Episode 13 The Chef's Protege

'Getting to the top of any profession

'takes not only skill and determination but a few breaks along the way.'

Show me what a good cook you are.

'Tom Kitchin, Theo Randall and Michel Roux Jr

'have all been helped in their careers by someone who believed in them.'

I think it would be very difficult for any chef to achieve greatness without a mentor.

Put it through one more time.

'Now they want to give someone else that same chance.'

Out, out, out, out, out!

'By going back to catering college to find a young student

'they can each take under their wing as their own protege.'

It's such a gruelling industry.

If you want to get to the top, you need to work with the best.

-Look at you, you're excited! You're excited!

-Yep, definitely excited.

Hallelujah.

'Tom, Theo and Michel are searching for someone

'who they think is a worthy apprentice.'

-Happy, Chef Shona?

-I think so.

'They each have a week to select and train up their strongest candidates.

Two things on the go at the same time. Come on, come on.

Or even three things on the go. Multi-task. Come on.

'Before they compete against each other

'to see who has the best protege.

'This week, Michel Roux Jr has been at University College Birmingham

'where he has shortlisted five of his best students.'

-Absolutely delicious! I love it.

-Thank you.

'It's Michel's last day at the college

'before he selects the strongest students to take forward.

'He's asking them to do just one thing - cook their favourite dish.'

-Morning, young man. You all right?

-Yes, chef.

'He is then going to tell them how to improve it.'

Right!

I am just hoping to find a young chef that has got the enthusiasm

that I had when I was a young chef.

'Michel's mentor was his father, the legendary Albert Roux,

'who taught him that a protege not only needs skill

'but the ability to take on board what the mentor is trying to teach.'

I only feel like I produced my B game last time,

so now I've got to really step it up, produce my A game,

so really show what I'm all about.

I practised yesterday and it tasted fine,

so hopefully I can do it again today.

I hope he likes my food.

I don't think I proved myself last time very well.

Hopefully today I'll show you something different.

I'm making a chocolate mousse with poached pear.

This is like a Becca classic,

so I hope it works, otherwise that's really embarrassing.

A little bit nervous. I'm not very confident with this at all,

but I'll give it my best. Yeah.

They all seem to be working very tidily and it's nice and quiet.

I'm expecting food on time and looking forward to the tasting.

Boys first. Come on, Reece, up you come.

-So what have we got, Reece?

-You've got seared tuna steak

with an Asian glaze, with carrot pickle, some potatoes, and there's courgettes underneath.

So this is Asian flavours? Right, let's taste this.

This whole dish is out of kilter completely.

You wouldn't find potato on a Japanese dish.

Let's keep the tuna and keep the cooking process, because that's good.

I think a little ratatouille, classic French.

Let's go to the South of France on holiday.

And for a little starch, we're going to do a chickpea chip.

Yeah. A lot of the things that you're asking me to do, I've never done before, so it's something new.

-Why are you here?

-I want to learn.

-There you go. Bingo.

-Brill.

-That's it. A good smile on your face. I love it.

I can't wait to taste your grilled tuna nicoise. Great.

The amendments he gave me make sense,

so hopefully it'll be better than what I produced.

Come here, come here, Sophie, it's you. It's your food, your plate.

-What have you done for me?

-I've done you ricotta and spinach stuffed chicken

wrapped in bacon with vegetables and mashed potato

with a lemon and herb white wine sauce.

-Yeah.

-Those courgettes stuffed in hollowed-out carrot.

-No. It's wrong. It looks horrible.

-OK.

Attention to detail in the cooking and the seasoning

-is far, far better than that attention to detail, which is naff!

-OK.

-Yeah?

-Yep.

Your chicken's really moist. It's very good. That's showing off good skills.

The stuffing. Tell me what's in the stuffing.

Gorgonzola cheese, ricotta cheese.

Two Italian ingredients. Ricotta, gorgonzola.

Do I look like an Italian? No. So that, out the window.

-OK.

-And we're going to put in some French ingredients.

-Yep.

-Snails.

Have you worked with snails before? You haven't?

Snails inside the chicken.

-We're getting rid of the vegetable garnish. Cool?

-Yep. Thank you.

