Scotland Main Great British Menu

This week on Great British Menu, three of Scotland's finest chefs,

two Michelin-starred Stevie McLaughlin...

Cooking from the heart. I am not cooking for awards here.

..experienced chef, Jacqueline O'Donnell...

I want to give you boys a run for your money.

..and unconventional Neil Rankin...

It's better than putting my feet up at this stage!

..are battling it out...

I'm one point ahead, young man, and I'm going to keep that.

..to get their dishes to a banquet commemorating the 70th anniversary of D-day

at the incredible St Paul's Cathedral.

Yesterday's fish course saw Stevie and Neil fight back.

-She keeps on pulling them out, doesn't she?

-That's the final straw.

But despite Jacqueline's error...

Highly under seasoned. Really lets the dish down.

..she kept pole position.

Today's the main course.

-You've got little tricks up your sleeve.

-Little tricks.

This looks like something bigger than a little trick!

And with one point in it, it's a close call.

So much hinges on the main course today.

Will Jacqueline increase her lead?

Or will her rivals triumph?

You have my first ever ten.

This year, the chefs are commemorating the heroes

who fought on D-day by creating dishes that tell a wartime story.

There we go.

To research their menus, they have spoken to those

with memories of this significant period of British history.

These were two German prisoners.

They used to come and work on the farm.

That one was a butcher in Germany before the war.

Judging them this week is a tough-talking veteran

of the competition.

A leading force on the London restaurant scene...

Jeremy Lee.

Main courses today.

It's the course that everybody wants and it's the one they run towards, so it is pivotal.

It would be great if Scotland could get a main course through.

Things are hotting up now. One point between us.

A couple of mistakes made yesterday. Messed the prawn, undercooked the fish.

The seasoning in mine. Silly mistake that I've learned from but he will be picking up on that.

I'm going to pull all the stops out on this one today.

I'm looking forward to a big challenge today.

First up, and in the lead by just one point, is experienced chef,

Jacqueline O'Donnell.

So far, she's surprised her rivals with her modern spins

on old-fashioned dishes.

But she fell down yesterday for under seasoning.

The boys are equal points.

I really need to push because they are biting at my tail.

Look at all this! What have you brought us today?

It's a Homecoming Platter.

The inspiration is the soldiers are coming back.

They want everything to be familiar around the table and a celebration.

I have cured suckling pig. I'm using the leg and the shoulder.

I'm going to do a cider glaze for over the top of the ham.

Kept the rack as pork.

I'm going to do a great parsley sauce

and I'm going to do potato gratin.

I'm going to mix that with some beautiful smoked Cheshire cheese.

And I've got some great British apples

that I'm going to put through some sweetheart cabbage.

This seems to be a gorgeous Sunday lunch. Almost meat and two veg.

Is this going to keep your advantage?

The story behind this still hits the brief

and I think that will give me the edge.

Jacqueline is doing a Homecoming Platter.

She's brilliant at coming up with a story and putting it onto the plate.

I hope she seasons this beautifully.

It has not been a strong point so far through the competition.

Next up and in joint second place is classical heavyweight, Stevie McLaughlin.

Yesterday, he managed an impressive eight points,

but he's also faced criticism for not telling a story on a plate.

This one is a show stopper.

I absolutely need to tell the story and it's a big one for me today.

Good morning to you. How are you after your triumph yesterday?

-I'm good. Ready to rock.

-What is your main course today?

It's called A Letter From Home, fantasy of a soldier.

He's reading his letter from his mum and dad and he's fantasising

about what's on the table for when he gets home.

And what is on the table?

I am doing a fillet of beef Wellington.

I am going to wrap that with mushroom duxelles.

-Duxelles is when you very finely chop the mushrooms, isn't it?

-Yes.

-A little bit of chicken mousse.

-Chicken mousse?

-Just to bind it.

I'm going to wrap it in puff pastry. We're going to serve with that a Woolton pie.

-What is a Woolton pie?

-Lord Woolton was the Minister of Food.

-Oh, right.

He was the man that said these are your rations

and this is what I suggest you do with them in order to make them go further.

From there, what we do is we cook all the vegetables together into a pie.

The crust we are making with oatmeal, we've got lard and some potato.

It seems pie and pie.

It's this young man's fantasy. He wants to go home and get some pie.

Stevie's beef Wellington and Woolton pie making up A Letter From Home -

charming and heart-warming.

Beef Wellington is a much-loved familiar dish and probably

the greatest banquet dish ever, so in that respect it needs to be flawless.

Finally, neck and neck with Stevie

is unconventional barbecue chef, Neil Rankin.

