton and Matthew Ford,

who are expecting great things.

The Olympics is a race for excellence

and that is exactly what they have to do,

but they have to surprise us, delight us, and do it magnificently.

This competition is what can you do all on your own that is really

creative, really individual and deeply impressive?

Each dish should actually have us gasping in admiration.

Daniel and Paul are about to face their toughest challenge yet

and cook their entire menus again

for our panel of distinguished judges, something Daniel

knows all about and hopes to use to his advantage.

When you finally go in there, you pump yourself up,

you believe you've done your absolute maximum and you get a body blow.

It must be like running the 100 metres

and then tripping over at the finish line.

Daniel, or anybody who is trying to unnerve me now,

it's not going to happen.

We've both got our game face on.

Daniel is first out of the blocks

and determined to prove his worth with veal tartare,

caramelised sweetbread and radical burnt onion, a love or hate dish

that scored a near-perfect nine earlier in the week.

The only change I'm making is a little bit less burnt onion,

because it was a nine. If I could push it to a ten, that would be fantastic.

Daniel has been here twice before and is desperate to

cook at the prestigious Olympic feast.

You'll find out later how hard it is to stand in that room

and it's someone else's name being called out.

Daniel is clearly confident but will our glittering Olympic guest list

want to sit down to veal sweetbreads and burnt onion powder?

The judges have been given cards to explain any unusual facts this year,

but what will they make of it?

Right, in front of the judges like that.

Thank you very much.

Three people sitting in another room judging me right now

and it is nerve-wracking.

But at the end of the day, I have to keep my composure and just keep going and going.

Will the judges think Daniel's

veal and burnt onion dish awe-inspiring enough for the Olympic feast?

It smells absolutely wonderful.

It looks like a tartare of something.

-Is this is a cinnamon stick?

-Must be, a bit of cinnamon bark.

-Good tartare, though, what is it?

-It is very good, very light.

Is it veal?

-Mmm.

-Oh!

That is a beautifully cooked sweetbread

and how often do we see offal on these menus,

particularly as a first course?

I was expecting something far more rock and roll.

What is this stuff on there?

Something bitter there, it's rather nice.

Burnt onion powder, that's what it is.

Is this groundbreaking?

-No.

-Is this fireworks, is this seriously a rocket into the sky?

I think it is an absolutely beautiful dish, extraordinary high level

of skill, beautiful thing, but the imagination is completely lacking.

I think as an opening statement,

it sort of lacks that sense of, you know, going for gold.

So Daniel's veal and onion dish didn't break enough

culinary boundaries for our judges.

Will newcomer Paul be able to steal a march?

He's kick-starting his menu with pork neck carpaccio,

a fatty cut most chefs would steer clear of and making

humble pork scratchings with the skin.

I've heard through the grapevine that Matthew Fort is

a massive pork scratching fan, so hopefully he'll be a fan of mine.

It wasn't one of my favourites.

Is it breaking boundaries or is it playing safe?

It's a decision we find out later.

Paul is serving his pork neck with ribwort plantain,

an unusual foraged ingredient few people will have ever tasted.

-Think they would have heard of the plantain?

-I don't think so.

Hopefully, it is going to knock them back a little bit

and be a good talking point.

It's not the only wild ingredient Paul's using today.

His menu is full of them.

Will the judges appreciate his attempts to push the boundaries?

Very steady, guys, crackling will blow off easily.

Scratchings to the right.

I'm very confident in my dish

and I think that the judges will love it.

But is Paul's unusual pork and ribwort dish

radical enough for our record-breaking Olympians?

I think something porky this way comes.

This is absolutely up your street, Matthew,

it's some kind of scratchings.

What do you think this stuff is?

I don't know what it is. It's very mild.

The sauce is made from, wait for it, Matthew, ribwort plantain,

"A foraged ingredient not often used."

No, not often used, for very good reason.

What do you think the judges are saying about you now?

I don't like to think about it, but it's tight, it's tough.

