Scotland Judging Great British Menu

-It's showtime.

-The Scottish heat has been a battle of epic portions.

-You want it, you're going to feel pressure.

-Fire!

One of us has to go home, I just don't want it to be me.

But Mark Greenaway's dreams were dashed when he crashed out of the competition.

I'm obviously gutted not to be cooking for the judges.

So which of these two culinary heavyweights will impress the judges?

This shows such intelligence.

It's a dish of quiet pleasures.

This person wants to win.

It's outright war.

-You sweating there, chef?

-Me? Nah.

I think that dish has put you under a lot of pressure.

-What is the point of doing simple safe food?

-Ooh, is that a dig?

I can see a bit of fear in him. I can see fear in his eyes.

And in the judges' chamber, Prue is outnumbered.

-Prue, Prue.

-I think something's the matter with you two.

-Seriously, I'm getting quite cross here.

-Aw! Prue!

-Good morning, Alan.

-Very relaxed, chef.

Colin and Alan have sweated blood and tears to get this far

and both have that place in the Great British Menu final

-firmly in their sights.

-What's changed overnight?

I'm going to come in and try and knock you off the top spot today.

I only came back in here to win this competition.

-I hope you're not panicking, Alan.

-I know what I've got to do.

Having failed to get to the banquet twice before,

Alan Murchison is striving to go all the way this year

-with a technically challenging menu.

-I believe I've nailed the brief.

Hopefully they'll see sparks of excellence and passion in my menu

that'll take me to the final banquet.

Snapping at his heels is newcomer Colin Buchan,

whose use of unusual ingredients has made him a hot contender.

My dishes capture the Olympic spirit.

I put a lot of heart in them, as the athletes do in their profession.

Both chefs have given their all, in a bid to create groundbreaking menus

to capture the spirit of the Olympic Games.

But only one chef can go forward

to represent Scotland in the national finals.

Their fate lies in the hands of our three discerning judges,

Prue Leith,

Oliver Peyton

and Matthew Fort,

who will accept nothing short of Olympic brilliance.

This year it really opens the door to the most creative chefs around.

We want them to be daring.

This is an opportunity for them to push themselves here,

and that's what the Olympics are about, challenge.

This is high-octane cooking. There's a lot of risk involved, isn't there?

I hope we'll be faced with some ingredients and techniques

that even we won't recognise.

-I want to be surprised.

-This is a world-class stage,

and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the chefs.

You know what, Olympians stop at absolutely nothing.

They will just go for it, and these guys have to do the same.

Having pushed to get this far,

Alan and Colin are going head to head with an enormous challenge.

They must cook their entire menus again for the judges,

and in an attempt to unnerve each other, it's a war of words.

A sneaky feeling it'll be me today. I think I'll pip you over the edge.

You've been behind all week, so it'd be nice to see you come to the fore.

I never came here to lose, Alan.

Colin has been quite vocal. It's interesting.

I think, personally, it's nervous energy.

I can feel the tension there and I know it's only going to build.

Unshaken by his rival's confidence,

Alan's quick off the blocks

with his starter, an intricate duck terrine

with five different textures of pineapple,

which he's tackling with the same steely precision he's shown all week.

I can tell you that the terrine's 12cm square,

I can tell you the jelly's 6cm.

That may seem obsessive, but

the difference between success and failure comes down

to these details, like the Olympics.

-I like this fighting talk.

-It's not fighting talk, it's fact.

Alan Murchison, very obsessive.

He's got rulers, he's making sure everything is square.

I don't have to use rulers to make me a good chef.

Alan's first to the pass with his duck terrine and pineapple.

Will his meticulous attention to detail pay off?

Be very, careful. Really important to use two hands for this dish,

cos if that tips out, you're dead.

That was seamless as far as I'm concerned.

Nothing I'd change, nothing I'd do differently or better.

Is Alan's precision-made terrine

groundbreaking enough to kick off the Olympic feast?

Oh! This is such a good start.

If it tastes as good as it looks, then I think he's in with a chance.

