Northern Ireland Dessert Great British Menu

Today On Great British Menu, it's sudden death

for one of Northern Ireland's most accomplished chefs.

So, er, put the helmets on and stay out of the way!

Former champion Chris Fearon,

ambitious new boy Ian Orr

and experienced chef Raymond McCardle.

Just like old times, eh, big boy?

All week they've been striving to create funny, spectacular

and ambitious dishes...

Clint Eastwood.

..for a special banquet celebrating 25 years of Red Nose Day.

Yesterday, for the first time this week, Chris took centre stage...

Cow pie, barbecue beans, two cowboys, beer, glasses, mug!

..while Raymond's contentious prop...

Titanic reminds me of death!

..was a gamble that didn't pay off.

Everyone's on 19, so at the end of the day, it's all about the dessert.

Today, all three chefs are back at the starting line.

It's do or die, isn't it?

Chris will let nothing get in his way.

Ray? Your soil's back up on top again.

But I had a timer on the bottom.

Ian faces setbacks.

It's overturned. I haven't used this machine before,

so it's overturned.

And Raymond's complex dessert may just be too much to handle.

What did you say? I'm in the bottom or the top?

This year's challenge is to create a performance on a plate -

gastronomic masterpieces that will also raise a smile.

And the chefs have been hard at work fundraising for Comic Relief.

It's the final curtain call for one of the Northern Ireland chefs.

-Lads, good luck.

-Good luck.

-Good luck, yeah?

-Let's go.

-Let's go for it!

Veteran of the competition and Michelin-starred chef,

Glynn Purnell, will be sending someone home today.

It's all level pegging. The slate's clean.

This could be one of the best dessert finals

in the history of the Great British Menu.

Former champion Chris

has been trailing in the competition all week.

Yesterday a well-deserved nine got him back in the race.

Now he's ready to prove himself a champion once again.

Pressure's on for all of us, I think, but I'm on a high from yesterday.

Got a great dessert. I'm going to go in there with guns blazing.

Hi, Chris.

Oh, hello, Glynn.

Happy to be in the race?

Yeah, very rock'n'roll.

This course is called Just Like That.

OK.

CHRIS LAUGHS

So! It's a take on a classic, Black Forest Gateau.

it's not a Black Forest Gateau, but it's the sort of flavours going on.

-OK.

-Making a nice cherry sorbet.

Again a little compote using these here boozy cherries

and the chocolate as well.

Doing a nice wee chocolate sponge. Going to soak it in cassis.

Just to resemble the old, moist sponge that was in a classical

Black Forest Gateau, then I'm going to dip that in the chocolate

then dip that in the popping candy, just to give them a wee texturey pop in the mouth.

Then to finish it all off, the wee surprise at the end,

I don't want to spoil it for you.

But at the end, it'll bring a smile to your face.

Instantly, I think, it's great craic.

Don't talk about that any more. I like the surprises.

Thanks.

Chris's farewell performance is a medley

of chocolate and cherry flavours,

with a frozen surprise in the centre of a sharing platter.

Chris is doing a massive amount

of chocolate and cherry treatments, which is sorbets,

granolas, tubes, rocks, mousses.

The question is, has he given himself too much to do?

Experienced chef Raymond's dishes have been influenced by the landscape back home.

Will his final dish have the comedy and gastronomy to take him into the lead?

Everybody's got an equal opportunity now.

My fate's in my own hands.

Going home is not an option!

So Raymond, what are you going to cook today?

I'm going to do Chocolate Mountain Volcano.

So it's a chocolate and orange dessert

and the fun element is a volcano at the end.

OK.

I'm going to aerate some chocolate for the chocolate rocks

with the coconut oil.

And make some chocolate soil with the ground almonds.

I'm serving it with sheep's milk ice cream.

I got the sheep's milk from back home.

And the lava is going to be the blood orange puree.

The guest pours the puree in and it gently bubbles -

it sauces the plate for them.