It's not very exciting. The best bit of it is the pork,

slices of well-cooked, beautiful pork.

It lacks drama, it lacks colour.

I don't think there's anything here, really, that we haven't seen before.

You'd be ashamed to put that in front of top athletes.

It just isn't world-class or gold medal or anything else.

Things can only get better!

So Paul's starter has fallen at the first hurdle

and Daniel has a slight lead going into the fish course.

Daniel's pork-encrusted stuffed mullet is up next,

a high-tech dish that scored another nine in the week.

But Daniel has been here before and is under no illusions.

I've had good marks before and been sent home.

So, it's Glynn's palate, the judges' palate, two very different things.

He stuffed his fish with lots of strong Mediterranean flavours

and coated it in airbag, a revolutionary new technique.

For me it's groundbreaking,

but I also think it might be a bit quirky for them.

I don't know what they're looking for.

He'll soon find out if his bold use of classic flavour combinations

and trailblazing new techniques tick all the boxes for this year's brief.

You're the judges, boys, then.

Look after it.

Will Daniel's bold stuffed mullet with artichokes, ham and olive puree

be the stroke of genius the judges are looking for?

It smells good, doesn't it?

It smells really good.

-I think it looks very pretty as well.

-Yes, original.

That is red mullet, isn't it? A fillet of red mullet.

I think this little crunchy topping is ground-up pig skin.

-Mm!

-Olive puree.

You've got some ham in the middle.

-That's really good.

-Intense.

I have to say I think there's just too much happening.

I don't like all this richness of flavour going on with the fish.

It's detracting from the fish.

It's just too many powerful flavours done in a very clumsy manner.

I absolutely disagree with you.

All those individual tastes are very clean and clear

and they are also very fresh.

This actually is a dish which works very, very well, Oliver,

and I'm rather shocked, frankly, that you simply don't have

the imagination or the wit or the vision even to appreciate that.

I think you're winding me up here. This dish, there is so much going on.

It's like... I've got a headache even thinking about it.

Piling pork stuff onto a bit of fish to me is not innovation,

it's tragedy.

It's less innovation in the technical sense,

but it's innovation in the sense of a personal vision of food.

But are we not looking for a bit of humour here, a bit of good times?

Well, we're not getting from you, are we?!

So, mixed reviews for Daniel's stuffed mullet.

Will Paul's fish course fare any better?

He's taking a massive risk with barely cooked common ray,

crispy chicken skin and foraged sea vegetables.

A room temperature dish that only scored six in the heats.

Is that one of your strongest dishes?

I think so.

It was my worst scoring dish but I personally think it's a strong dish.

We'll have to wait and see.

I didn't think it tasted of fish,

I thought there was too much chicken skin.

He hasn't taken that into consideration. If he wants to take the risks, it's up to him.

It's a brave move from new boy Paul, who clearly thinks his unusual

sea vegetables, daring chicken skin

and uniquely barely-cooked fish

ticks all the boxes for this year's brief.

But will the judges agree?

As you see it to the judges, guys.

OK, nice and steady, thank you.

Can Paul pull it back with his fish course?

A good result here would put him back in the race.

-That's it?

-Happiness is here, I'm happy, it looks interesting.

I'm happy and excited already.

Well, we have raw fish here.

I think.

I don't think this is raw.

I think it's been cooked at a low temperature or something like that.

I suspect it might be skate or ray.

This is a completely different league.

What you've got here is a series of flavours which draw you in.

"The dish showcases unusual, wild, foraged sea vegetables

"including rock samphire, sea purslane and stonecrop."

These are beautifully done, beautifully used

and beautifully integrated into the dish.

There's quite a lot of things here that one does not normally see

in terms of technique, thinking and everything else.

You don't not normally see it, you don't EVER see it.

There are elements in there you recognise from elsewhere.

It's the way they are put together, that's why

it's groundbreaking, for me.