His alternative menu, celebrating the spoils of World War II,

has so far had mixed reviews.

The main course is my course.

I'm the meat guy and if there's any course

I'm going to catch Jack, it's going to be this one.

-How are you?

-I'm good, thanks.

So, what are you going to cook for us today?

So, this dish is called Still In The Field

and it's going to be Hereford short rib.

You are big on breeds, aren't you?

Massively big on breeds.

I'm going to be smoking it

and I'm going to be cooking the sirloin over the coals.

You're not going to be let down like you were yesterday when you barbecued

the Dover sole and it was slightly undercooked for your fish dish?

That's a different story. It's not fish, its beef.

HE LAUGHS

-What are you going to serve with this meat?

-I've got some stovies.

What actually is a stovie?

It's potatoes cooked down in stock

and I make it a little bit like an onion gravy

and then you add in the shin of braised beef.

We're going to get the stock,

we're going to bring it down with some really nice potatoes.

It's going to be delicious. Then we'll make a cauliflower cheese.

We're going to make a roux with bone marrow instead of butter,

so it gives it that beefiness through it.

Are you going to have a sauce to accompany this?

Yes, I've got the braising liquor from the shin.

I'm going to reduce that down and put that on the stovies

and that'll wrap inside the short rib.

What I'm struggling with is what rare breed meat

has to do with D-day landings.

The whole thing goes towards the Dig For Victory campaign within the war,

which was all about being self sustainable

and that is what the rare breed farmers do.

It could have been growers, it could have been anything.

I've chosen to pick on the rare breed beef farmers.

Neil's dish, Still In The Field,

is an homage to rare breeds of Britain and the small producer.

What I want to see is a better clarification of the story, though.

The chefs are fully aware that it's the crucial halfway stage

and the stress is already starting to show.

BLEEP!

-Neil, what happened to your veg, there?

-Burnt my onions, didn't I?

-Not a good way to start off a jus.

-Guess what I did?

-What have you done?

I forgot to put the lard in my pastry.

If this is the pressure we're under here,

what would it be like if one of us gets to the banquet?

Barbecue expert Neil is playing to his strengths

and gunning for a top score

with a rare breed dish called Still In The Field.

He restarts his beef jus

and gets to work on the major meat components of his dish.

Neil braises the smoked shin of beef for his stovies,

sears his sirloin, which he'll later grill,

and puts his short ribs on a special indoor barbecue to smoke.

-Your barbecue, sir?

-Yes, sir.

Sometimes, barbecue is just massacred on the outside and raw in the middle.

-This will be like sous-vide.

-Will it?

STEVIE: I think Neil might have bitten off a bit more than he can chew here.

He's got a lot going on there. There's a lot of meat going on.

He's the meat man, but it's not about him,

it's about the banquet, it's about the brief.

I'm a wee bit confused about what he's doing here.

Classical heavyweight Stevie is also aiming high

with his Letter From Home -

a full-on pastry affair of luxury beef Wellington

and a vegetable pie using a wartime recipe

named after the then Minister of Food.

The Woolton pie, how are you going to make it banquet worthy?

-I'm not. My inspiration's the soldier's fantasy of the time.

-Right?

The Woolton pie was a staple in all British households.

'I'm pretty confident I can springboard Jacqueline on this one.'

This is my finest hour on a plate.

I think Stevie's dish is going to be quite heavy.

A lot of pastry in there - potentially a downfall for him.

But Stevie's having to remake his pie pastry crust

after forgetting to add lard first time around.

-Are you back on track?

-A little bit behind, but I was.

So much hinges on the main course today.

We need to get this right, starting with the pastry.

HE LAUGHS

Also out to impress is Jacqueline,

who is determined to keep her lead

with her celebratory soldier's Homecoming Platter.

Along with two potato and two cabbage sides,

it features cured pork -

a preservation technique widely used during wartime.

My dish is the spirit of British people.

I think it's all the people at home

that helped hold the country together.

And that's what's so important to Britain and why this will be

a massive celebration for all the veterans involved.

To find out more about

the importance of cured meat during World War II,

Jacqueline travelled to Ilkley in West Yorkshire

to meet master curer and butcher, David Lishman.

Curing during the war was a method of preserving meat

so that it fed the family in times

when there wasn't really a lot to eat.

So, how would they have cured pork during the war?

There were two types of curing method that were performed in those days.

The very simple one was wet curing and one was dry curing.

The dry curing method, the pork would be laid on a bed of salt

and then the rest of the cure would be rubbed into it.