Great, Sophie. Well done.

I've never cooked or eaten snails.

The only snails I see are the ones on the floor, and I don't really like them, so...

Alex, you're next. Get me your plate. Let's have it here. Right.

-So, tell me about it.

-There's pan-seared duck,

wild mushroom, boulangere potatoes,

asparagus and a red wine jus.

Right, let's have a little taste.

Your duck is well over-cooked. You know that.

The pommes boulangere, potatoes are underdone. The onions are almost raw.

I'm not happy. I think you can tell.

-Yeah.

-It's not the end of the world.

You roast the duck properly, nice and pink and moist.

Your pommes boulangere, let's cook the onions off first in some duck fat, maybe.

Again, we're bringing more duck flavour to this dish.

I can see your eyes lighting up already. You're listening to me and you're saying,

-"Yes, chef. Why didn't I think of that?"

-Yeah.

-Yes!

-There's a lot of work to be done here.

-I can do it.

-You can?

-Yeah.

-You up for it?

-Yeah.

-Good.

Yeah, I've got a lot to prove. I did let myself down a little bit.

But sometimes I produce my best stuff when my back's against the wall, so...

Right, Jodie, what have we got?

-Blackberry mousse on an apple crisp with a crumble and a dark chocolate sauce.

-Right. You want to taste?

I like your mousse. It's really light. It's very light.

And it's got no gelatine, which is lovely.

It's got a really nice texture. I don't think I can improve on that.

-OK.

-Well done. I like it.

The apple, it's a really good addition to this dessert,

cos blackberry and apple work well. The chocolate sauce is not necessary.

I think this is screaming out for

-what you would normally serve with a crumble.

-Sauce anglaise?

-Yes! A creme anglaise!

-OK, yeah.

That's putting a smile on your face already, you're thinking, "Why didn't I think of that?"

-Well done, Jodie.

-Cheers. Thank you.

Mm.

Yeah, it went way better than I thought it was going to,

considering I thought desserts weren't really my strong point.

Yeah, it went really well.

Hm. Right, Rebecca, what have we got here?

It's chocolate mousse topped with chocolate ganache,

served with poached pear which has been poached in perry,

-so it's like pear cider.

-Right, let's taste this.

Mm!

A really good chocolate mousse.

You want to open a chocolate shop one day, don't you?

-Hopefully, yeah.

-If you serve chocolate mousse like that,

-they'll be queuing round the block for it.

-OK.

I think forget the pear on the side, cos it looks silly.

You've got a beautiful martini glass. Fan out some lovely slices of pear.

-OK.

-So it's like a petal.

-Yep.

Visually beautiful, striking.

-And a splash of...

-The pear liqueur.

-The pear liqueur.

-Yep.

-Surprises.

-OK.

Yay! And seeing as we've got a martini glass,

why don't we decorate the glass like it was a cocktail?

-OK.

-That's a lot of work.

-Yeah.

-You up for it?

-Yeah, I think it sounds good. Definitely.

-Good. Perfect. Great mousse, though.

-Thanks, Chef.

-I must say, I'm impressed with that.

I'm so pleased that he liked it

and I love the ideas that he's given for improvement of the dish.

Erm, yeah, I'm really happy, really positive feedback.

We've got a choice of the snail and ricotta chicken ballotine with baby glazed carrots...

'Like all catering colleges, UCB has a training restaurant.

'Michel is going to get his students to cook the improved dishes

'for lunch service today.

'It will give him an opportunity to see just who deserves his mentoring.'

Today is about whether they can learn and execute what I have told them.

I'll be there to encourage them and help them and guide them,

but I want to see a vast improvement.

-We've got two hours and 15 minutes.

-Oh! Happy days!

-SHE LAUGHS

So I'm going to do everything at a really slow pace.

'Reece's first challenge is to prep the chickpea chips

'for his improved tuna dish.'

That's it. Keep going, keep going, keep going. These chickpea chips

need a lot of work. You've got to really, really whisk it hard.

And if there are any lumps, pass it through a fine sieve.

Never made anything like it. It's all new.

Press down hard so that it's all compact.

That's it! Don't be afraid of it. And then once it's set,

you need to cut them into your shapes

and put them on a rack so that they dry so they get a real crust.

And the crust will then give you a really crispy chip. That's it. Cool.

Lovely.

'To give Sophie's chicken stuffing a French twist,

'Michel wants her to add the most iconic of French ingredients.'

I remember as a kid, I used to go out and catch snails with my dad

here in Kent when I was a little boy.

As soon as it started raining, he said, "Come on, let's go!"

And the neighbours used to laugh and point fingers and say,

"Those mad French! They're after lunch again, aren't they?"

-Look at you now.

-Mm. Exactly.

Lovely.

You won't need to cut them cos they're really small. They're lovely. Really nice. Very nice.

It's weird, cos I've only seen them in the garden, so it's really weird.

They're very meaty, very tasty.

-Never eaten them, either.

-You've never eaten them?

-No.

-So it's a first.

-Yeah.

-A delicacy.

-I'm a bit nervous.

-No, you're not!

-I am!

-You're adventurous, you're not nervous!

-Yeah, true. Willing to try new things.

After this morning, I've not really got any leeway, so I've got to get it right.

-Do you know why they're called pommes boulangere?

-No, I don't.

Do you know what a boulangere is, or boulanger?

Is that with the layers of the potato and the...

-Nope. Boulanger translates as baker.

-Ah.

Now, traditionally, these potatoes were made in big, big dishes

and taken to the baker

so that once he'd baked his bread,

you put these big dishes of potato in

and the residual heat of the oven

-would carry on cooking the potatoes.

-Ah.

-Pommes boulangere.

Little bit of onion.

-Yes, Chef.

-Yeah?

-Yep.

-But you need to work quickly. Yeah?

-Thanks, Chef.

I just want to get them exactly the same as Chef's, really, so a lot of pressure.

-Does yours look like mine?

-Yes. No.

-It doesn't, does it?

-No.

-Look.

Look how tight and how neat mine is.

-If it's not tight, you're not going to be able to pick it up.

-OK.

I reckon I've got half again as many on mine.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

Get it right, get it right.

-Every single one should be the same.

-Yes, chef.

I can't believe I actually thought of something on my own

and just, like, created something. I just kind of made it up, basically.

Yeah, I'm glad that he liked it.

'Earlier, Jodie impressed Michel with her take of a berry mousse

served on a crispy apple base.'

-Your mousse is not done yet, is it? But it sets quickly.

-Yeah.

-OK.

Mm!

Yum. You know, I'm thinking...

-To make it look even neater, what shape plate did we say we were having?

-Square.

Do you know what? I'm thinking on my feet.

-You want to cut it square?

-Yes!

-Yes!

-Yeah, I was going to square them off originally

-but I didn't know whether to square them or to fan them.

-I think square them off

and then you'll have the round mousse on a square... A landing pad of apple on a square plate.

-I think that... Yes!

-Cool.

-Great minds think alike.

-I think that's an improvement, squared.

-Definite improvement.

I think that's a definite improvement. Very nice.

-But you've got to get that mousse in. I know that it sets quickly, but nonetheless...

-Yep.

'Michel wants Rebecca to make a more sophisticated chocolate mousse.'

So, your cocktail glass with a bit of sugar and the cocoa nibs.

-Yep.

-That looks fun! Yeah. Yay! Let's go for it.

I think these are going to look great. I think it's going to be really pretty

and still have all the flavour that I envisaged

and still the same base idea,

so, yeah, I'm really happy right now.

What I want you to do is to fan the pears out, like this.

A bit tricky, but I think it's worth the effort.

-Yep.

-So all the way round there.

-OK, yep.

And then just a drop of the booze.

-OK. Lovely.

-Smashing.

-Thanks, Chef.

I like these challenges. It's good. Good fun.

Ah! Look at that, Jodie.

He's a little bit of a genius, I think.

'Today's diners in the college restaurant

'are a mixture of people from the local community and college staff.'

The guests are here, guys. Yeah?

They're here on time. They're hungry.

'They can choose from three mains,

'Reece's tuna dish, improved with the addition of chickpea chips and ratatouille,

'Alex's duck, now served with a potato boulangere and shallot, both cooked in duck fat,

'and Sophie's ballotine of chicken, now stuffed with snails.'