I think that is pretty getting somewhere near Olympian food

because it's really strange, unusual, looks wonderful,

very pretty presentation, and delicious.

This is the first dish of the competition for me.

This is what I was expecting and I think he has delivered on it.

Give it a gold?

Things are looking up.

So Paul's radical ray has gone down a storm and it's neck-and-neck

going into the main course.

I'm trying not to think about the end of the day

but a little bit nervous about going into the judges' room.

It's nerve-wracking.

All I've got to do is keep being consistent in what I do

and that's what I'm very good at, so the race is not finished yet.

Time for the big one, the main course,

a dish Daniel won gold for in the heats.

You can't improve on a ten out of ten, can you, chef?

Well, no, the only way is down now!

Hopefully the judges like it.

Paul's first up, and letting his ingredients

do the talking in a rustic duck and broccoli dish.

Glynn loved it and gave me a great score.

-So, hopefully, it's going to go well today.

-I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't.

He's daring to do something different with foraged pine needles

and rarely used duck hearts, unconventional ingredients

that might not appeal to everyone.

-That is an ingredient I've never used.

-Never cooked with?

-Never.

I've had ox heart but I've never had duck heart.

It's a gamble but this ambitious young chef has been taking them

all week.

He knows he has to push the boundaries to be

in with a chance of cooking at the Olympic feast.

OK, guys, that way to the judges,

lovely.

Will the judges think Paul's duck and broccoli dish

unique enough to compete with the best of the best?

This is definitely meat and two veg.

It's not looking very radical.

I'm not sure that it's straining at the Olympic leash.

Well, that puree of beans, or whatever it is, is rather bitter.

-Must be broccoli.

-Oh, do you think?

This is a festive broccoli.

That duck is absolutely, it really is as good as you're ever going to eat.

It's just duck.

Oh, come on! It is not just duck.

This duck is one of the finest ducks I have ever tasted

and I bet you it is a British duck.

A great British duck is not a novelty item.

The heart is, you know, don't often see that.

I would like a whole dish of those heart things

but you can only say bad things about the broccoli.

It's the fact that the puree is bitter and dull, both,

which is quite an achievement.

It is just too boring for words.

It remains meat and two veg.

You know what, though, the duck is so good!

So, Paul's duck has put the cat amongst the pigeons,

giving award-winning Daniel a chance to steal the lead

with his extremely technical chicken dish

with ingenious sweetcorn egg and revolutionary chicken spray.

A cutting-edge creation

that nearly broke him in the heats.

I'm cooking out of my skin at the moment. If I don't go through today, I'm not going to go home

and kick myself because I know I've done everything humanly possible

to get through.

This is groundbreaking, this is absolutely mind-blowing.

I've got to have confidence in it,

why change something that has got 10 out of 10?

Let's just hope the judges see the dish's great potential.

He is attempting to take an everyday ingredient to new Olympic heights

but chicken has never succeeded as a main course before.

The judges might hate it and I might go home and be a broken man tonight.

It's an incredibly ambitious dish to serve at a banquet.

If this goes all the way, you're going to have to come down and help.

-I charge by the ticket, skip.

-OK!

But Daniel has to get it past the judges first,

and time is fast running out to bring his complex dish together.

What will they make of his ingenious chicken and sweetcorn egg

and gimmicky chicken spray?

Right, boys, the egg goes in front of the judges.

Treat it like a baby, boys, please.

The nerves start to kick in.

It's my pride and joy. I just hope that dish is the one that pushes the judges towards my camp.

Can Daniel edge out in front with his pioneering new take on

a family favourite?

Things are hotting up here. This is all very interesting,

beautiful looking thing.

-More like a rain cloud.

-It's a bit of sauce.

-It's meat, isn't it?

There's popcorn in here, do you realise?

It's worth having this plateful just for that alone.

Very technical, that is.

To get that to work.

This sort of reconstructed egg, there's sweetcorn in it, isn't there?

Actually, it adds up to a jolly nice mouthful.