I love this sort of Battenberg idea.

Each single square of the terrine is better than the last.

-This is an Olympian dish.

-There are five different kinds of pineapple

and they're all different,

and they all go with the terrine.

The pineapple isn't too assertive.

Sometimes you eat pineapple and it's acidic and too strong,

whereas here it's beautiful playing second fiddle to the terrine.

This shows such intelligence. This chef really thought about this.

This was not invented in a night.

I am so happy, because you can sense the chef's thought process here.

You can feel that this person wants to win.

We asked for Olympian heights, and if this guy hasn't delivered, then,

I mean, this is just amazing. I think he's done it.

Steady the buffs, Prue. We've a long way to go.

So Alan's starter has lit the judges' Olympic torch.

Will rookie Colin be able to reach the same dazzling heights?

The pressure's going to build today.

Now it's showtime.

Colin's Olympic hopes rest on the humble pigeon.

He's serving smoked breast and heart,

confit leg

and an unusual nettle foam.

Reading through the brief, Colin,

I noticed we have to find new technologies.

What new technologies did you explore in that dish?

Smoking the pigeon would use a bit of brown sugar.

I've used a little javelin thing through the heart.

It represents athletes using their heart. I'm using mine on a plate.

I think my food is more challenging. I have more new elements,

more new techniques on the plate.

First dish on the pass, Colin. Feeling any pressure?

-I don't feel pressure.

-If you cook half as well as you have this week,

you might have a chance of coming second again.

Undeterred, Colin starts to plate up, serving the date puree

and brown buckwheat. For a final Olympic flourish,

Colin adds his javelin-speared pigeon hearts

and finishes with nettle foam.

OK, guys. Put that down to the customer like that.

That to the left-hand side of the customer, please.

Quick as you can. Thank you.

Smoked pigeon, lovely dish.

Looked great. Executed it so well.

I think it was better than the one I did at the start of the week,

so I'm really happy with that dish.

Will Colin's celebration of pigeon tick the box on innovation?

Ah.

Interesting little heart there

-on the end of the skewer.

-I love the heart.

-I would've liked some more.

-Almost the highest flavour profile

of everything we've eaten so far.

If I went to a restaurant of this chef

-and had this dish, I'd leave a happy person.

-Mmm.

I do think it's slightly lacking the Olympian ideal

in terms of going that extra mile.

It's a dish of quiet pleasures.

The foam is...

-Foam.

-Foam is foam.

It does slightly lack that sort of, "Ah, whizz-bang"-ery.

This is a beautiful piece of cooking.

There are unusual elements I had not expected.

Does this really make your heart beat faster?

-It's not great cooking. It's only good.

-Well, I think it's lovely.

So Colin's starter didn't quite reach Olympic heights

and Alan's slightly ahead going into the fish course.

His chargrilled mackerel came out on top earlier this week

but with beetroot meringues,

horseradish ice cream and fruit caviar,

Alan has his hands full.

Quite a few elements there.

Taking a risk, Al?

This is about precision and flavour. It's a real eater, this dish.

By the sound of it, I don't think you could do that alone.

Will you take a few boys from your kitchen over there to help you?

My fish course is probably one of my strongest dishes. Amazing impact,

I think this is a real showboating dish.

Nobody will be expecting this dish.

Alan serves his beetroot meringues

and molecular fruit caviar,

but then disaster strikes.

Whoa!

-Is this a little flaw, is it?

-Challenge!

Got a little challenge there.

Never, ever, ever, ever stuck before.

How bad is it, Alan?

I'm not happy, but what can I do?

With time against him,

he serves the rescued mackerel and adds the horseradish ice cream,

and can only hope the dish isn't ruined.

Lovely.

Just a bit gutted I couldn't get that crispy skin off the fish.

It's annoying.

PRUE LAUGHS

-Wowzer.

-Heavens!

Well, this looks like a rock pool

in which fish come to breed,

-by the number of eggs.

-Yeah, little eggs everywhere.