Oh, OK. So it's going to be quite dramatic, then.

Well, it doesn't, like, hit the ceiling!

THEY LAUGH

Raymond's dish of rocky textures and chocolate and orange flavours,

has at its heart an erupting volcano of orange puree

and an accompaniment of sheep's milk ice cream.

I'm expecting an explosion from a volcano.

I'm hoping it's not going to drizzle out and just fall flat, really.

New boy Ian had an amazing week until yesterday,

when his lead was snatched away from him.

It's so important I cook amazing food today.

Like, it's my last chance and I need to be raising my bar

so I need to make sure everything's perfect.

Ian, you were leading yesterday.

Today, everyone's the same. Is that making you nervous?

Not really. Today I have a couple of surprises up my sleeve.

So I'm calling it the Passion Egg. I'm making egg-white ice cream.

So egg whites - normally you'd use egg yolk for that.

Yeah, an egg-white ice cream. It's absolutely delicious, really good.

Some beautiful passion fruits, some beautiful mango,

so I'm making basically, passion fruit and mango yolk

with a couple of chocolate fingers.

So basically, it's quite simple,

a little sort of see-through glass egg.

You'll see the egg white, you'll see the yolk.

You can break the chocolate fingers in there, like soldiers, when you were a kid. Just a bit of fun.

You say, egg yolk. How are you going to form that egg yolk?

Basically, Glynn, I'll make a mango puree

and set it in a calcium bath.

It's like a spherification, bursts in your mouth.

So quite a technical thing to do.

Quite technical, and there's elements like the ice cream,

if you split it, I'll be going home before you judge me!

-Well, good luck.

-Cheers, Glynn.

Will Ian's play on boiled egg and soldiers,

made from egg white ice cream, mango, passion fruit

and chocolate biscuits, put him back in the lead?

Is it too simple?

You've got a bit of ice cream, some puree, chocolate fingers.

Is that substantial for a good pudding?

With nothing between them, the chefs are going for broke in the kitchen.

Chris is working on his chocolate sponge.

Ray is making his chocolate and almond soil.

The fight is on, and the first battle is for the ovens.

Ray, don't open that top oven, please.

Use the bottom oven, all right?

I have it in the top now at 160.

Be very careful on that.

Cheers, good man.

Yeah, just close it up, Ray.

-Going to the bottom oven, Ray, it's at 160.

-Yeah, OK.

Good man.

Can someone turn the bottom oven on please, at 160, yeah?

Yeah, it's a wee bit tense, it's going to be.

It's do or die, isn't it?

Having made a comeback yesterday with his main course,

Chris is anxious about perfecting the sponge for his Black Forest Gateau.

Just be careful of that sponge, OK?

OK, no problem, no problem, no problem.

Just be careful if you're going to...

Didn't know, man.

How we going, Chris?

All right, Glynn? How's it going?

It's manic here, Like a madman I am, today!

So is this the only sort of cream element to the dish?

There's cream throughout most of it anyway.

There's a mousse there, it's quite creamy.

-It seems wild in here. Wild.

-Good though, eh?

Yeah, yeah, it's good. I wish I was competing myself!

CHRIS LAUGHS

Chris, he's got meringues, chocolate, cherry.

I'm a little concerned there's nothing to neutralise it,

to bring it all together, so it's to be seen how he's going to do that.

Ian is looking to outdo his rivals,

with his passion-fruit egg and chocolate solders.

The tuile biscuits for the soldiers need to be baked as soon as possible.

What's happening, buddy? Are you in that top oven or are you finished?

It's the soil in the top one. It's coming out in three minutes.

-Can I use that oven then, can I?

-Yeah.

The sponge, the sponge is coming out in, like, 15 minutes.

-You're all right, aren't you?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Put them in the fridge, sure.

-I will, I will.

Don't know what's happening in there, but it's absolutely wild.

