Great British Menu 2023: North East recap
Howard Middleton fills us in on a high-scoring first week of heats in the Great British Menu kitchen, as four chefs from the North East battled it out.
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Great British Menu 2023How time flies. Series eighteen of Great British Menu and the young chefs of early competitions are now the veterans of today. And if that doesn’t make you feel old, well, Paddington Bear is sixty-five! Perhaps not the most obvious theme, even when broadened to include British illustration and animation in general, but this year’s chefs will just have to grin and bear it.
Overlapping with the children’s literature brief of 2020 and last year’s Great British broadcasting, will we really see anything new? Well, judging by the first week’s creations, the answer is thankfully a definite ‘yes’!
In a remarkably high-scoring heat, this week’s veteran judge, Angela Hartnett had the tricky task of narrowing it down to just two chefs. With a tie breaker on Tuesday, Newcastle’s Rory Welch, head chef at Träkol, was gracious in defeat to Gareth Bartram from Winteringham Fields in Scunthorpe. He faced stiff competition from two newcomers but left on a high on Wednesday. So going into the judging chamber, it’s Will Lockwood, head chef at one Michelin-starred Roots in York and Cal Byerley from Pine in Northumberland, which has both a Michelin red star and a green one.
The judges first taste of Will’s work is a crisp artichoke pastry shell filled with fermented turnip cubes, beef tartare and dried smoked ox heart. Cal’s canapé is brown and white crab in a sourdough pie tee. Well, it is for judges Ed Gamble and Nisha Katona. As Tom Kerridge has a seafood allergy and guest Joe Sugg doesn’t eat fish, Cal packs their pie tees with carrot puree, Berwick Edge cheese custard, smoked dry aged carrot and lovage jelly. Joe admits his experience of food is a bit limited. ‘There’s about twelve ingredients in there that I’ve never heard of,’ he says. But he likes the ox heart, although the others prefer the ‘punchy flavour’ of Cal’s.
With chefs challenged to create a vegan starter for this year’s competition, it looks like we could be in for a lot of mushrooms. Cal’s starter ‘The Magical World of Mushrooms’ is inspired by the books of author illustrator Kylie Dixon. On the plate go salt-baked leek hearts, barbecued lion’s mane mushrooms and blue oyster mushrooms in a black garlic glaze. With a drizzle of wild leek oil and a scattering of garlic capers and pickled shiso herb leaves, it’s completed with jugs of clarified mushroom broth and mini loaves of bread. Tom likes the ‘beautiful bit of acidity’, Ed’s loving his loaf and Nisha says it’s ‘banquet worthy’.
Will’s starter raids the retro recipes of the Clangers for blue string pudding and the Soup Dragon’s green soup. Crispy discs of blue potato string are dotted with wild garlic emulsion and fennel pollen vinegar gel, whilst crater-like soup bowls are filled with layers of mushroom puree, roasted and pickled maitake mushrooms, truffle shavings and wild garlic capers, before being covered with watercress velouté. The normally peaceful little creatures are packing a punch. Tom says he feels like he’s ‘been beaten up by flavour’ and though Nisha prefers Cal’s starter, Tom’s more than ready to go another round with the Clangers.
On to two fish dishes celebrating the adventures of Paddington Bear. Cal’s ‘Paddington’s Catch’ is a whole plaice, expertly deboned, filled with dill and spinach mousse and barbecued, then topped with confit potatoes, caviar, spinach, oyster leaf, oxalis and curls of crispy fish skin. It’s served with a fermented asparagus sauce, split with dill oil. ‘Punchy’ is Tom’s verdict again but this time he feels the plaice is losing its match with the sauce.
For ‘Paddington’s Buried Treasure’, Will packs purposely cracked and kintsugi-mended bowls with juicy scallops, razor clams cooked in hot whey sauce, charred leeks and mussels pickled in elderflower vinegar, hiding this under a torched sheep’s cheese and potato emulsion. It scored a ten from Angela Hartnett and Ed loves it too. ‘That’s right up my street,’ he says. Tom agrees his trout and brill alternative is ‘lovely’.
Inspired by the illustrations of Allan and Janet Ahlberg, Will serves up ‘The Wishbone’ – butter-bathed and roasted venison, faggots with braised red cabbage, roasted cauliflower and black garlic and cauliflower purees. Slabs of Yorkshire parkin are fried in bone marrow, then piped with liver parfait and beetroot puree. It’s served with a venison and cherry blossom sauce. It too scored a ten from Angela and the judges agree it’s absolutely delicious, but... there’s a but. ‘It just doesn’t feel like it’s celebrating the joy of that book,’ says Ed, and the others agree the presentation needs more wow factor. A gruesomely gleeful Joe suggests, ‘I want to open a ribcage’.
Cal’s main course is a tasty Tudor take on the Horrible Histories series of books. Barbecued pork loin and belly are served with stuffed, glazed pig’s trotters, a mulled wine jelly castle, salt-baked cabbage, mead-braised carrots, maitake mushrooms and gleamingly glossy smoked pork bone gravy. The judges are wowed by the theatrical presentation and delight in the dish’s deliciousness, but… there’s another but. The trotters are tough. Joe realises why Tudor banquets always had a dog under the table.
Pre-desserts up next and Cal’s is a miniature layered cake with a hidden sorbet centre. Will serves up smoked Wensleydale parfait and elderflower gel, sandwiched between spiced biscuits. Evenly split on the favourite, the judges agree they’re both potential winners.
Up first for dessert is Will’s ‘Look Up’, based on the celebrated space-themed picture book. It’s a mouth-watering meteor shower of compressed pear planets, blackened hazelnut crumble dust, buttermilk granita, aerated ruby chocolate and brown butter parfait. Ed and Nisha question if it’s really ‘on brief’ but Tom says he loves it, and Joe proudly shows off his clean bowl.
For his dessert, Cal presents ‘James’s Giant Peach’ – perfect peach-shaped chamomile cheesecakes with lemon verbena jelly worms and chocolate ladybirds filled with woodruff ice cream. Angela Hartnett overlooked the slightly frozen peach parfait centre and still gave it a ten. However, despite an extra five minutes defrosting, Cal is still not happy. ‘Brilliant’ says Tom, ‘but not quite there in terms of execution’.
With scores so tight it could be anybody’s game, but in the end it’s Will who goes through to finals week. The chefs are clearly exhausted. Tom says that he is too. And even Paddington Bear decides it’s time for a nap. Not to worry though – he’s not retiring just yet. I reckon Paddington (and the mushrooms) will be back in no time.
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