-Very beautiful.

-Looks like art on a plate.

It looks like pudding, you know,

it looks sort of sweet, somehow,

and it's mackerel.

But the caramelisation on that mackerel is really beautiful.

I mean, this is an absolutely excellent bit of fish.

Is this stuff ice cream?

-And you've got...

-Horseradish.

-Beetroot balls

and beetroot, savoury beetroot meringues

and these little green bits,

-this.

-Apple.

-Apple? Mmm.

This is some very original,

clever cooking.

Do you think the dish actually works?

It's a chef completely in sympathy with his ingredients.

This is what we're looking for here.

A really, really beautiful bit of cooking on all levels.

I mean, this chef has taken the high road.

I'm going to nitpick a bit.

Too much ice cream, too much horseradish ice cream.

Personally, I've never seen anything like it. Colour balance is beautiful,

the tastes are great, you know, it's fabulous.

Very, very exciting cooking

and I think the Olympians would be as excited as we are.

So despite the setback, Alan scored another hit.

Can Colin close the gap?

He's convinced his fishbowl with squid ink poached halibut

and seaweed is the stroke of innovation

the judges are looking for,

despite only scoring six during the week.

I've got a lot of confidence in this dish. It's full of flavour.

It's got that wow factor.

But Alan can smell blood.

It's twice I've done that and they're not coming together.

Is there a problem with the broth?

No, it's perfect.

I wouldn't be serving it if it wasn't perfect, you know?

Unfortunately, I had to serve something that wasn't perfect.

I'm not going to make that same mistake, Alan.

Unshaken by Alan, Colin's standing his ground.

He places his squid-ink coated halibut, scallop and seaweed

in glass bowls

and serves the celeriac consomme in separate jugs.

Putting it down, please be very, very careful.

-Halfway.

-Halfway, yeah.

Ooh, it's a goldfish bowl!

OK, what's in here?

It is very pretty, actually.

I think that is squid ink, that's in there.

-Good flavour, hasn't it?

-Adds that lovely sweetness.

I think the fish has been very well treated here.

A fine piece of halibut

which has been just cooked to

the point of perfection. The scallop adds

the sweetness on top and the sweetness coming from

the squid ink.

I've never had a piece of fish cooked in a water bath

surrounded by squid ink and it's wonderful.

It's a real innovation.

There's lots of very nice, very, very delicate flavour.

If the broth is done well, it just makes everything sing perfectly.

This is an absolute classic case of less is more

and I do think this fulfils the brief really, almost to perfection.

We're not used to these ingredients.

This sort of seaweed I've never tasted before.

I'm having a ball with this dish.

THEY LAUGH

Colin's fishbowl has got the judges excited

and he's regained some crucial ground on Alan

going into the main course.

I can see a bit of fear, I can see the fear in his eyes.

I think he thought I would buckle

at the last stage, but now I'm clipping back at his heels.

I think he's got something to worry about now.

Good start, I need to build on it.

Just retain my focus, my composure, confidence

and keep that laser line focus. I need to keep pushing.

It's going to come down to the wire.

With renewed confidence, Colin's game face is back.

So, Alan, this is my favourite course,

lamb - the main course. I got eight, you've got seven.

My dish could have been executed better. Could yours?

Mine can only go one way - up.

He's out to take the lead

with his loin of lamb served with underused tongue

and sweetbreads. But can he deliver?

-You sweating there, chef?

-Me? No!

Not fazed at all, Alan.

I think that dish has put you under pressure, if you ask me.

What's the point of doing simple, safe food, retro cooking?

-What's the point in doing that?

-Ooh, is that a little dig?

Think he's actually surprised that I'm calm.

Because I'm a newcomer, I've never done this before, I'm excited. Loving the pressure!

Determined to keep his cool,

Colin races to plate the numerous elements of his dish.

So, if you're under pressure doing three,

how do you think this is going to be for 100?

Easy. I think you'll probably be helping me, Alan.

You'll be a great, glorified commis for me, you know?