Two duck, two tuna.

-I can't hear anybody in the kitchen.

-Yeah.

-Yeah what?

-Yes, Chef.

-Thank you. That's called respect.

-Are you two communicating?

-Alex, mate?

-Yeah?

-Give me about six minutes.

-Yeah, OK.

-I tell you what, guys, let's say ten.

-Ten minutes?

-Ten minutes.

The customer won't mind waiting a few minutes extra if it's worth it.

I've got quite a few things to do, unlike the other guys, where they've got their things in the oven,

got their meat resting, I've got to do it all to serve.

I think they've all got a lot to prove

and they can all quite easily stumble.

Come on! I'm trying to build them up, give them a bit of confidence.

The last thing I want is for them to break down in the middle of service

and just make a mess of it. I want to test them, of course,

but today is not about breaking them.

-Where's all the duck gone?

-It's just in the oven.

I've asked for two for pass and one more on order.

So why have you got all six in the oven? Ughh!

We're not in a canteen, we're in a restaurant. We're not preparing banqueting style.

-Yes, chef.

-Right, Reece, are we there?

-About three minutes, yeah.

It's sticking.

Let's go. Let's dress. Come on, let's dress our plate. Give me the potato.

-That looks lovely.

-Yes.

-It does look nice, doesn't it?

-100 times better.

Yay! Great! So, nice, nice, nice.

A little bit more white of the plate. Not a bad effort.

-Now, can I have the perfect tuna, as well?

-Yes, chef. Have I gone the wrong way with this?

-MICHEL SIGHS

-What you doing, Reece? It's not a jigsaw puzzle!

Sorry.

You're not very generous with your ratatouille. You've got more.

You can do a beautiful, big quenelle.

Let's put two on there. You've got it, you might as well have it.

There you go. Go.

It really melts in the mouth. I'm quite surprised.

That's absolutely gorgeous.

The duck is really nice. Normally I would have it a bit more well done,

but it was perfect, so I'll always have it like this.

-Chef, table two, compliments on the duck.

-Thank you. That's always nice to hear.

-Thanks, Chef.

-Come on!

'Now the focus is on Sophie's snail-stuffed chicken.'

-You got the two chicken?

-Yes, Chef.

-Come on, chop-chop.

Let's hurry up. Let's go. You see, look, lots of white of the plate

and your food stands out a lot more. Sauce on the pass.

There you go.

That chicken is lovely. Really moist. Well done.

Good flavours. The snail's nice.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

I organised myself, had everything ready, so good, I'm happy.

'Sophie only had two orders, but both boys have popular mains.'

Two duck, one tuna. Right, I've got the duck. Where's the tuna?

-It's a popular dish, tuna, isn't it?

-Yep.

-Yay!

-Nice duck. Love it. Very good.

-Thank you, Chef.

The compliment, "You've nailed your dish," from Michel Roux Jr is, well, I'm just over the moon about that.

-Do you want the tuna nice and rare?

-Yeah.

That is not rare.

You're working back to front. That's rare, now, off!

Tuna. What's missing, Reece?

-Peppercorns. Er...

-Coriander?

-Yeah.

-In front of you. To be honest,

your section is in such a mess that I'm not surprised you can't find anything.

That's it. Come on, let's go.

Yay!

Yes! Yes! Beautifully cut, lovely and rare,

one quenelle perfect, the other one's tumbled, but I don't mind.

Let's go.

It'll be all right, man, it'll be all right.

I wasn't set for service and then I was just playing catch-up.

It couldn't have gone worse than what happened. That was awful. Really bad.

And for your dessert?

'The two desserts on offer are Rebecca's chocolate mousse,

'now served with a cocoa nib and a fanned pear base...

'..and Jodie's berry cheesecake mousse, which will be served with a creme anglaise.'

Whoa! What's going on here?

-The mix has split.

-Oh, deary me! I think it's over-whipped.

-So add some cream into the mixture...

-Yeah, but you won't have time.

-You've got no chance of redoing it, have you?

-Well, I've got two already set.

Oh, yeah. That looks lovely!

-How come the other one didn't work?

