Great British Menu 2012

[KaffirLime]

Richard Turner, Michelin starred chef Patron of Turner's in Harborne recently gave an interview to the chef's table where he admitted to only recently embracing water baths. In fact It's worth quoting him directly:

"We’re starting to embrace new cooking techniques and we use water baths now where if you’d told me that two years ago that I’d be using a water bath I’d have told you fuck off out of it"

Sums it up really. I think the take up of them is nowhere near as universal as we are led to believe. Having said that I've had meals in pubs where the meat has clearly been cooked sous vide and I'm like "get the feck out of here, this is a pub"

Edited April 25, 2012 by KaffirLime (log)

[thampik]

Pubs using sous vide kind of makes sense to me - at a basic level it does take a lot of the skill required (eg cooking steaks to a specific doneness) out of the equation.

Still find the seeming lack of awareness puzzling...

[Simon_S]

Is it lack of awareness though, or just a rejection of the concept?

[david goodfellow]

Not fealt the love at all this week. I'm fed up to the back teeth with "groundbreaking". Where can food go?

To quote yesterday's fallen hero Marco. "Its only food ffs".

Next week is not at all inspiring either. No disrespect to the chefs but the class of the field are there for all to see, very few others can compeat.

Its fairly clear to me now that the classic old school chefs, like cream, will rise to the top.

Sod foraging and leaves, flavour is all.

[Harters]

I'm with David about this week. Twelve dishes and I wouldnt have been in a rush to eat any of them.

That said, foraged stuff can be good - I've had dishes at Sat Bains and In De Wulf (Belgium) that have been bang-on.

And the brother in law brought me back a carrier bag full of "sea fennel" last summer from Mallorca. You pickle it in white wine vinegar. Delicious with stuff like salami

[goodkidwe]

Useful information! I wanna learn British cuisine. I will be a huge fan of the series.

[KaffirLime]

What is beginning to grate with me are all the little asinine comments like 'they've really got to be at the top of their game for this one'. When haven't they? I'd like to think the intelligence level of people who watch GBM is a cut above the average but we are treated to the same script writing standards as Come Dine With Me.

[Simon_S]

I might have to eat my words about Corrigan, or at the very least nibble them a bit. I'm finding him pretty entertaining so far this year.

[KaffirLime]

Well I nearly threw my ipad at trhe television last night which would have been expensive. I know they are all following scripts but Corrigan was excrutiating last night.

OK Richard on the count of three we want you to squint menacingly at the camera and say something negative about each chef.

Er OK....

"Does marrowbone go with skate? I don't know (why ask the question then?)

"That rose petal is very strong. If gets that wrong it could be horrible"

"If he gets the timing wrong it could be disastrous"

So what you're basically saying is it wouldn't be very good news if they made a mistake? No Sh1t Sherlock ,thanks for your inciteful observations!

Edited May 2, 2012 by KaffirLime (log)

[thampik]

I dislike Corrigan's snide, arrogant television persona (is that what he is really like?) so much so that I am not watching GBM this week. Not much of a sacrifice really

I have to remind myself that I once had a rather excellent dinner at Lindsay House a while ago - maybe he should stay behind the stove!

[RDB]

I have spent an evening having a few oyster stouts with Richard and he is sound, however would not like to get on the wrong side of him.

Another good guy Chris Bell seems to be heads above the other two, who are either trying way too hard or being too simplistic. I miss Chris's presence in nthe northwest, must give his restaurant a try in NI.

[Toufas]

What was that elastine/elastic blend that Johnny mountain was using? He mention carrageenan/agar amongst the ingredients

[david goodfellow]

Twitter is buzzing with comments on Mr Mountain's departure and of course Aiden Byrne's stunning 10/10 for his salmon dish. Bet the viewing figures for tonights episode were through the roof.

Be interesting to see who goes through. Its neck and neck now between Aiden and Simon.

[Prawncrackers]

Shame about Rogan's lobster dish not being lobstery enough, maybe he should have used a real native lobster. But Aiden's salmon looked like a 10/10 on appearance alone, stunning.

[Toufas]

I am sure Marcus doesn't mind. Let's not forget for who he was working for before

[&roid]

From the looks of the clips of tomorrow's episode it would appear that Johnny has flounced out altogether. Pretty ridiculous behaviour if he has, why would you put yourself into the competition if you can't take criticism?

