Great British Menu 2013

glitch

glitch

glitch

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So, it looks like the best cookery show on television is back for a Comic Relief inspired run and it débuts tonight at 7:30pm on BBC HD and BBC Two.

The brief this year seems to be for the chefs to create 'imaginative and whimsical dishes' for the banquet; to me that suggests we'll see the chefs given free reign to do pretty much anything they want and really 'push the boundaries' along the way.

That said, I hope we don't get too many 'accessory' dishes where the food takes a back seat to the way it's being presented as we've seen in previous seasons. Although, to be fair, they've generally been seen straight through by the judges and not got near the finals.

Anyway, the series' Homepage can be found here and I'll try* and update the OP with any relevant information I find along the way, as well as iPlayer links, etc.

Here's hoping for another epic Johnnie Mountain-esque strop by a chef along the way!

*Depending on how into GBM I get and whether I remember or not.

Catch-up links:

S8E1 - London and South East Starter.

S8E2 - London and South East Fish.

S8E3 - London and South East Main

S8E4 - London and South East Dessert.

S8E5 - London and South East Judging.

S8E6 - Scotland Starter.

S8E7 - Scotland Fish.

S8E8 - Scotland Main.

S8E9 - Scotland Dessert.

S8E10 - Scotland Judging.

S8E11 - North West Starter.

Not sure where the BBC HD ones have got to, but will update if they appear.
 
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Oh well, I managed to miss the first episode. Good job there's Sky+ to rescue me.

Anyway, non-HD iPlayer link here with the HD link to follow here, once they upload it.
 
Darn it! My favourite cooking/chef TV series but I didn't see any adverts for this coming back on so missed the first one, but that's what iPlayer is for :).
Rooting for Tom Aikens this week as I'm a big fan of his cooking.

Is Johnnie Mountain back this year? He was a bit of a wally!
 
I still haven't managed to catch up with this, but I've updated the OP with the relevant iPlayer links for those without recording services.

If anyone can find the HD versions, do let me know.
 
Tom Aikens was sheer class this week, blew the other guys away. I really wanted to see that black guy's dessert go before the judges though!

It really annoyed me how both that fat irish fellow and the judges (apart from arabella weir) completely ignored the comedy brief when marking that cheeky chappy's food. His food was not funny or witty, it was boring and restaurant. Geesh.
 
Yeah very glad Tom when through and not the other one. By just keeping saying 'the fun is in the eating' doesnt make your food amusing!!
 
I thought it was a joke that the little guy with the big smile got through at all to be honest. There was no humor in his dishes, unlike the coloured chap whos meals looked much better and much more well thought out.

It left the friday judging result inevitable, handed it on a plate to Tom and effectively squashed any suspense.

Hopefully next week will be better.
 
Adam's food was generally better than Matt's food, but he did miss the brief which should have gone against him. Glad Tom went through though.
Tonight sees the start of the Scottish heat.
 
Robbie G said:
Tom Aikens was sheer class this week, blew the other guys away. I really wanted to see that black guy's dessert go before the judges though!
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I couldn't agree more. Aikens was a clear front-runner with three fantastic dishes, although his main course was a real disappointment.

Robbie G said:
His food was not funny or witty, it was boring and restaurant. Geesh.
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How Corrigan thought that Matt Gillan's food was worthy of getting in front of the judges is beyond me.

Adam Simmonds ought to feel utterly robbed that he didn't get to go up against Aikens.

molinari said:
Tonight sees the start of the Scottish heat.
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Which, as seems to often be the case, has been hugely disappointing.

Mark Greenaway always seems to miss the point of the brief and it feels to me that he's trying to get away with tarting up some existing dishes on his menu to vaguely tie in with the theme and see if he gets away with it. I remember his starter getting slated last year and he obviously didn't learn his lesson.

Tony Singh is just bafflingly haphazard with his approach. His starter was a complete mess, his fish course was downright dangerous and his main seemed to get made up on the spot. His attempts at humour are also wearing very thin, very quickly.

And as for Michael Smith... well, he runs hot and cold with the best of them. I loved his starter, hated his fish course and was left utterly nonplussed by his main.

I'll catch-up with the desserts at some point and see if any of them have managed to pull it out of the bag. At the moment I can't see anyone other than Smith going through to the finals.
 
Okay, so the Scottish desserts were equally disappointing.

Smith's was all accessories and very little cooking, Greenaway's was yet another restaurant dish that he'd hoped to get away with and Singh's showed promise, yet fell a little flat in its execution and looked tacky on the plate.

I'm not sure there was even four good dishes amongst them this week, let alone four from one chef. I'm even struggling to remember one stand-out dish despite having watched all four episodes back-to-back.
 
I'm with glitch. Disappointed with Scotland. I think they've all missed the brief totally! Only one that was close in the desserts was the doughnuts as it was playful. Not been a good week imo.
 
This week and last week, several of the chefs have said that the fun is in the eating when it is clearly a nice restaurant dish, and that shouldn't stand. They should be marked down for missing the brief.
Scotland has disappointed for another year, and on yesterday's clip for this evening's show, it showed Oliver I think, saying one of the dishes is the worst they've had. Will be interesting to see which dish that is.

Looking forward to next week mainly because Phil Howard is judging during the week. It is a shame however, that this year's competition is missing some big names from last year; Phil Howard, Simon Rogan, Nathan Outlaw are just a few.
 
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