There are lots of things to like about this dish.

He just needs to work more on the flavour and I think he's onto something.

I think people would eat this with an enormous amount of pleasure and a good deal of surprise.

This guy is incredibly skilled.

It's extremely well thought out, it's very clean and nice looking.

I think it could really end up at the banquet.

So Daniel's main course has impressed the judges

and Paul now has some catching up to do with his dessert.

He's up first with a controversial dish

that showcases a previously failed ingredient.

Sea buckthorn again,

I've taken a big risk, but this brief

is about taking risks and putting yourself out there, which is

what I've done, and hoping they'll appreciate that.

The judges don't want to see things they've seen before, like sea buckthorn.

PAUL LAUGHS

Yes, but have they seen it like this?

They don't like it, so no-one's served it to them any more.

It's a massive gamble and Paul's last chance to impress.

Will he turn the tables on this sharp foraged berry,

with Yorkshire rhubarb,

burnt meringue, ginger syrup

and crunchy puffed rice.

Or has he pushed the boundaries that step too far?

Guys, as you see it, please, to the judges.

OK, lovely.

This is my do or die dish. This is the sea buckthorn,

this is going to ring some bells for them and bring back the old friend.

Has Paul done enough to stay in the race

and will the judges give sea buckthorn a second chance?

Well, now! This is a surprise,

I mean, this has got little maggots crawling all over it.

That is a novelty turn, isn't it? Is that innovation?

-It's quite a pretty looking dish, though.

-It is pretty.

It's our old friend sea buckthorn.

It's not! Oh, God, I don't like sea buckthorn.

You may have changed your mind since then.

-No.

-You haven't!

I like sea buckthorn, dammit!

Oh, dear, oh, dear, it's absolutely awful, it's a tragedy.

It's just all...really harsh.

Where is all the sweetness coming from?

Even the meringue isn't sweet. It's just egg white with a little bit of sugar.

I thought this could be lots of nice surprises hidden away underneath here.

The surprise is how horrible it is.

I absolutely agree with you that this is not Olympic heights.

The truth is that if you are aiming for real innovation

and breaking new boundaries, then you are taking a hell of a risk.

Now this guy took a hell of a risk and fell off the edge of the cliff.

You have to admire the chef's courage,

because this is definitely not a crowd pleaser.

You know what, he's eaten it all!

I don't know how you do that, Fort!

That is astonishing.

It's wrong.

So Paul's risky sea buckthorn hasn't paid off and everything now

rests on Daniel's dessert, his lowest scoring dish of the week.

His final showdown is a raspberry roulade with white chocolate

cookie dough and pungent tarragon,

a flavour combination that could make or break him.

I've been here three times.

If it's not right this time, I'm going to cry.

With the finishing line in sight,

he pipes on some white chocolate cream,

fills it with tarragon oil, adds his raspberry roulade and a scoop of sorbet,

before bringing his third and final Olympic campaign to a close.

Boys, the judges are there.

Well done.

-What a journey, eh?

-I know, I know. It's not over yet.

Not over yet.

Will Daniel's bold raspberry and tarragon roulade set him on the path to Olympic glory?

It's a raspberry medley.

You can smell the raspberry coming off the plate.

Oh, look! Look at that, it's got green stuff injected inside.

I think it's tarragon, liquid tarragon.

Absolutely right, it's tarragon.

Oh, that is such a pleasure.

It's quite conventional, though, isn't it? What's unusual about this?

I think this, again, this is completely style over content.

I don't like the flavours, I don't like the balance of flavours,

I think it looks great but from there on it goes downhill.

That sort of roulade thing is really quite horrible.

-Do you think this could be improved in any way?

-Yes, different pudding.

I think you're being completely unreasonable. I think that tarragon with the raspberries is delicious

but what has been disappointing is that what looked like

really exciting little things turned out to be not the best of anything.

You don't need three of each of these items, do you?

They don't really go together.