[KaffirLime]

Actually I think Marcus was completely out of order, heaping high praise on the other two dishes (even though the lobster dish was flawed) and then basically telling Johnny he was a silly little boy who was just playing with toys. It seemed clear thought that knew how to 'play with his toys' because the execution of the dish seemed spot on. Marcus just couldn't get his head around it because it didn't have 'fish' in it. What did he want, a lump of cod in batter? Johnny's dish certainly had shell-fish and anchovy elements anyway. I also can't believe that in all the years of Great British Menu this is isn't the first time anything like this has happened but just as surely as they have been edited out in the past, it seems this was left in for effect.

From the info about tomorrows programme that I've read it seems that Johnny is back.

[Digijam]

What was that elastine/elastic blend that Johnny mountain was using? He mention carrageenan/agar amongst the ingredients

I believe Sosa's Elastic is a carrageenan and bean gum blend, not agar - the addition of lbg gives something stronger and more stable than a regular kappa gel. They often use the same sort of blend with jellies for store-bought desserts and pet foods.

[Simon_S]

Well obviously I can barely stick the excitement of it all, but I think 2/10 was a bit ridiculous for that dish. I feel a bit sorry for Johnny really.

[david goodfellow]

Well obviously I can barely stick the excitement of it all, but I think 2/10 was a bit ridiculous for that dish. I feel a bit sorry for Johnny really.

I agree. Marcus Wareing went for the throat with that score. Johnny has come over well this year also.

Surely the dish could not have been that bad if Ashley Palmer Watts cast an eye over it.

Still I'm not a chef and did not taste it, but 2/10 is just, well, unbelievable.

[Prawncrackers]

He was using a lot of smoke flavours in that jelly. If he overdid it then I can imagine a solid puck of fishy smokey jelly would be close to inedible. Contrast the fish dish that Colin whathisname did a couple of weeks back. An elegent sheet of thin jelly to represent the sea and more importantly a good chunk of red mullet to represent er, the seafood.

[RedRum]

When I saw the dish, with the jelly-fish like thing on the side, I thought it looked inedible. He tried to mimic Heston's Sound of the Sea. But he forgot that Heston spends a least two years before he puts a new dish up, Jonny boy wanted to recreate something like that in a couple of hours of research... Aiden's reaction when he ate the jelly was indicative that the dish was almost inedible. If that is the case, Marcus had two choises. Playing it PC and giving him a mark of 4-5, or be honest and give him what he really thought. I am glad he did the latter!

[KaffirLime]

Yes but the brief is to push boundaries and I don't think they are given two years to come up with a dish. I don't want to come across as Johnny Mountain's No 1 fan but did either of the other two dishes push boundaries, or were they just safe dishes with a little tweak? Arguably Johnny Mountain is the only guy answering the brief by pushing himself beyond his comfort zone. How hot under the collar did Rogan get grilling a salad for his starter?

But apart from that, the duty of a judge is surely to be even-handed and fair. Rogan bought in a miniature science lab which suceeded in adding diddly squat to his lobster and he under-cooked the beetroot yet he still got a more than decent score. Mountain's dish would have had to be gag-inducingly bad to warrant a 2 and I doubt it was that. To me it was nothing short of an unjustified kicking and I can fully understand Mountain's reaction.

Edited May 9, 2012 by KaffirLime (log)

[david goodfellow]

You may (or may not) like to read someone elses view on the Marcus Wareing v Johnny Mountain debate including many comments for and against on twitter.

http://www.catererse...e-mountain.html

Love @nutsfood photo its ace.

Edited May 9, 2012 by david goodfellow (log)

[MaLO]

The score of 2 did seem harsh although no one beside Johnny seemed to like anything about it. It seemed to me that as an item on a large tasting menu it might have been ok - supposing it didn't taste bad, it could be ok as one plate in 15 or 20. As a fish course on a four course menu then I would expect to see fish, very good fish please. I dont know what Johnnys food is like generally, never eaten it, but he seems like an interesting chap.

I think the pushing boundaries / innovation aspect of the spec is a pointless distraction as it has generated some fairly odd concepts and gimicks.I would have prefered the olympic bit to be about perfection not innovation. Maybe Usain Bolt will turn up for the 100 metres on a pogo stick?