Scotland Dessert Great British Menu

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

Two Michelin-starred Stevie McLaughlin...

You've got a little trick up your sleeve, have you, Stevie?

-Little trick.

-..experienced Jacqueline O'Donnell...

My dish is the spirit of British people.

-..and unconventional Neil Rankin...

-Nailing the brief!

That's got me a little bit worried.

..are battling it out to get their dishes to a banquet commemorating

the 70th anniversary of D-Day at St Paul's,

an iconic bastion of British wartime resilience.

Yesterday's main course saw Jacqueline lose her lead...

That was tough. I really struggled at the end.

-..and it was Stevie who triumphed.

-You're my first ever ten.

BLEEP

Took the words right out of my mouth.

Today, it's the dessert course...

BLEEP

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

-Little bit stressed.

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

..as only two chefs will cook again tomorrow.

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

She's nice, huh?

This year, the chefs are paying tribute to those who

fought on D-Day 70 years ago.

They've been tasked with creating dishes which evoke

the unbreakable spirit that helped win World War II...

Makes me proud to serve that and proud to be British.

..and have been inspired by wartime memories to create their menus.

We went into the Blitz. There were all these terrible...

You've never seen it before.

Judging the chefs this week is a formidable

veteran of the competition - Jeremy Lee.

This will be the course that will decide who goes through to the

judges on Friday

and who does not, which means one of our brethren has to leave us.

I might be two points ahead but I'm going to still keep pushing forward.

I actually feel my dessert's stronger than my main course.

-You didn't say that yesterday.

-Well, I'm pretty confident.

I'm, you know, trained in pastry. This might be my course.

I want to be in the judges' chamber, too,

so I think another battle awaits.

First up, in joint second place, is unconventional chef Neil Rankin.

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

has seen some high scores,

but he's lost points for not telling a clear story on a plate.

My dessert, fully on the money, you can't not read the story

out of this one, so let's hope it comes across.

There he is, the bold lad! How are you this morning, Neil?

-Good, thank you, Jeremy.

-I'm very pleased to hear it.

So this is called Tea, Toast and Marmalade.

So breakfast becomes pudding, eh?

-Breakfast becomes pudding but the main focus here is tea.

-Ah.

Tea was a big morality booster during the war.

-So it has to be part of this banquet.

-Aha!

This is named Royal Air Force Blend

but it's a blend of many teas that were around in those days.

What we're going to do is we're going to make a sabayon out of this.

We're going to then top that with some marmalade to give it that

sort of breakfast feel when you eat it.

And then, you've got a kouign-amann cake,

which is basically a puff pastry that's

got yeast in it so it rises.

I'm infusing it with some bergamot,

which gives it the flavour of Earl Grey.

-And we're going to burn some bread.

-Burn bread?

-Burn the bread.

-Are we talking black toast?

-Just the right side of black.

-Brave.

Brave indeed!

Neil's Tea, Toast and Marmalade...

I'm going to be interested to see what he does with those

ingredients to make a pudding, but I hope he makes the story more clear.

Next up and level-pegging with Neil is experienced Jacqueline O'Donnell

who has so far hit the brief with modern takes on old-fashioned

dishes. But balancing flavours and her seasoning have let her down.

My dish is telling another emotional story and it tastes great!

Nice to see you again, Jac. What are you going to cook for us today?

My dish is named Candle of Remembrance

and my inspiration is to remember those who didn't come home.

It's basically a candle that I will build up with a lemon

-and ginger trifle inside.

-Our trifle.

-And we get to light it.

-Oh, wow.

So there will be a wick?

So I'm going to be making the candle from white chocolate

and inside, we have dark brown sugar, we have ground cloves,

cinnamon and we have ginger, fresh ginger.

And to keep that sticky, I have some treacle,

and that's going to make my gingerbread.

And I'm going to use the lemons to make lemon

parfait for the base of the candle and also a lemon curd.

-And then, I'm going to make a ginger wine jelly.

-Ooh!

I love ginger wine jelly!

So Neil, you're both in second place

and someone isn't going through to tomorrow.

-How are you both feeling about that?

-I'm feeling confident in my dish.

Obviously, after hearing that, I think she's nailed the brief again!

The Candle of Remembrance is going to be a construction

out of white chocolate with lemon and ginger.

Jac has chosen quite an emotional journey

with her pudding and so, it would be

a grave misfortune should anything go wrong with this dessert.

Last up and two points ahead is classical heavyweight

Stevie McLaughlin.

After a slow start to the week, he leapt into the lead yesterday

-when he scored a perfect ten.

-Judges' chamber's not far away now.

It's just round the corner. But I've still got a stiff fight on my hands.

Nice to see you. Well done after that epic main course.

Are you going to keep that momentum up with your pudding?

Yeah, absolutely. This one's a good 'un.

My dessert's called V for Victory,

-so it's a tribute to Sir Winston Churchill.

-Ah, the great man himself!

-Yup. So we're making a dark chocolate cigar.

-A chocolate cigar.

Well, I'm sure it's going to taste a lot better than the real thing!

So we're going to do a dark chocolate caramel with dark chocolate,

some eggs and cream.

We've got some freeze-dried raspberries,

-which would give the effect of being smoked or lit.

-Oh, wow.

And also, we're going to do a vanilla parfait in the shape of his V

-for Victory sign.

-Oh.

-And then cover that with a shiny chocolate glaze.

-Oh, wow. Are you giving yourself a lot of work again?

-Yes.

HE LAUGHS

How do you feel about this one, Jac?

Think that sounds pretty good.

There's a few toys that I've seen Stevie unpack from his box.

I hope that doesn't give him the edge.

It sounds delicious.

He pulled out a ten yesterday, so let's see what he can do.

-Any worries?

-Yeah.

THEY LAUGH

-Plenty!

-Honest as the day is long!

Stevie's V for Victory...

I think, once again, he's going for a showstopper.

Stevie's proved himself to be a real stealth bomber,

so I'll be interested to see what he pulls out the hat with this one.

Neil and Jacqueline are under no illusion that their double

Michelin-starred rival is the one to watch.

Stevie said earlier that his dessert was stronger than his main.

He got a ten for his main. Does that make you a teensy bit nervous?

Slightly on edge, shall we say?

But Stevie knows his competitors could be at an advantage today.

You guys are both trained pastry chefs, right?

Yeah, I've done a wee bit of pastry before.

-Are you pastry orientated?

-Yeah.

-Strong pastry?

-Well, strong-ish.

I was popped into pastry because that's where the woman gets sent.

Stevie's trying to make out that he's not good at desserts

but he's head chef of a two Michelin-starred kitchen!

He's had to do desserts before at a very high level,

so I am worried about what he's going to put forward.

Stevie's final push to get to the judges is a tribute to

Sir Winston Churchill's V for Victory hand sign and signature

cigar, which he's recreating with a bitter dark chocolate cream.

-Am I allowed to take a wee spoonful of this, Stevie?

-You certainly can.

-Help yourself.

-How's it going? All to plan?

-Yeah.

Just need to get this in the freezer.

Mm!

There is an interesting taste now for less sugar in desserts,

generally, and so, using a very bitter chocolate to make

the cigar is bang on trend, I think, as they like to call it these days.

Looks like a mighty Cohiba!

It's British.

British issue.

Also desperate to get through to the judges' chamber is

experienced chef Jacqueline,

who's once again pushing her culinary boundaries with

a technical white chocolate remembrance candle filled with

lemon and ginger layers, which she starts with a base of lemon parfait.

-Looks like an exciting point.

-Scram!

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

I'm really happy with the candles but I must make sure that that

parfait sets, otherwise it won't work.

Jacqueline's level-pegging with unconventional chef Neil...

BLEEP

None of my crockery, thank God!

..who's hoping his modern spin on the classic breakfast tea,

toast and marmalade will land him a place in tomorrow's regional final.

-What type of pastry's this?

-This is kouign-amann.

-Never heard of that.

No, it's a yeast-based puff pastry.

It's supposed to be very hard to make.

-Are you not a bit of a chance, then?

-Yes, but if you don't take a chance,

-what are you doing here?

-Yeah.

I've got to get everything perfect today.

This is really important, that I get past Jac.

Everything rides on this course.

In an attempt to tell a story on a plate and secure a place in

front of the judges, Neil's sourced a wartime-inspired ingredient.

So, I got a special World War II tea.

It was designed specifically for the way it was back then.

It sounds like he's on brief for this one, Stevie. What do you think?

-He's got me a bit worried.

-Nailing the brief.

To find out more about the wartime significance of his key

dessert ingredient, Neil met up with tea expert Henrietta Lovell.

