Lottie’s starter ‘The Olive Branch’ recreates a winner’s wreath on the plate, using her own recipe for vegan cheese, along with compressed cucumber, leek and miso emulsion and olive leaf tuiles. Instructed to eat the centrepiece spoonful of olive purée first, the judges soon regret the advice, as they’re unable to taste anything else. ‘That has completely stripped my mouth out,’ gasps Ed. Nisha thinks the vegan cheese is ‘lovely’ but Michael says the dish overall ‘tastes a bit all over the place’ and Tom agrees ‘that’s exactly it'.

Melissa’s fish course is inspired by the first (and only) time that angling was included in the Olympics – appropriately in the River Seine in 1900. She serves river trout two ways – barbecued with a crispy charcoal skin and cured in herbs and poitín. Little balls of stout-flavoured soda bread are brushed with apple treacle, then topped with crème fraiche, cured trout and sea lettuce, whilst the barbecued trout goes on samphire, accompanied with a smoked velouté, split with leek oil. ‘Pleasant, but safe,’ is Nisha’s opinion of the dish overall, but Tom is a big fan of what he calls ‘that sandwich’, judging it to be ‘absolutely delicious'.

One of the founders of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, apparently asked for his heart to be buried in Olympia. Translating his dying wish into fish, Lottie serves confited and seared monkfish with lemongrass sauce, a spicy mojo rojo heart and a heart-shaped tuile. Sadly, the judges are not enamoured. ‘Like double cream with a bit of lemongrass in it,’ is Tom’s brutal assessment of the sauce, and Ed and Michael agree the monkfish is ‘chewy'. Nisha defends the dish as ‘a brave attempt’ but adds ‘it just wasn’t pulled off'.

For ‘Mary Peters’ Guilty Pleasure', Lottie imagines serving the iconic Olympian a plate of her favourite liver and bacon. On Wednesday, she did just that, as we saw Lady Mary visiting Lottie’s restaurant and happily tucking in to a plate of calf’s liver, crispy pork belly, puy lentils, celeriac and potato terrine and crispy pig’s ears. ‘Ten out of ten,’ exclaimed Lady Mary. Back in the GBM kitchen, Lottie received a less rapturous reception from Spencer when she proceeded to serve dangerously undercooked pork tenderloin. Now cooked perfectly, the piping hot food arrives in the judging chamber but only musters a lukewarm response. Searching for similar qualities to his fellow pentathlete, Michael says, ‘you’re looking for class, you’re looking for poise'. Unfortunately, the judges can’t see either and Tom concludes, ‘it’s a nice dish, but it’s not banquet worthy'.

Inspired by Olympic golf in Northern Ireland, Melissa’s ‘Hole in One’ features a ring of pommes Anna, packed full of braised oxtail, alongside short-horn cattle beef roasted on the bone, barbecued beef-braised carrots, shiitake ketchup and red wine jus. Optimistic about the dish’s potential, Michael says, ‘the golf courses are spectacular, so, hopefully, this dish is spectacular.’ It is… very nearly. Tom praises the ‘little magical points that come through this plate’ and although all agree the dish needs some tweaks, Ed concludes ‘it could hold its own in finals week'.

‘A bit clunky', is Tom’s assessment of Melissa’s pre-dessert, as the little pouch of sweet cicely yoghurt sorbet, elderberry gel and caramelised white chocolate drips down his fingers. Nisha prefers the ‘dense, eggy heft’ of Lottie’s crème caramel, which is flambéed with Northern Irish rum. Michael champions the authenticity of Melissa’s ‘sticky’ energy pack, but the others opt for more rum.

Lottie’s attempt to temper and chill white chocolate for her gold medal dessert, resulted in a badly cracked batch in the week. Today, she fares a little better, as Tom and Michael get perfect examples and the substandard ones go to Ed and Nisha. Will anyone notice? Of course they will! ‘Yeah, it’s been head butted,’ exclaims Ed, and Nisha adds, ‘mine looks like it’s been dropped’. Filled with passion fruit purée and white chocolate mousse, Ed decides it’s ‘two steps too far, sweetness wise’ and Tom notes that his sablé base is not intact. ‘Oh, no, did you get something broken?’ asks Ed, sarcastically, advising Tom to ‘call the police'.

Dedicated to the Olympic boxers that have come from Belfast, ‘Punching for Gold’ is Melissa’s boxing-glove-shaped dessert of puffed barley, toasted buckwheat, chocolate ganache, whisky sour pâte de fruits, coffee crème diplomat and tempered chocolate. It’s served with malt ice cream and a coffee gastrique. ‘It might not look too bad, once it’s on the plate,’ says Melissa, optimistically, as both red and gold cocoa sprays fail to stick to the chocolate, and she has to send a reject to Ed again. ‘Even if it wasn’t broken, it wouldn’t look like a boxing glove,’ says Ed, and Michael agrees ‘it looks more like an oven mitt.’ Tom feels he’s being ‘punched’ by the taste of barley and Nisha thinks the coffee is ‘too acidic’ but all love the malt ice cream.

Melissa may have hoped for a knockout dessert, but she’s ultimately consoled with the higher score overall. ‘Nothing yet is podium worthy,’ admits Tom, but he goes on to say that she could ‘drive it a little bit more’ in finals week. Watch out, the food truck owner may yet move up a gear.