I think Oliver is right, I think he's got to take us

somewhere where we haven't been before in food and this takes us

to a whole lot of rather familiar points

without any sense of real progress.

Cooking complete, there's nothing the chefs can do now

but anxiously await the judge's verdict.

It's an emotional time, it's down to the judges now.

The last hurdle for both of us.

They've put their all into their menus but only one of them can be

crowned Central champion.

'To be honest, I'm on edge, I'm nervous.'

This whole week has built up to this.

And it rests on their decision.

Time for the judges to find out which dishes belong to which menu.

Remember, they still don't know which chef cooked which.

You can see two contrasting styles at work here. Mr Brave and Mr Perfect.

I'm just surprised on one or two courses, which way they went.

Daniel has come up with a cutting-edge menu

that takes classic flavour combinations to new Olympic heights

with revolutionary new techniques.

Paul's dared to do something different with a menu that

showcases rare, unusual and wild ingredients.

But the judges will only know whose is whose once

they have chosen their winner.

I've made up my mind which menu I'm going for. What about you?

Me, too. I know what I'm doing now.

-Oliver?

-Yes, I've made up my mind.

Well, I think it's time to get in the chefs.

For Daniel and Paul, the wait is finally over.

One of these chefs will be back to fight another day,

the other sent packing.

Daniel, Paul, welcome to the judges' chamber.

As you know, the challenge has been to find dishes and menus which

reflect the Olympic ideals.

Some of the dishes certainly lived up to the challenge,

and some of them, frankly, fell by the wayside.

But this is not about individual dishes, it is about menus.

-Prue, have you decided which menu?

-I certainly have,

it is Menu A.

-And Oliver?

-Menu B, Matthew.

Menu B. Well, I've also gone for Menu A.

But you don't know who has cooked Menu A,

and, frankly, neither do we.

So I think I'll reach out...

..and find out.

So, the chef who will be going forward to represent

the Central region at the national finals will be...

Daniel. Congratulations.

-Well done, chef.

-You look like a relieved man.

Well, finally!

Honestly, I feel third time lucky, but I think

this brief really suited me.

I think I pushed myself a lot to try and get through today.

From my point of view, you clearly are a highly technically accomplished chef

and there was some very accomplished cooking there.

But not all the dishes were perfect by any means and, frankly,

if I was going to advise you to change one, it certainly would be the pudding.

I think you should just express yourself more. You've done it,

you're through, well done, amazing,

now let go a bit, show us who you really are as a human being.

That veal sweetbread flavour was fantastic.

I didn't think it was the most innovative of dishes

but, God, it was lovely!

Paul, I must say there were some really wonderful dishes.

The outstanding dish of all, I think, was on your menu.

That is why I voted for you because I think that ray dish was fantastic.

-How have you found it, Paul?

-It's been brilliant,

really...really unusual experience.

A different kind of pressure than you're used to at the restaurant.

Well, Paul, I'm sorry we won't be seeing you at the final

but I'm sure we shall be seeing you again.

Daniel, congratulations,

and look forward very much to seeing you at the national final.

-Thank you very much.

-Well done.

-Cheers.

'I'm gutted.'

When you put so much into something and you want it so bad,

it's really hard to take, but I'm really happy for Daniel.

I hope he takes Central region to the banquet.

-Cheers.

-'When he called my name out, I was in total shock.'

It's just.... I don't think it's sunk in yet,

I really don't think it's sunk in.

I feel totally over the moon, very proud. Now I've got to keep pushing and get all the way to the banquet.

Next week, it's the turn of the North East.

Hey, hey, hey!

Returning contender Stephanie Moon is fending off two newcomers.

It's getting white hot now. If I get any grief off those boys.

Ambitious hotshot Colin McGurran.

Chefs competing with me, they need to be careful.

And rising star Charlie Lakin.

You wouldn't enter a competition like this if you didn't want to win it.

All right there, chef?

I've just dropped three of my goat's cheese on the floor.

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