So, why was tea so important during the war?

There were U-boats all around our tiny country,

and it was difficult to get things in and out.

The Government thought tea was so important to morale,

they'd better take over supply.

It's fortifying in times of national peril.

On the beaches of the Second World War, tea was the thing that

kept you going.

A few years ago, to raise money for charity, Henrietta created

a special Battle of Britain blend for the Royal Air Force.

It's exactly what would have been,

a sort of old-school English breakfast tea.

It's got that deep,

comforting flavour that we're looking for in an English breakfast.

That's beautiful. Think that would go perfectly with my dessert.

During the Blitz of 1940-1941,

when London was subjected to eight solid months of bombing,

the nation's morale-booster became all the more essential.

There were tea wagons all through the city.

Volunteers would go out in the middle of the Blitz

with bombs dropping and the whole place flattened,

taking tea to people who really need it.

One of those volunteers was Joe Renshaw, who remembers just

how vital a warm cup of tea was during some of Britain's darkest days.

We went into the Blitz area where the docks were destroyed,

terrible sight, you'd never seen it before, all these houses destroyed.

And of course, the canteens that we had on the railway stations,

like at Waterloo station, they ran out of tea and sugar,

and so I had to take down a load of tea and sugar

to keep the troops happy with their tea.

So I assume tea during the war was a really, really important thing.

Well, it was something familiar that people could turn to.

I mean, not just your cup of tea. It's the conversation you have.

And to come and get tea and sympathy mattered to them

at that particular moment.

After meeting Joe today, it's just reinforced that tea was

important, and given my dish a little more meaning, which is a great thing.

Determined to create dessert fit for war heroes, Neil infuses

his specially-blended tea into an ice cream, which he leaves to chill.

He moves on to his controversial burnt-toast topping.

-Is this going to become a crumb?

-Yeah, it is going to be

a crumb with the biscuit, a little bit of sugar with it.

Take is too far, and it becomes almost like charcoal, it becomes too bitter.

But it does offset the sweetness of everything really well.

I'm surprised he didn't butter it and bake it in the oven.

But he wants a dry bit of crumb. It sounds like ship's rations to me.

-What's the smell?

-Jacqui, I think your gingerbread's done here.

No, it's the toaster.

That's my toast burning. It's all good.

Although a couple of points in the lead,

Stevie knows that only two chefs can go through to tomorrow's

regional final, and there's no guarantee of a place.

Pretty nervous, pretty pumped. The finishing line's almost there.

Just want to get through it.

He works on the vanilla and lemon parfait filling for his

V for Victory hand sign, which he'll later coat in chocolate.

With plate-up approaching, Stevie takes his parfaits

to the freezer to set, but space is at a premium.

And Jacqueline's delicate chocolate candles are taking up too much room.

-Have you got space in there?

-I'll stick them on top of the candles.

That's why I chased you!

There's room in the bottom of my freezer just now if you want.

Luckily, Neil is first to plate up with his modern

interpretation of a breakfast classic, tea, toast and marmalade.

It's the moment of truth for his tricky puff pastry cakes.

-Yeah, it turned out OK.

-Which he glazes with marmalade.

That looks good. Is it as good as you wanted?

I'm neck-and-neck with you, Jacqui, so it's got to be perfect, hasn't it?

Neil whisks his special tea into a frothy sabayon

with egg yolks and sugar,

flavours with bergamot zest and pours into vintage crockery.

He dollops marmalade into teacups, tops with burnt toast

and biscuit crumbs,

adds tea ice cream and finishes with more crumbs and marmalade.

OK, we need a trolley.

For a final 1940s presentation touch, his tea lady arrives.

-I think you would suit that outfit so much better.

-Swap hats!

-Here's my tea, toast and marmalade.

-So this is for four people?

-At the very least.

-Neil, do you think this is your finest hour?

-I think doing a tea, yes!

-Shall we?

How do you want me to eat this? Like this?

And then a little bit of the tea sabayon on top.

-It tastes like tea and burnt toast.

-It does.

And does the tea come through strong enough for you with the marmalade?

Yes. I only put a little bit of marmalade in there.

It's all very sweet, but the burnt toast works well with it.

-Great skill there.

-Great flavour balance.

This yeast dough, has that puffed up enough for you?

Absolutely.

-This is just the way I wanted it to be.

-That pastry's lovely.