There's whisks going in, there's ice cream machines going,

they really are fighting for them two spaces. Absolute...

One second, one second. What's happening there?

Just, nightmare with these ovens. Chris is doing meringues.

Raymond's doing soil, sponges,

I'm just trying to get the tuiles rolled, just a nightmare.

-So gloves are off?

-Definitely off, Glynn.

BLEEP!

Yep, it's in that bottom one.

Ray, your soil's back up on top again. Right?

-Your soil's back on top.

-But I had the timer on the bottom.

-Here?

-I had the timer on it.

What did you say? I'm in the bottom oven or in the top?

I'm in the bottom now going in with the meringues.

-So what am I, in the top?

-Yes, chef!

Never mind Raymond's volcano erupting - he looks like

he's going to pop at any second here.

So put your helmets down and stay out of the way!

Experienced chef Raymond is hoping

his experimental chocolate and orange volcano

will give him the edge over his rivals.

I got to crack on here, badly.

With lots going on,

keeping everything perfectly on track isn't easy.

Is that your milk there, Ray?

That's it, cheers. Yeah, full steam ahead.

Like a little volcano yourself. Ready to blow.

So, chocolate and orange?

Yeah, I used milk chocolate for the base and then the tube

down the centre and then the orange, hopefully, will explode into it all.

So the little tube, Ray, what's the tube made out of?

It's isomalt and glucose, erm, it's like a sugar.

So what would happen if the tube breaks?

Yeah, if the tube breaks I'm going home.

OK. Well, I'm going to leave you to it before you explode.

Ian's finally getting his biscuits in the oven, but he's taken his

attention away from his egg white ice cream, and there's a problem.

BLEEP. It's overturned, just...

So I need to do a fresh one.

-Quickly, I need it done, yeah.

-What's happening, Ian?

I haven't used this ice cream machine before, so,

ice cream's just overturned, so I've got a small bit left.

If it happens again, I'm going before you even mark me,

so that's it.

Egg-white ice cream, never seen it before

and it's, you know, not looking good.

As well as competing to cook at the banquet, the chefs have

travelled the UK to meet people who rely on Comic Relief's support.

D'you know, lads,

I had to go and visit a project in West Belfast for kids.

I made some chocolates with them

and some petits fours and stuff and it was very humbling, you know.

-Did you raise money?

-I did, yeah.

-Very good, Ray.

I'm in West Belfast today.

I'm visiting a project and it's funded by Comic Relief.

Hi, how are ya? Would you like to come on inside?

Yeah, that'd be great.

Kids Together supports children with a wide range of disabilities

and their siblings, giving their parents a well-deserved break.

-This is our chef Raymond today.

-Hiya, James.

-He's come to see our club.

Would you like to tell him a bit about it?

-So what do you think of the youth club, James?

-It was fantastic.

-Yeah, and what are you doing this evening?

-Making the aeroplane.

Yeah, you need to, hold on, whoa, whoa.

You need to put the support bit.

I'm the expert of Lego.

You're the expert, James. Very good, James.

OK, youse ready?

Today we're going to be doing chocolate art.

CHEERING

At the centre, they already involve the children

in simple cooking activities,

and they welcomed Raymond's suggestions to make sweet

petits fours to raise money for charity.

OK, guys, this is salted caramel popcorn,

this is going to be a part of my dessert.

You guys get to eat this if he does it right.

-Yes!

-Yes!

That looks great. Good man. Ah, James, that's perfect. That's you.

Yay, very good, James. Top man.

Well, I liked the chocolate paste in the bag and everything.

I did it by myself.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Excellent...

I love chocolate.

OK, guys...

It's great to know that Comic Relief does good projects like this

in the local areas and the girls here, they do great work.

-Well done, nice!

-It's nice.

-Good man.

-D'you want more of it?

-No.

LAUGHTER

Yeah, we had a serious audience here today, a taste test.

This is a tough audience to please.