-Who knows?

-And where's your creme anglaise?

-The bain-marie in there.

-It is indeed.

-You're not very generous, are you?

They don't want a lot. They only want, like, a...

I'm greedy. I could eat that in one sitting.

-Right, are we off for the desserts? What about you?

-All ready. They're in the blast chiller.

-How many of them have you got?

-Just two.

-How many chocolate mousses have you got?

-Seven, Chef.

-Seven?

Yep.

-Well, you're going to need more than two, that's for sure.

-Yep.

So we can spoon it, maybe. We'll spoon it.

Don't try and mould it cos it just won't work.

The chocolate mousse. Thank you.

The crumble, blackberry and raspberry cheesecake.

-Table four first. So two cheesecake and two chocolate.

-Yes, Chef.

-Jodie.

-Yes, Chef, you've got them. You've got two, haven't you?

So am I going to serve them? No!

It's your dessert. Get them out of the fridge, come on.

-I like it.

-Thanks.

-Very nice.

OK. You've got custard here, or creme anglaise. Go easy on it.

-We haven't got too much. If there is any left over, please bring it back.

-Yes, Chef.

-Can they hold the glass?

-Yeah, make sure you hold the glass as you take it to the table.

The wafer-looking pear on top, I thought, "Oh, gosh, is that all the pear I'm going to get?"

So it was nice that the pear was underneath. And it was just a lovely flavour.

Right, after that, I need two chocolate and one cheesecake.

-You haven't got another cheesecake set, have you?

-No, Chef.

Let's get a plate. We're going to have to ad lib here

because that is not going to set.

-The chocolate mousse ready?

-On the pass, Chef.

-Right.

It's called ad lib. Yeah?

I'm not sure what's happened, but I don't think it's really a cheesecake.

Unless it's one of these deconstructed cheesecakes.

That's just slop. Oh, dear.

-Go on, try some.

-It's rubbish.

-I'm so disappointed.

That's not acceptable, is it?

It wasn't what I wanted it to be.

And obviously not what he wanted it to be.

But, yeah, so obviously I'm a little disappointed it didn't go to plan.

At the end of the day, you're learning, aren't you?

-You're learning.

-I know, yeah, but still...

Don't beat yourself down.

'Michel now needs to decide who to take forward.'

That was a lot tougher than I thought.

I feel more tired after that than a busy day in my restaurant.

Rebecca really impressed me. I thought that chocolate dessert looked beautiful!

Alex, his last plate that he brought to the pass

was perfect.

I think Sophie did all right.

Every step, she's learning and getting better.

For me, it's between Reece and Jodie.

They're both good kids and I'm sure they've got a great future in front of them,

but maybe now is not the time.

Reece. Come here.

When I first set eyes on you, I had very, very high hopes.

You let me down big time today.

You are going to have to really, really buck up your ideas.

You're still in.

-Ohh.

-Don't let me down.

-Wow.

-OK?

-Thank you.

-I still believe in you.

Get polishing.

-Er, Jodie.

-Yes, Chef?

-Come here.

I loved your dessert, I really did.

I didn't want to change it because it was so good.

Maybe that's why you went into relax mode.

-Yeah, maybe.

-And you had a disaster.

I know.

-You're leaving us.

-OK.

-But you are a star in the making.

-You know that.

-OK. Yeah.

-You are.

-But not today.

-OK. All right.

-Thank you.

-OK, darling?

-Yeah. Thank you.

-Yeah.

Thanks, Chef.

Yeah, I'm gutted, obviously,

but he believes that I can carry on and do well.

I've just got to take his advice on board and... carry on. Yeah.

Ohh!

He's obviously seen something in me that I didn't show today

and I don't think I've shown yet. Hopefully I'll show it next time.

I'm so grateful. So, so grateful.

Wow.

'Tomorrow night, the four students come face to face with their competition.'

I get the feeling that Michel might be trying to intimidate us a wee bit.

This is the part where everything could go wrong.

'As Michel's hunt for his protege continues.'

It's really doing my head in!

Once I cut the pork, we'll know if it's all OK. Until then...

I don't want to get nervous here, but it's too good.

MICHEL LAUGHS

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