It's really flaky. It smells amazing.

And of course the question to be asked is,

-is sabayon breakfast for pudding?

-It's not so much breakfast.

-It's the flavour of breakfast, which always makes a smile.

-Love it.

Nice dish.

Do you think the story here is as clear as it can be?

This is about tea. You cannot not think this is about tea, so yes.

-I think this might be his best dish.

-I would give it at least an eight.

-I'd even put it up to nine. For me, it's that good.

-It hits the brief.

I haven't made any mistakes. I think it's a good nine or ten.

We'll see.

It was what I wanted to do, so if it doesn't work,

then I had the wrong idea.

I couldn't have done any more with it.

Stevie is hoping his tribute to Winston Churchill will earn him

another perfect ten.

He coats his V for Victory shaped lemon

and vanilla parfaits with a chocolate glaze.

-Like a posh choc ice. And then will that go back in the freezer?

-Yes.

Stevie's parfaits go into the blast chiller.

And with time slipping away,

Jacqueline checks on the setting progress of her lemon parfait layers.

The base of her chocolate candles.

-Oh,

-BLEEP.

The candles just aren't setting in that back freezer.

I need it to be frozen solid.

I really need to get into the blast freezer.

But now Stevie's parfaits are taking up too much space,

and there's no room for Jacqueline's candles in the blast chiller.

Stevie, can you give me

some sort of time that you are going to be done in that freezer?

Give me two minutes, I'll tell you exactly how long I'll be.

OK.

-All right, guys?

-Aye.

-A little bit stressed?

-Tiny.

We all need to get things set.

Fortunately, it's time for Stevie to plate up his tribute

to Winston Churchill.

He starts his plate with a crunchy combination of crushed

hazelnut biscuits, white chocolate, toasted coconut and puffed rice.

He brings out his chocolate cigars, rolls them in patriotic paper,

dips them in dried raspberry powder and places on crushed poppy seeds.

He removes his parfaits,

finally leaving space in the blast chiller for Jacqueline's candles.

-Can I go in yet?

-Yes, finito.

Stevie serves his V for Victory parfaits with chocolate

cigars topped with a bowler hat.

Stevie, I am looking here at a pair of top hats. What's this about?

-My tribute to Sir Winston Churchill.

-Shall we doff his cap, then?

-The reveal.

-How perfectly lovely.

Let's get next door and eat this before it melts, shall we?

Stevie, does this tell the story you want it to?

-For me it's really clear, very simple.

-Looks great on the plate.

Everything looks great.

-Stevie, how has that worked for you?

-Love it. Exactly.

It's delicious.

It's ice cream and chocolate. Who doesn't like that?

-The cigar, Stevie, did that work for you?

-Yes, it worked for me.

It was very rich, but the raspberry's nice and sharp.

I would have done away with the cigar.

It's like chocolate, really rich.

It could've done with more of that raspberry stuff

underneath or something like that, to lift it up.

-Do you find this maybe too rich?

-Not at all.

-I think it's perfectly in balance.

-I think it needs more texture.

-Is there anything you might do to this dish to change it?

-Not a thing.

-Do you see this being served at the banquet?

-No, I don't.

I don't think the chocolate cigar is fitting,

and I think it's a little bit too heavy.

-What score would you give it, do you think?

-Nine out of ten.

-What would you score this?

-Six or seven.

-I go six or seven, too.

Really glad it's over with. Feel great about it.

I thought it looked amazing.

Really did pack a punch and tell the story that I wanted to do.

Experienced chef Jacqueline is last to plate up with her white

chocolate remembrance candles, which she

needs to fill with the rest of her lemon and ginger layers.

But it will only work if the lemon parfait base has set.

-So, the lemon parfait is on the bottom?

-Yeah.

That's what I needed to freeze, so that it would hold this chocolate.

-Has it worked out in the end?

-It's set. Just.

Jacqueline tops the parfait with lemon curd and ginger wine

jellies, spiced gingerbread, and lemon mousse with ginger syrup.

Do you want me to come and put it down for you?

No, I don't want you to come anywhere near me,

thank you so much for your offer.

-That's nice(!)

-I know. I was offering to help.

She finishes her candle with lemon mousse,

a white chocolate wax effect and finally, a wick.

For me, this dish is lest we forget,

and I just want to remember everyone that didn't come home.

Wow, that's a heartfelt, kind thought of yours.