Fighting talk from Colin, but has he pulled it off?

Lamb to the top of the plate please, yeah? Thank you very much.

Is Colin's lamb with tongue and sweetbreads

awe-inspiring enough for our world-class athletes?

It looks lovely, clean food. Good ingredients

and my mouth's watering.

One of the things which does make

my heart beat a little faster is having a bit of tongue on the plate.

And a piece of lamb.

And something very small, wrapped up in potato.

-What's inside?

-Sweetbread.

I hate the look of this dish.

I don't understand this trough-like thing for it.

This is supposed to be a dish

infused with Olympian ideals

and yet I'd say this is conventional cooking to the point of boring.

It's just too mean. It's got a little bit of this,

a little bit of that. It's like...nothing.

You know, I think there's something the matter with you two.

Seriously, I'm getting quite cross here, because I think,

we said at the beginning,

what we were looking for was excellent,

excellent cooking and that is what we've got.

Couldn't agree with you more, Prue. Where I disagree

is that's where you stop,

and that's where, actually, this plate needs to begin.

It's not just excellent cooking, it's about imagination,

about creativity, pushing the boundaries of cooking.

OK, so he needs to rethink the look of it.

I thinking he needs to start again.

No, he does not.

Colin's dish has definitely

sparked a debate in the judging chamber.

How will Alan fare with his

main course of barbecued veal with crispy sweetbreads

and macaroni cheese? A dish that combines

comfort food favourites with innovative cooking techniques?

It proved to be problematic earlier in the week

and lost him points when the meat was undercooked.

I think Jeremy thought you were serving a carpaccio of veal.

That wasn't my intention.

A mistake he's desperate to avoid today.

I just think if I caramelise it a bit more it'll elevate it.

So you've changed the dish now? Done it one side yesterday.

All being well, this is going to carry this dish through.

I think I've improved the dish. It was a 7/10 dish.

Hopefully this will just elevate it.

It's the moment of truth as Alan plates up his risky main course.

Is macaroni cheese ground-breaking enough for an Olympic feast?

He serves warm parsley jelly,

the barbecued veal and macaroni

and finishes with cheese foam and veal sweetbreads.

OK, to the guests, please.

Ask them to share the little Olympic torch between them.

Go, go, go. Let's go.

Happy? Well done!

Almost sweating, chef!

I believe my delivery was better,

I don't think Colin's was.

Has Alan whipped his dish into shape?

Is it an Olympic contender?

-It's very geometric.

-I don't know what to say.

Why would anybody think that a slab of concentrated

parsley jelly would be nice?

And what's more, it's got one of your favourite ingredients,

-elements, on top.

-A foam!

-A foam!

So this is a veal sweetbread.

-Bit dry.

-Too dry.

-You need some sauce here. I mean, what you need is sauce.

-Gravy.

It's a mish-mash and a missed-match of ingredients.

-This thing...

-That's a tragedy.

-Isn't it?

Bit of spinach and gluey macaroni,

all carefully lined up.

I'd love to know what they're saying, be a fly on the wall.

Ever think about what they're saying?

There's nothing I can do about it. I've got to believe in my dishes.

The judges'll make their own mind up.

I think I've understood the whole thing. You've got macaroni cheese

which is staff food.

I think you've got the veal which is

someone who's got a new toy with the charcoaler

and then you've got a leftover from a kid's party.

The only thing I can't explain is the cone of dryness.

No chef worth his salt could have sat down and eaten this

and said, "That's a great dish, good enough to put in front of Olympians.

"I've got it, I've found it, I know how to win this competition."

He hasn't even eaten this stuff or if he has,

he shouldn't be in the kitchen!

So, Alan's main course has failed to dazzle the judges,

throwing the competition wide open.

Can Colin overtake Alan on the home straight with his dessert,

combining beetroot, fennel and chocolate -

a dish he struggled with in the heats?

Is your mousse set today?

Let's just say it'll be lovely. I never give myself enough time.

It comes down to experience, you know?