The wet curing is where the curing salts would have been dissolved

in a liquid and then the pork would be immersed in there

and over a period of time,

it would turn from pork into this wonderfully delicious ham or bacon.

One man with memories of cured pork and how vital it was during the war

is David's dad, Gordon, who grew up on a farm.

So, what taste you remember?

Is there anything different now to what it tasted back then,

if the ham special then?

Probably a bit salty.

It could be a bit fatty as well,

because you didn't kill a small pig.

You were only allowed to kill two in a year

and so you wanted as big a pig as you could get so it lasted.

Go further, yeah!

Gordon also remembers two of the farm's wartime workers particularly well.

This is a picture of my father

and these were two German prisoners that used to come daily to help.

They worked on the farm and then at night, they went back to town.

That one in particular, he was a butcher in Germany before the war.

He did all sorts of things.

He made sausages. They were very good, actually, yes.

That's amazing.

To see if her wet cured ham matched up to Gordon's wartime memories,

Jacqueline cooked up a taster.

-Very nice.

-Really moist. I like the saltiness.

-It's very nice.

And the ham, that was used for a special occasion?

If you were cooking cured ham,

it was something a bit special, having some ham.

It was really interesting, what Gordon said.

That makes me even more confident that it's to reward those

who have been out and this is their Homecoming Platter to celebrate.

With plating up fast approaching, Jacqueline adopts a quick

and unusual method to dry off her wet cured pork

before she roasts and glazes it.

-Do you always blow-dry your meat?

-I do, actually.

Jacqueline moves onto her two sauces -

a parsley coulis and a parsley cream.

Yesterday, she lost points for under seasoning

and is desperate not to repeat her mistakes today.

How's your seasoning doing today?

Yes, I'm taking it into account that, you know,

I am serving a cured ham.

It is salty, the stock,

so despite me wanting to season, season, season,

I'm drawing back ever so slightly with you still on my shoulder.

HE LAUGHS

Unconventional chef Neil is tending to his stovies -

his modern, meaty take on a traditional Scottish potato stew.

To take cauliflower cheese to new heights,

Neil's adding bone marrow and blue cheese.

Cauliflower cheese?

It seems like the richest sauce in the history of the entire universe.

This will be.

God almighty!

There will be a nappy on the plate.

He seems to be going guns firing at cauliflower cheese

and he's making white sauce, but that's being made

with a roux from bone marrow instead of butter, which is quite outrageous.

Neck and neck with Neil, double Michelin-starred Stevie

is playing catch up after having to remake the pastry

for his Woolton vegetable pie, which finally goes into the oven.

With the clock ticking, he starts to assemble

the second major pastry element of his dish - beef Wellington.

He spreads his chicken and mushroom duxelles mousse over herby pancakes,

tops with fillet of beef wrapped in spinach,

before encasing in puff pastry.

Bit of sweat on the brow. You look a little bit stressed, Stevie.

-It's warm back here.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

I've got a big barbecue on there and I'm holding up all right.

As Stevie gets his Wellington in the oven,

it's time for current leader Jacqueline

to pull together her Homecoming Platter.

She generously seasons her racks of suckling pig

before sealing and roasting.

-Bit of pressure, you're up first.

-A wee bit of pressure.

Good pressure? Bad pressure?

I am one point ahead, young man, and I'm going to keep that.

-Only one point, though, isn't it?

-One point's enough.

I'll have to wait and see what Jack does.

In the past, she's surprised us, so she might do it today,

but essentially it sounds like meat and two veg at the moment.

Jacqueline starts the first of her various side dishes.

She combines ham and cream with Savoy cabbage

before moving on to a second cabbage dish

of apple and chives with sweetheart cabbage.

I've got to get this evening right.

Jeremy's not going to let me off with anything today.

This has been a massive push. I'll just be on time.

Jacqueline brings out even more side dishes -

her first lot of tatties, an apple and potato gratin -

before finishing her mashed potato.

It's not as smooth as I would like.

Ohhh, my God!

Pork crackling is next.

Onto her platter go her two parsley sauces

followed by roast suckling pig cutlets and cured pork.

Jeepers! It's like Dad's Army - coming in on all fronts!

Do you see patriotism on a plate here?

It certainly looks very British.

Without further ado, I think we should tuck in.

-How are you feeling?

-Relieved that we're in here on time.

STEVIE: How many people is this supposed to be for?

This leg would do 60!

So, how's the shoulder come out for you?

I think it's come out really nice.

-What do you think of the rack of pork?

-Rack's excellent.

-Yes.

Two cabbage, two potato accompaniments.

Would you be tempted to make one big dish to do?