If I can please these guys, I think I'll go well in the competition.

-What d'you think of the popcorn, James?

-Fantastic!

-Fantastic.

The next evening, Raymond sells the petits fours

in his restaurant to raise money.

-Good evening.

-Good evening, Raymond.

-We made petits fours yesterday.

We made white chocolate and rosemary fudge

and we made chocolate and passion fruit truffles.

Would you be interested in buying some

for Great British Menu, Comic Relief?

-Of course.

-Of course.

-I like it.

-It's for a good cause.

-It's for a great cause.

-Did you take the whole one?

-Well, I'm a greedy boy, so...

The petits fours are a great success,

and Raymond's delighted to receive more good feedback.

Very big thumbs up, absolutely delicious.

-Cheers.

-Absolutely beautiful.

Back in the kitchen,

the mousse for Raymond's chocolate and orange volcano is ready.

I've got to put the base on this.

The base is made of shortbread, wafer crumb and popping candy,

topped with mousse and sprayed with melted chocolate.

But the crunchy base isn't quite as he'd hoped.

I'm not really happy with the thickness of the base,

-so I might do a wee bit more.

-The other ones are too thick?

I think they are too thick, I mean...

How is that going to affect it if they're too thick?

It's just too much to eat.

Like an '80s cheesecake, you know.

I'm just being very cautious today.

I just can't live with mistakes today. Could put me out, you know.

Ambitious new boy Ian has to churn his ice cream again.

I just need it quite soft.

This is his last chance to get it perfect.

This ice cream machine's a BLEEP nightmare.

Going to use the same machine again, Ian?

Well, there's no other machines here, Chris.

Chris is trying out the surprise element

of his take on Black Forest gateaux,

and has made chocolate mousse, which he's freezing in liquid nitrogen.

-Nitrogen, yeah?

-Yeah.

Here.

-What do you think of it?

-It's very good.

Everybody's going to be sitting there,

smoke coming out of their nose and ears, so, bit of craic, you know?

Bit of fun. I'm happy with that.

Ian's dessert is dependent on his unusual egg-white ice cream,

so he's watching the machine closely as it churns.

Definitely going to work now, I was just panicked a little bit.

New machine, it's quite fast so I panicked a little bit,

but I've relaxed.

It'll be perfect.

The thing is, has he got time to set it into the mould and then to

be able to put the mango egg yolk on, so time is of the essence.

Raymond is the first to plate up with his chocolate orange volcano.

Could you weigh me out six grams of citric acid

and two grams of bicarbonate of soda?

And they've got to be so precise,

because if they're not, the volcano doesn't work.

He starts with his chocolate mousse and crunchy base,

then slices his baked glucose mix...

..and rolls it into a tube to form the heart of his volcano.

He places his chocolate, coconut and cream rocks and scatters

the chocolate caramel popcorn,

then carefully adds the mixture of citric acid and bicarbonate of soda.

If he adds too little, the eruption won't work,

but too much could affect the taste.

Next, the sheep's milk ice cream.

And finally, he pours the orange puree

that should erupt from the volcano.

It's obviously a wee bit too thick.

Have you got a wee bit of orange puree in the container?

Making an adjustment to the puree mix,

Raymond hopes the second eruption is more explosive.

We'll eat that one.

-How was that for you?

-That was a tough one.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-Well, let's go and taste it for one last time.

-Yeah.

So Raymond, it has been a mountain for you to climb,

-and are we going to get an explosion of flavour?

-I think we are.

It's sort of bubbling away slightly here but...

-I was expecting more kind of...

-I was expecting, yeah, bit of POW!

This should be very soft.

I love that milk chocolate orange. It's very nice, very refreshing.

Is that a little bit too thick for you, or...?

No, you would eat it, it's like...

Delicious. Can I try this bit...oh!

-What is this in the bomb?

-It's citric acid.

-Just citric acid.