-Has this come up as you wish it to have?

-Yep.

I knew that I had to pull something pretty good out of the bag.

Shall we take this next door?

-She's good.

-Yeah, she's really good, isn't she?

Jac, show us how we eat your pudding.

There you go.

Lemon curd's nice. Sharp.

All these different components, do these all complement

and work together?

I think you could make any sort of a cake out of that

-and it would still taste good.

-I find it a bit cloying.

-Really.

It's a strange eat.

It's just cream with cream, and the ginger is really sweet.

The thickness of the chocolate, correct for you?

White chocolate can be so sweet and overpowering.

So just enough to envelop the dish is enough for me.

-So, the chocolate casing around it, is that a problem?

-For me, yes.

White chocolate is a bit sweet and it wasn't tempered.

All that said, there's something quite moreish about it.

Yes, there is. If there was something to offset it, it would be lovely.

Do you think you've done enough

to get you through to Friday with this dessert?

I feel this is my finest hour.

-I think this is a seven.

-I think it's seven too.

What do you think you would give it?

I think I would be saying eight or nine.

-All right, Jac?

-I am so delighted that's over, I can't tell you!

We're both two points behind Stevie. Have we done enough?

I think we've really pushed it. Caught your tail.

-Oh.

-I don't know by how much.

-I didn't think it would be this tough.

-It's a busy week.

-If we get through the tomorrow, it'll be a

-BLEEP

-busy one!

-Hello, how are you?

-Good.

-Good.

-Nervous.

-The final course.

Well done. I'm going to start with you, Neil.

And your tea, toast and marmalade with sabayon and ice cream.

The marmalade bun cake...

..lovely.

Tea sabayon and tea ice cream, both tasted delicious.

And the use of bergamot, very judicious.

And I'd have happily eaten this dish for elevenses.

However...

..it didn't blow my socks off...

..for a banquet dessert.

On to Stevie.

Your V for Victory of chocolate and vanilla.

As ever, your cooking was excellent, beautifully executed.

The vanilla parfait had a perfect texture

and your chocolate cigar, quite superb.

But...

..the two elements disconnected on the plate.

I don't like walking around the plate.

And the iconography on the plate slightly bamboozle me.

Because it came under a bowler hat when Churchill wore a homburg.

Jacqueline. Your candle of remembrance with lemon and ginger.

It was a great combination of flavours.

White chocolate, you handled it well,

not an easy thing to handle at all.

Gingerbread, liked it.

Lemon mousse and parfait, very fresh tasting and delightful.

However, overall, it was very sweet.

Maybe too sweet, possibly.

And I'm really not sure how practical it is for a banquet.

Saying all that, the scores.

With a score of nine...

..giving them the highest score across the week...

-..Stevie.

-Thank you.

You will be cooking again tomorrow.

Neil, Jac, the two chefs left.

Alas, only one can go through tomorrow.

Neil, for your tea, toast and marmalade...

I'm giving you...

..seven.

Jacqueline...

for your candle of remembrance...

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

..eight.

Thank you.

So you go through to the judge's chamber tomorrow.

Congratulations and well done. How would you feel?

-Speechless.

-Well, that would be the first time this week.

That's not appropriate at all. Neil, so, so close. One point in it.

Heartfelt commiserations. Hats off to all three of you.

Thanks very much. Goodbye.

Thank you.

-Well done, guys.

-Unlucky, man.

-I know, I know. Well done.

-Well done.

-Well done.

Stevie and Jacqueline will cook for the judges tomorrow.

But Neil must leave the competition.

That's amazing. I'm so excited.

I didn't want to jump up and down in the kitchen.

I think it's time for a toast, boys.

-It's been hard week.

-I agree with you, it's been a long day.

Got this far, chuffed to bits, really proud.

Can't wait to get into it and get on with it tomorrow. Team Scotland.

-Team Scotland.

-Been great working with you guys.

-Great week.

Yes, I'm upset.

It's not good to go out early, but these guys did a really good job.

There's next year, there's plenty of time

to come back and show them what I'm made of

Tomorrow, Stevie and Jacqueline fight it out...

It's got me a wee bit worried.

Anything I can do to get you worried today is surely a bonus.

..to impress the judges...

It's clearly been a pretty tough battle.

..who wants dishes worthy of our war heroes.

It is just wrong on all levels.

-This is divine.

-And the winner is...