It's his last chance to impress.

Can he pull it out of the bag with his beetroot cake,

fennel ice cream and chocolate mousse?

Wow, Colin, 100 times better today.

I want to get through today, that's why it's perfect.

Finally, he adds a scoop of ice cream.

Give it to the customer like that, yeah?

It's the way I wanted it so I'm happy it's ended on a high.

But is his combination of vegetables and chocolate

daring enough for a podium finish?

This smear, what's it there for? You need...

That's fashion.

SIGHS: I think that's what this is,

I think that it's a fashion statement, not a pudding statement.

I hate those smears, but I do think this ice cream looks wonderful.

-Fennel flavour, isn't it?

-Fennel.

OMG.

I have no idea what's going on here - chocolate mousse is OK,

but it's chocolate mousse.

Sponge which is...sponge.

Oliver, you sound as if you're stunned.

I just can't believe anybody would put up a pudding like this.

I just don't get it.

I agree that the chocolate mousse is not the best we've every had,

but I do want to have the recipe for this little sponge cake.

It was made with beetroot.

How does it go into the pan red and come out yellow?

I've cooked a lot of beetroot in my life,

I've never... That's what's pushing the boundaries.

-It's a miracle, Prue.

-We have a miracle. He's trying to put unusual ingredients together.

BOTH: Prue, Prue, Prue...

This pudding is just wrong.

This is a load of very average things

that have absolutely no relation together whatsoever.

So Colin hasn't quite hit the mark

and it comes down to Alan's desert, his lowest scoring dish of the week.

His Olympic hopes rest on a "Going for Gold" medal filled with

chocolate, caramel, coffee and olives.

A risky combination that didn't pay off in the heats.

I got five, you got five.

I'm just smarting.

It took me hundreds of hours on this gold medal to get a five.

What have you changed?

I've changed the balance of the olives in the dish.

I've actually put slightly less olive in and I've kind of whipped

the mix up to make it lighter, cleaner.

That's hopefully going to just tip the balance in my favour.

Still on the edge, mate.

I just don't need this pressure.

He sprays his medals in edible gold then finishes

with white chocolate Olympic ribbons.

And he's got one more trick up his sleeve.

-I've got a wee surprise for you, mate.

-Oh, no.

What you normally do with a gold medal is you serve it on a cushion.

It's served by professional people

that are dressed in the national dress.

Let's hope all this effort pays of.

OK, up on to the pass with these.

Good luck, don't drop it!

-Well done, mate.

-Bit of man hug.

-Man hug, that's it.

-Well done, mate.

It's been good, eh? Exciting.

So will Alan's "Going for Gold" Olympic medal wow the judges,

or is it a step too far?

OLIVER LAUGHS

-Well, it doesn't lack drama, does it?

-It doesn't.

It's fun, it's fun, it's fun.

Except it lacks food.

Well, it's got chocolate on the outside, it's going to be a cream centre.

Very salty, mmm.

Delicious.

We LOVE the salt.

Every aspect of it has been thought about.

I'm going to be a killjoy here. OLIVER GROANS

Basically, what we've got is a tiny little pot.

And all the rest is flummery.

Lovely guy in a kilt, two girls in a kilt

but it's about getting a mould made and a cushion made

and a bit of wood made, it's not about gastronomy or cooking.

-Oh!

-Don't you imagine that...

-Oh, Prue!

Here we have the final dinner, the great banquet,

all the Olympians ranged around and suddenly this arrives and you think,

"Hang on, let's finish off the evening with a smile on our face."

So, emotional week, mate.

It was an emotional week, Alan. Yeah, very emotional.

I honestly believe this is one of the hardest weeks cooking you're every going to do.

There's nothing the chefs can do now but anxiously await the judges' verdict.

I'm exhausted, I've put everything into it this week and hopefully I'll go home elated.

When the judges come to the final decision, when Alan and I go in,

there's going to be one Scottish champion.

I want it to be me. I want them to say my name

when it comes to the final decision.

Well, wasn't that a day of two halves?