Yeah, and there's a wee bit of bicarb in it.

Wow, my God!

-It's bad, like.

-It's the citric acid that was supposed to dissolve

when the orange went in.

OK...

That was the comedy value of the dish.

It wasn't fun, cos I just got a mouthful of citric acid.

How confident are you that this is going to score you enough points

to cook for the judges?

I don't know.

I really don't know. I wouldn't like to call it today.

That's just completely wrecked the dish for me.

I don't feel like eating any more of it now because of it.

I said at the start, he who makes the least mistakes gets through.

I've made one mistake, so...

Next up is Ian with his last shot at getting to the judges.

His novelty boiled egg and soldiers, accompanied by a giant red nose

blowing passion fruit flavoured bubbles.

He pipes the ice cream into his glass eggs.

And needs to make holes in the centre to pour in his puree.

But something's gone wrong.

The second batch is not working, because it's still too soft.

Ian, buddy - you're running late. You're going to hold me up?

I'm not going to hold you up, buddy!

Ian pushes on, opting for plan B, piping the passion fruit puree

on top of his ice cream rather than through the centre.

Then he places his passion fruit and mango yolk on top.

And finally the chocolate fingers.

This is my big red nose.

This here goes down the room, and it's just a bubble effect.

This is passion fruit bubbles.

You can smell the passion fruit, can't you?

-You can, yeah.

-Let's go and have a taste. Come on.

-Well done, Ian.

-You carry that through.

Happy with that, Ian?

Happy enough. Not perfect. It definitely didn't go to plan.

-It's fun, isn't it? The bubbles?

-Presentation's really cute.

-Yeah.

-I like it.

You should get that effect of it running.

That's nice.

-Are you pleased with the way the ice cream's come out?

-Yeah. The ice cream's happy.

-I've never tasted egg-white ice cream before.

-No.

It's like a chilled mousse, rather than ice cream. It's that light.

The negative is that there should be like a hole in the middle.

so the passion fruit's in there.

But it just didn't work,

so if I get through for tomorrow I'll have it perfect.

The mango and the passion fruit works really well with

the vanilla and a wee bit of chocolate.

Yeah, well, it's classical flavours.

-There's nothing can go wrong there.

-It is what it is.

Has he got that wow factor? Has he got enough going on?

I think it does.

I think it's very simple, but it's a beautiful ice cream, isn't it?

It's very hard to take marks away from that.

It's not blown me away or anything, but it's very nice.

It's a very safe dish, and he was right to do a safe dessert, you know.

It'll get him across the line today.

So... I'm so glad it's over. I've had a...

that was definitely my hardest day.

Former champion Chris has everything riding on his culinary take

on the famous Tommy Cooper catchphrase "just like that".

He fills his doughnuts with cherry gel and adds more to the plate,

along with a scattering of cherry granola and swipes of chocolate mousse.

He completes the picture with discs of chocolate sponge,

cherry sorbet and meringue.

He then sprays his mousse into the liquid nitrogen for the surprise finale.

OK.

Just like that!

-Just like that?

-Just like that!

There you go. Happy with that?

Yes.

OK, let's go. Chris - pick it up. Let's go.

Enjoy, lads!

OK, let's dive straight in so we get the full effect.

You don't want it to melt.

So just like that!

Just like that!

-It tastes different, doesn't it?

-Aye.

It's quite strong, isn't it?

-You're happy with the sweetness of the cherries cutting through the chocolate?

-Yeah.

You need that with that chocolate, because that chocolate is a killer, after a while.

So what do you think of the presentation of it?

It's good, it's good. I like the effect of them smashing. That was fun.

It does look a wee bit messy, you know.

It's quite a bit busy. A bit messy, or...?

I like the playfulness of the presentation.

I think it needs to be busy. It needs to be - what's going on here?

Are you a bit worried there's no cream on there, or some sort of vanilla,

or some sort of like...