If this was to go to the banquet I think I would actually condense it.

It would be a big dish anyway with that, two cuts of meat,

a little bit of crackling would've been lovely,

and a nice salad on the side, of cabbage.

And then how's your seasoning with this, do you think?

I think my seasoning's there.

-What's the pork like?

-I think it's over-seasoned.

She's gone the other way, hasn't she?

Does it hit the brief?

My dish hits the brief with taking us back to 1944.

-What do you think you might give it?

-Seven, today.

I think she's given herself too much to do. I'm saying six.

If she'd done half as much, I think she'd have completed it

and it would've been a perfect dish. It might have been an eight or nine.

-All right, Jack?

-Yep.

-Happy with it?

That was tough getting that up there,

I really struggled at the end.

Next to plate up is unconventional chef Neil with his dish,

Still In The Field - a nod to rare breed farmers

and the wartime Dig For Victory campaign.

He slices his short ribs

and finishes his sirloin and cauliflower on the barbecue

before revealing a surprise.

I'm serving everything on grass. It's actually wheatgrass.

All week that we've been cooking, I've been growing my presentation.

Neil adds edible soil, flowers, seeds,

and special serving bones to his field.

I think Neil's potentially looking at style over substance here.

It's all about substance and style doesn't play a part for me.

He serves cauliflower topped with cheese sauce on the bones

and his smoked shin of beef and potato stovies go in jars.

He adds his glazed beef short ribs,

brushes his sliced sirloin with bone marrow butter

and finally, finishes with beef jus.

I feel like I should get my watering can out for the flowers, you know?

So, this is your dish, Still In The Field.

Are you flying the flag of victory with this one, Neil?

This is what I wanted, so if it's not right, then I'm not right.

Well, without further ado, shall we?

Is this how you saw the dish appearing before you?

Precisely how I envisioned it.

Wow. That has got some flavour.

It's certainly bold. It's a huge big natural flavours.

I think Neil will be happy with what he's done.

JEREMY: So, has this rib come out how you wished it?

I think that's pretty much perfect.

-And how are your stovies?

-Not quite traditional.

I have them quite meaty.

I think stovies, certainly in Scotland,

-should be an absolute bonus if you find a bit of meat.

-Yeah.

Maybe these are London stovies.

So, Neil, how's your cauliflower cheese worked?

Perfect. It's not traditional, it's more roasted cauliflower and the

cheese sauce is so well flavoured, you only need a little spike.

-The cheese sauce is too strong for me.

-Yeah.

JEREMY: And what do you think the response from the veterans will be for this dish?

The Scottish ones will be quite happy to have a little bit of stovies on the plate.

I think the English ones will be happy to have a little bit of cauliflower cheese.

And if anybody doesn't like that sort of meat, then, I don't know that person.

I think it's potentially quite a difficult dish to eat.

If you got your best suit on, you're going to get your cuffs

in the bone marrow as you're trying to get the steak.

What would you give this dish out of ten?

I think that's slightly over portioned, so I'd give it a nine.

-I would give it eight on this dish.

-I'd give it seven.

Last to plate up is classical heavyweight Stevie

with his Letter From Home -

the fantasy dinner of a young soldier at war

that he hopes will push into the lead.

With double Michelin star precision, he checks his beef Wellington

to ensure each element is cooked to perfection.

How is this coming along? It's looking amazing.

Obviously, Stevie's upping his game now.

He's trying to tell more of a story on the plate

but I think my story is clear as day today.

Not quite ready, Stevie's Wellington goes back into the oven.

He brings out his Woolton vegetable pie.

Stevie's also got a surprise for his rivals.

-What's this?

-What's in the box?

-You got little tricks up your sleeves, have you, Stevie?

-A little trick!

It looks like something bigger than a little trick.

Ooohhhh!

My letter from home.

Finally, Stevie pours his red wine gravy.

Need a hand with that?

I think we'll have to take an end each here.

And his dream soldier's parcel is complete

with his wartime-inspired letter.

-Wow.

-Would you like to read the letter?

-OK.

"Dearest son,

"we can only hope that this parcel somehow reaches you safely.

"We send this parcel to remind you,

"you are in our thoughts every hour of every day.

"May your dreams of home keep you strong through these dark days

"until your return safely to us.

"Love, Mum and Dad."

-Well done, dear.

-Sensational.

-How are you feeling?

-Chuffed to bits, very proud.

Tell you what, let's get this through and let's eat this, for heaven's sakes.

How's your morning been?

It's been stressful and it's also been good fun.

-NEIL:

-What do you think?

I'm blown away by this.