I mean, it was extraordinary.

Main courses - frankly, I'm thinking of becoming a vegetarian.

There are Olympian dishes on there,

but it's just like going from extreme high to extreme low.

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

Any surprises?

Well, there is for me, yeah.

I think I got the main courses the wrong way round for the chefs.

Alan's bid for Olympic glory

combines classic flavours with

state-of-the-art cooking techniques

and inventive presentation.

Whilst Colin's strategy was

to create a menu pairing

under-used ingredients

with classic cooking techniques.

But the judges will only know whose is whose

once they've chosen their winner.

I know who I want, what about you, Matthew?

Yes, I've made up my mind too.

I have indeed, Prue

Perfect! Let's call in the chefs.

Alan and Colin's wait is finally over.

For one of them the Olympic dream will continue,

the other will be going home.

Welcome, chefs.

So, Alan, you've been here before.

I have, good and bad experiences in here.

Colin, this is your first time, how's it been for you?

It's been very exciting, very challenging, but it's been a great week.

I'm sure you want to know who's going forward for the national.

So, it's a question of menus and I have made up my mind.

I am going for menu A.

Prue, I hate to disagree with you,

but actually I've gone for menu B

Ahh!

-Oliver, so it's up to you, then.

-I'm going to go for menu B, as well.

Now, I don't know and you don't know who cooked menu A

and who cooked menu B.

So, menu B...

Right, so the chef going forward to represent Scotland

in the Great British menu is...

Alan Murchison.

Well done. Well done, mate.

That looked like relief, Alan.

It's been a hard week.

I was questioning the wisdom in coming back into here to cook

so thank you very much.

Well, you deserved it. You did do a cracking menu.

Your first...that pineapple business was just extraordinary.

The outstanding dish by a long way for me was the mackerel.

It looked beautiful, I loved the colouring of the dish

and the whole delivery of it was really, really precise,

beautiful bit of cooking,

and I would recommend that dish to anybody all day long.

Beautiful bit of work.

Well, to actually have moved olives to such poetry,

clearly it was an exceptional dish.

Colin, your halibut dish was absolutely outstanding.

I loved the way the broth set off the ink

and it's what this competition's about,

trying to do something that other people haven't done before,

and if you'd delivered that across the other dishes, you'd have been there.

And I voted for you Colin, cos I thought that your cooking was absolutely spot-on.

Very classic, perhaps not as brave as Alan's and as crazy -

-there's something quirky and crazy about Alan...

-Through experience!

..which is very much in his personality.

I think when it came to main courses, however, you didn't

quite, either of you, manage the same level of inspiration,

shall we say?

Particularly the macaroni cheese on that dish was...

Disgusting.

I think the weakest dish by far was the main course, I would agree.

The dessert is something I had in my head.

I believe it's still got levels of refinement,

I need the chocolate finer, the flavour slightly more clear.

I think inside the medal should be ice cream.

I do agree it might be nicer as ice cream

cos when you smash into it, it looks a mess.

Ice cream wouldn't do that.

So, Colin, both congratulations and commiserations,

and Alan, well, congratulations and we look forward to seeing you in the final.

Thank you very much.

Whee!

Will we dish them out?

I am gutted, of course I am. I never came here to lose. It's very close.

I've done my best and yeah, it's been a great experience.

LAUGHTER Very good effort, Colin, well done, mate.

SIGHS: Got through! THEY CHEER

I'm really, really pleased that I've qualified for the national final.

I must look at the main course, maybe start again.

I need to be cooking at the Olympics, that's my main goal.

Next week it's the turn of the central region

and the gloves are off.

Are you taking the micky out of me, are you?

Not at all, chef!

Oh, a bit of drama there!

There are culinary highs...

I'm a master at this, boys.

I ain't going to mess around, mate.

I almost started crying.

And kitchen catastrophes.

-What's going on, Daniel?

-All three at the moment, mate.

-It's all right, meant to happen.

-Really?!

-It's not working.

-BLEEP

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