That wee stick of meringue's not enough to cut through all that cherry.

There's a lot of cherry, there's a lot of chocolate.

I know, but I think this offers the sweetness, the different textures,

and the acidity of different elements of that.

You've five cherry elements.

Maybe a bit OD on the cherry.

-I'm very happy with what it is, and whatever happens happens.

-OK.

I was very happy with that result.

I don't know what Glynn thinks of it, but from what I plated up, I'm over the moon.

It couldn't have been better.

Tough day.

Never easy, the last day, is it, though?

It was brutal.

You know, we all make mistakes on the final day.

You know yourself - the ice cream. I don't know if you picked up on it,

-there was a bit of citric acid in your dessert.

-Yeah, yeah.

But I mean, you know, anything can happen now.

How are we, chefs?

Very nervous. Sick.

Raymond, let's start with the Chocolate Mountain.

-Hash tag volcano.

-Yeah.

Um... the presentation, for me, was a little bit unusual.

Wasn't quite expecting that.

The mousse was quite light and the crumble looked a bit clumsy,

but it actually did crumble quite a lot.

Quite nice with the popping candy which I thought was a nice touch.

When the orange did eventually spill out, it did actually cut through the mousse and bring it all together.

But it was more of a trickle than an explosion.

The sauce was too thick, which obviously left us

with a pile of powder,

citric acid, on the plate, which wasn't great.

No.

Ian, your passion egg...

I like the idea. I like the taste of the ice cream.

The idea of using egg whites and the rest of it was very clever.

I thought the bubbles were great fun,

but part of it I thought was a bit simple.

I mean, if we spilled out the egg, we'd be ice cream coulis and a biscuit.

Is that what it would be?

Chris. Black Forest Gateau.

I mean, it's a proven, well-worked idea. It's a bit old hat.

But it's still pleasant and people still like that.

So, I mean the ingredients were spot-on. The sorbet was nice, the liquid nitrogen was a nice touch,

but I thought you missed a bit of a trick with putting a bit more cream on the plate,

maybe given us a bit more of that soft mousse.

You know, but Black Forest Gateau - it worked.

Thank you.

So I'm sure you want to hear the scores.

I'm scoring one of the desserts seven points,

giving the chef the most points across the week,

and a place in the judges' chamber.

And that chef is...

Chris.

APPLAUSE

So well done, Chris, and obviously there's lots of things you need to correct, so good luck.

Two chefs left,

but only one place left in front of the judges.

So Raymond, your score is ...

..six points.

Ian.

I'm scoring you...

..six points.

So, chefs - a tie-breaker.

The first time in the Great British Menu.

To choose a winner, I've had to decide

who's delivered the best menu across the week.

So one menu demonstrated potential to go further,

into the competition,

even though it wasn't always executed perfectly.

The menu, although not humorous all the way through,

nudged above the other in making us laugh.

So the chef joining Chris in the judges' chamber...

..is...

..Raymond.

Well done.

Cheers.

So commiserations, Ian.

I thought you cooked solidly all the way through, and credit to you.

Two guys. Good luck tomorrow, and may the best chef win.

All the best, lads.

Thank you.

That was just... I was feeling sick to the teeth.

Well done, buddy.

What an experience and I fought right to the end.

I couldn't be happier.

It's been a nail-biting finish for the chefs of Northern Ireland.

Ian, in spite of his lead in the first half of the competition,

is going home and Chris and Raymond are through to the judges.

I am not giving up without a fight.

I'm on a roll now, so bring it on!

Calling it a scrap is an understatement.

This is going to be the dog-fight of Northern Ireland!

no doubt about that!

Tomorrow, Chris and Raymond face the exacting judges.

Crikey almighty!

It's awful. It really is quite... it's inedible!

And rivalry reaches new heights...

-Oh, come on, Ray.

-BLEEP Comic Relief!

I know the name of the game, big boy!

Well, big trees - easy fall!

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