Great British Menu 2013

[glitch]

I thought Emily's shoot lunch looked great. One thing to remember is that a lot of these episode were filmed last year, so whilst this is out of shoot season now, it could have been perfectly in season when filmed. I don't think there is any worry about it getting to the banquet though.

Yes, true, but the point of GBM has always been to cook for the banquet and be 'on season' for the event and not when the heats were filmed.

There was one particular year where the event was in the middle of summer and no end of chefs were castigated for using wintery produce.

Peter's dessert did look good and the judges certainly thought it tasted great. I think it has a chance of getting to the banquet, seeing that it is on Cassamia's menu as "Apple Pie from Great British Menu 2013". You never know.

They all tend to do that though. I dined at various restaurants last year that had either all four dishes from the heats or one or two selected choices on their menu.

It's an interesting dessert, but doesn't seem very 'fun' to me.

As for Northern Ireland, I don't understand it when chef's feel that they have to make a specific point about where the dish has come from.

It's the same complaint I have about the Scottish chefs - seems to be some sort of inferiority complex where every dish has to scream about the nationality of the person who cooked it.

The Titanic presentation was pretty poor. It is in no way comedic or funny, even though the idea of it was interesting. He could have presented it as a comic relief ship with red funnels or something, not as the ship on which 1500 people died. Oh, but it was built in Belfast.
Not been impressed with this week although the cowboy pie looked tasty!

Hah, someone thought that using the Titanic for comedic value was appropriate?! I'm going to look forward to seeing that all day now!

 

[OCdude]

After watching some great cooking during the Central heats (notably Richard Bainbridge's main and Daniel Clifford's fish/dessert) i'm finding the Wales heats a REALLY.... bizarre change of pace....

Without meaning to be personal - it's like watching an eccentric old granny cooking with her pre-pubescent grandson (with one "normal" chef) accompanied by a really camp, over-friendly judge. Very very odd.

Haven't watched the mains go out yet, but there's certainly not been any food worth mentioning so far!

 

[molinari]

After watching some great cooking during the Central heats (notably Richard Bainbridge's main and Daniel Clifford's fish/dessert) i'm finding the Wales heats a REALLY.... bizarre change of pace....

Without meaning to be personal - it's like watching a dithering old granny cooking with her pre-pubescent grandson, accompanied by a really camp, over-friendly judge. Very very odd.

This has been the most disappointing group so far. Mary Ann's food just looks horrible. Her starter, a lump of unappealing pea mouse. Her fish course was Langoustine around a pile of white stodge. It did not look appealing at all. I don't understand why she is there. Part of the brief is about it being a gastronomic experience, and by her own admission, that is not what she does.
Luke is very young and that is showing. Lots of ambition but not quite pulling it off yet, but his food still looks and would appear to be tastier than Mary Ann, although apparently not as he is 2 points behind. His fish course was the only one to hit the brief and it sounded tasty, but it must have tasted horrible as it got the lowest score. I can't see him making up 3 points with the dessert, and Jeremy Lee's comment for this evening's episode to the person leaving was "being a little trooper", which would imply Luke.
Richard is walking this week. He has cooked some nice food, but aside from his starter he is using the usual cop-out of "the fun is in the presentation", when it just looks like a restaurant dish. It does look nice, but doesn't meet the brief. He has it in the bag to get to the judges though, and I can't see either of the others beating him this week.
I usually enjoy Jeremy Lee's judging, but not this week.
It will be interesting to see what the judges think of Mary Ann's food (assuming she doesn't muck up her dessert).

 

[Bigmonty]

This season has been the worst for me so far in terms of food quality and entertainment.

I really don't like the format of the judges knowing who has cooked what and the celebrity 4th judge doesn't really add anything for me.

 

[Glaucus]

So no decent fish course full stop.
Iirc only one decent main got through and two puddings.

It's been poo poo this year. Only a tiny less than a handful have fulfilled the brief.

 

[molinari]

So no decent fish course full stop.
Iirc only one decent main got through and two puddings.

It's been poo poo this year. Only a tiny less than a handful have fulfilled the brief.

Well I think Daniel Clifford's fish course was pretty good, although it would be an absolute pain to do those potato baskets he had so much trouble with. I have forgotten a lot of the dishes (I guess that says a lot about how good it has been this year) so I'm looking forward to the final week, but yes it has been a poor year in comparison to previous ones. As mentioned, the format really isn't as good when the judges know everything about the food coming out.

 

[molinari]

Well at last we are through the heats and into the final week.
It was good to see the chefs from earlier in the competition back with their starters, and it was no surprise to me to see who the top 3 were. I was confident that Tom and Colin would be there, but couldn't decide between Raymond and Michael. It's a shame Michael's dish was marked down by the other chefs, but it didn't appear to be as well cooked as it was in the heats. If I had to choose, it would be Tom's dish at the banquet, but I think that the judges will go for Colin's, or perhaps Raymonds.

 

[molinari]

Finals fish course done, and no surprises with those at the top. Although Tom's dish was way out at the top on points, I think Aiden's will be the one chosen for the banquet.
A surprise this evening as a 9th chef is in for the main course, but no surprise to see the poorly blurred chef is Richard Bainbridge who cooked the fantastic looking Guinea Fowl cooked en vessie (in a cow's bladder). Surely that will be top 3 along with the Flintstones rack of ribs???
If they do go for Aiden's red nose fish course, I don't think they'd follow it with another red nose dish for the main, but we'll see.

 

[DiCe!]

Really don't like Raymond, Dont like any of the NI guys tbh, Chris Fern is the best of a bad bunch normally.

I think the brief was rubbish. No one has done it justice imo and mixing food with laughs is not easy.

 

[Participant]

Paused it and caught Peter Whassisface in an interesting pose: