Great British Menu 2025: North West recap
It's time to catch up on everything that happened in the North West heat of the Great British Menu 2025 with our resident expert Howard Middleton.
Great British Menu 2025: North West recap
It's time to catch up on everything that happened in the North West heat of the Great British Menu 2025 with our resident expert Howard Middleton.
In the words of this week’s guest judge, ‘I would love to have that again.’ As Great British Menu begins its twentieth series, a little repetition is perhaps inevitable and no bad thing. So, the theme of series eleven, Great Britons of Elizabeth II, gets widened to Great Britons in general, and we’re off again with that satisfying recipe of freshness and familiarity.
Striding enthusiastically once more into the GBM kitchen is competition stalwart Paul Ainsworth, who Andi Oliver describes as ‘ebullient’ and ‘fabulous.’ After sampling a quartet of impressive canapés, he confidently predicts, ‘we are in for a cracking week.’ Less than twenty minutes later, he’s metaphorically cracking the whip at the first of this year’s casualties – James Hill from The Oak at Curthwaite. Poor James has made the mistake of admitting to not doing a full practice run of his starter and Paul is uncharacteristically ‘worried’ and ‘disappointed.’ We all prefer him to be ‘ebullient’ and ‘fabulous.’
Next to go is Livia Alarcon, head chef and owner of La Bistroteca in Liverpool’s Baltic Market. ‘I said to you – get that barbecue nice and hot – but you didn’t,’ chides Paul, and Liv’s cold Konro seals her fate, if nothing else. With cruel irony, Liv’s starter is dedicated to Margaret Aspinall, campaigner for justice for those impacted by the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, but she misses out on the chance to serve it to her. Instead, Margaret sits down with Ed Gamble, Tom Kerridge and new judge Lorna McNee to taste the creations of vegetarian chef Eddie Shepherd from The Walled Gardens in Manchester and Jack Bond from the Michelin starred Cottage in the Woods in Cumbria.
Jack’s canapé is a beer-battered croustade of cheese sauce and shallot chutney, dusted with smoked almond and girolle powder, while Eddie’s is a spoon of vanilla emulsion and mushroom charcuterie, topped with gilded beetroot gel. Margaret looks deeply wary of the latter’s appearance but is soon won over by its ‘really lovely flavour.’ Tom and Lorna agree it’s their favourite too. However, despite claiming it’s been plated on ‘cat litter,’ Ed prefers Jack’s.
Honouring the Land Girls of the Second World War, Eddie’s starter cleverly celebrates some ‘unsung hero’ ingredients too, with nettle soup, frozen smoked oat cream, cashew cream cheese, lime caviar, nettle beer crispbreads and a sparking nettle cocktail. Tom says the soup is ‘comforting’ and ‘delicious’ and is equally wowed by the crispbreads but he’s less keen on the sharp lime and sweet cocktail. ‘I hope you don’t mind if I eat it all,’ says Margaret.
‘Rough Terrain’ is Jack’s earthy tribute to mountain rescue pioneer Jim Cameron, consisting of a mound of diced and crisp potatoes, roasted yeast sauce, chive oil, black garlic ketchup, pickled capers, grated truffle and leek ash. Lorna thinks it looks like ‘moss,’ Ed likens it to ‘lichen.’ ‘I would say it looks like a cow pat,’ says Margaret. However, she’s pleasantly surprised by its taste and Tom concludes ‘it’s a great, great dish.’
Eddie’s fishless fish course centres on rock-like chunks of koji marinated halloumi in charcoal batter, served with samphire tartare sauce, rhubarb molasses and a salad of celeriac, oyster leaf, sugar kelp and pickled apple. ‘All just a bit too acidic,’ judges Lorna, adding the batter is ‘too sweet, almost like a doughnut.’ Ed agrees and Tom decides that despite being ‘very clever’ it doesn’t quite work together. ‘Definitely not for me,’ concludes Margaret.
Next to try to tickle the judges’ tastebuds is Jack’s chalk stream trout. Confited in juniper oil and served with sauce barigoule and marigold oil, it’s accompanied by butterfly-shaped tuiles, fennel and vermouth slaw and a fermented green tomato relish. Tom loves the ‘beautiful’ flavours and Margaret praises the ‘perfect’ cookery but, despite acknowledging that he sounds like his mother, Ed says, ‘I don’t like the plate’ and Lorna is deeply disappointed to discover three bones in her fish.
Taking directions from celebrated fell walker and guide book author Alfred Wainwright, Jack serves a meaty main course of lamb three ways – juicy cannon, rib glazed with pickled walnut and a mini Cumberland sausage. Along with crushed Jerusalem artichoke, dressed and crispy kale, and a thermos flask of rich lamb gravy, the judges polish it off with gusto. ‘One of my only notes is there should be more,’ bemoans Ed. ‘Easy to fix – just give us more!’ laughs Tom. However, he’s less happy with the visual style of the dish and he questions its celebratory impact. Ed disagrees, saying, ‘I’d happily walk through the Lake District necking this gravy.’
Depicting the colours of the suffragette movement, Eddie’s purple, white and green main course includes beetroot and balsamic salad, smoked oat milk potato dauphinoise and courgettes cooked in barbecued cucumber juice, which accompany his neat rosette of tofu and black garlic ragout, bergamot emulsion, a crisp potato label and beetroot ribbons. Lorna praises the ‘delicious’ ragout and potatoes but feels that everything else is ‘a bit bitty.’ Tom likens it to a wedding buffet where guests over enthusiastically help themselves to hot and cold food and then wonder, ‘why have I put all this on the plate together?’
The pre-desserts are a chance for the chefs to show their creativity. Eddie’s glowstick-style glass straws of zingy, carbonated chamomile, mint and raspberry are eagerly sucked up by the judges, but despite Ed insisting they’re ‘fun,’ Tom decides he’s not ‘mad for it.’ Jack’s cherry panna cotta lips are deemed ‘too big’ but ‘taste amazing’ and it’s a unanimous vote.
Social reformer Charles Booth, who campaigned for free school dinners in the late nineteenth century, is the inspiration behind Jack’s take on a traditional jam roly-poly and custard, which he serves with a less conventional side of sparkling wine jelly and apple sorbet. Tom loves it and says the custard is ‘amazing’ but others are less impressed. ‘There’s an issue with things going together,’ says Ed, and Lorna finds ‘something really bitter’ in what should be a comforting pud. ‘You keep talking,’ says Tom, ‘I’m going back for more custard.’
Finally, Eddie commemorates another nineteenth century campaigner with a tiny white chocolate plaque, dedicated to Robert Lowes, who fought for workers’ rights to leisure time. It sits alongside a thick disc of dark chocolate parfait with brandy-soaked cherries, caramelised honey lace and a bowl of lavender granita. Margaret decides it’s ‘too sweet’ but Tom thinks the flavours are ‘outstanding’ and Ed says it’s ‘so on brief.’
Sadly for Eddie, though his scores beat Jack’s on the final course, it isn’t enough overall. However, all is not lost for him or any of this year’s regional runners up as in a welcome shake up to the rules, Andi and Tom reveal they have the power to put a wild card dish through to finals week. Presumably its creator goes along too but we’ll have to wait and see. Margaret may yet taste her beloved nettle soup once more.
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