The resulting beef, is it cooked enough and rested enough?

The beef's cooked fine.

-Melt in the mouth.

-Good beef Wellington.

There's a bit of spinach in here but no visible greens.

-Are you happy with that?

-It's a fantasy of the time.

There's nothing green readily available.

-NEIL:

-Needs more green to balance it out a little bit more.

Your duxelles with the chicken, has it come out as you wished?

The texture of the duxelles is not too fine,

so when you cut it it's not just a runny mess on the plate.

I like that, with the chicken mousse.

That's a lovely old-fashioned lard crust, isn't it?

Do you think there's too much pastry on this?

The pastry on the Woolton pie just seems really quite thick

but the pastry on this Wellington's perfect.

For the people that are going to be eating this,

it's going to rekindle a lot of old memories,

put a lot of smiles on a lot of very deserving people's faces.

-STEVIE:

-Are you worried by this?

-I am, actually.

I think it's got all the emotion that I was trying to get.

-Yeah, I'm a little bit concerned about this one as well.

-Oh, are you?

-What might you give this out of ten?

-I think it's fitting of a nine.

-I'd give this a nine.

-I'd give it an eight or a nine.

I'd have given it a nine or a ten if it wasn't for the pastry.

-All right, Stevie?

-All right, all right.

-Happy with that one?

-Yeah, happy with that one.

-Yeah?

-Yeah, felt good.

Felt lots of emotion in there, too, or was that just me?

There's only one point in it today.

This could massively change how things are. It's all on Jeremy.

It's all on him.

Hello, chefs.

The main course is done.

Without further ado, Jacqueline,

for your Homecoming Platter

of suckling pig with cabbage and tatties,

loved the idea and I loved the presentation.

And the pork shoulder, delicious - seriously stylish cooking.

The rack, also great.

But...

two cabbage dishes, two potato dishes and two parsley sauces,

can't help feeling the pork should be centre stage.

And the parsley coulis and the creamy parsley sauce

kind of detracted from each other rather than made one fantastic sauce.

And yesterday, where the seasoning seemed to be lesser,

today, if anything, it was high.

I can't help feeling that curing the pork

made it a very, very savoury dish indeed.

Neil.

For your Still In The Field with rare breed beef

and cauliflower cheese, the slow-cooked short rib, fantastic.

Stovies, equally great.

And the sirloin, wow.

The presentation showed great thought and effort. However...

Cauliflower cheese, the cheese sauce was quite pokey, I thought.

There was an issue, I have to say, finally, in how you ate the dish.

I found when I put the knife and fork on the plate

it began to sink slightly beneath the soil.

And then, will each guest get a box?

Or did you lift the plate out and push the box ahead?

I was slightly puzzled by that.

You just can't help feeling

this story needs to be clearer in the telling.

Stevie.

For your Letter From Home, the beef Wellington and Woolton pie,

one query I had, I thought possibly would there be too much pastry

with two pies on the same plate?

I'd wondered if I was going to miss any greenery, possibly, however...

For this dish, no side orders were required.

The spinach, the pancakes, nicely proportioned

and all work very beautifully together.

And the mushroom and chicken mousse was lovely - an unexpected treat.

The Wellington was flawless.

And the Woolton pie was delicious also.

And the pastry, light and crisp.

And the story, well, not a dry eye in the house.

The scores...

Jacqueline, for your Homecoming Platter, I'm going to give you...

..a seven.

Neil, for your Still In The Field, I'm giving you...

..an eight.

Stevie, for your Letter From Home, I'm going to give you...

..a ten.

-Thank you.

-Fantastic cooking. A brilliant story beautifully told.

You're my first-ever ten.

-BLEEP!

-Took the words right out of my mouth.

Stevie, you've taken the lead. How do you feel?

-Pretty proud.

-Thanks very much.

-NEIL:

-Well done, mate, well done.

-Fantastic.

-STEVIE:

-Thanks, thanks.

Three courses down and Stevie's in the lead,

with Jacqueline and Neil now neck and neck.

It was worth the crying now.

I've got a ten. Main course, the big one. Happy man.

Can't get any better than that.

It's all on you guys.

Still a good result.

'Thought it should have been a nine but overall it's a good score.'

Just stupid mistakes, you know? I've let myself down.

Me, and nobody else, was to blame there.

Tomorrow, it's the dessert course.

-Oh,

-BLEEP!

And it's a battle to get to the judges' chamber.

A little bit stressed?

I swear there's going to be a fight in this kitchen.

Which chef will be out of the competition?

I don't want you to come anywhere near me. Thank you so much.

Nice, eh?