Great British Menu 2013

[david goodfellow]

Well, its that time of the year again. Next Monday on BBC 2 the new series of Great British Menu kicks off with three new chefs, Adam Simmonds, Tom Aikens and Matt Gillan all of whom hold Michelin stars.

Lots of new faces in this years line up to look forward to.

The winners get to cook at a banquet at The Royal Albert Hall to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Red Nose Day.

[mugen]

Excellent - love the series, and it's always fascinating to see the intensity of competition and chefs who are redoubtable in their own kitchens made to look, well, anything but that.

[Gary Marshall]

I love the series but can only imagine how tortured the brief will make the judging.

[rotuts]

clap clap

[&roid]

I love the series but can only imagine how tortured the brief will make the judging.

Or how cliched and grating the pointless filler will be, "these people have given so much over the years, I just want to cook something worthy of that, to give something back" - bleuuuurch!

I'm sure the five minutes of cooking each episode will be as good as ever, but if it follows the trajectory of previous series the rest of the shows will be nauseating.

[mugen]

Haha indeed.

The blurb describes Tom Aitkens as a new entrant. I thought that he appeared last year ... ?

[rotuts]

I wish these were on the Web somewhere. they are not the easiest things to obtain across the Pond, unlike that Midwife and her Pals at the Abbey!

[&roid]

I wish these were on the Web somewhere. they are not the easiest things to obtain across the Pond, unlike that Midwife and her Pals at the Abbey!

Get yourself an overplay DNS account, dead simple to setup and gives you access to most any country's region locked content. Best thing about it is that it doesn't throttle your connection like a VPN account does and it doesn't need to be switched to each new country you want to access. Just set up once and you will be able to get anything you need.

I use it to watch US content on ABC, Netflix, etc.

[KaffirLime]

For the life of me I cannot understand how Adam Simmonds got through. Yes, his food looks nice but he never made the slightest effort to answer the brief on any of his dishes. Well I say that, I don't know what the actual brief asked for but you get the impression that somewhere in there chefs have been asked to cook food with a sense of fun. It got a bit tedious watching Richard Corrigan ask whether it was comedy or drama four days in a row and Adam replying each time that the comedy was in the food. No, there was no comedy. He just trotted out four restaurant dishes in total disregard to the brief. I can only wonder how frustrated Matt Gillan must have felt losing to him as he did actually put a lot of thought and effort into answering the brief. I got the impression that Adam got through because the food he presented was to Richard's personal taste so he largely over-looked the small matter of the brief. Poor judging again this year I'm afraid right out of the box.

Edited January 31, 2013 by KaffirLime (log)

[mugen]

There wasn't really all that much comedy in the others' dishes - they were somewhere between gimmicks and props as after-thoughts (placing a hat over the rabbit - really?) - so I would have found it difficult to afford the 'comedy' much weight (relative to the substance of the dish itself) in the marking. I would have selected Simmonds over Gillan, to then (given that Simmonds didn't answer the brief at all) leave it to the judges to exclude Simmonds for failing to answer the brief.

Edited January 31, 2013 by mugen (log)

[Simon_S]

Totally agreed about the disregard for the brief, although it's hard to imagine how to prepare a dish that will leave the punters rolling in the aisles with the sheer hilarity of it all. I missed the first episode this week, was it explained why Corrigan wasn't judging the NI entries? I've never eaten Tom Aiken's grub, but he seems to be a clear cut above the others.

[ahpadt]

Hey, long time lurker. Finally created an account on here.

I've followed GBM for several years now and if you ask me, the theme or brief this year doesn't sit well with what I think is the "fundament" of GBM.

They've 'caked' more and more scripted stuff into the show every year now, but this year I think they've overdone it. This is especially apparent during the judging episode, where the focus seemingly just is on the extra judge who is purely interested in the hilarity of a dish.

Last year the brief was purely about creating exceptional dishes, which we got to see together with a bunch of supremely talented chefs. This year I'm not sure what the object is.

Edited February 3, 2013 by ahpadt (log)

[Harters]

They've 'caked' more and more scripted stuff into the show every year now, but this year I think they've overdone it. This is especially apparent during the judging episode, where the focus seemingly just is on the extra judge who is purely interested in the hilarity of a dish.

Last year, I decided not to watch the nightly programmes but just to watch the Friday programme. And that worked well for me - certainly enough of the cooking and hardly any of the wanking about of the nightlies . Done the same this year - just watched Friday's on the iPlayer. Awful, just awful. Laugh - I nearly pissed myself. Or not. A ten minute programme stretched to thirty. I think I may not bother watching the rest of the series at all - the concept has definitely passed its "use by" date.

Edited February 3, 2013 by Harters (log)

[KaffirLime]

no real explanation as to why Angela Hartnett is judging Scotland either. Can only assume they are mixing the judges up this year

[Simon_S]

no real explanation as to why Angela Hartnett is judging Scotland either. Can only assume they are mixing the judges up this year

No harm really, it's good to see the judges dealing with "new" chefs.

[Airwaves]

"Barrel scraping this year?" I hear you ask.

I think they've well and truly broken through the bottom.

We watch all of it on digital record, taking time for around 5 mins per programme for the tasting (and we are thinking of droping that)

[Gary Marshall]

I missed friday's and have completley forgotten to watch it this week, it's made that much of an impact.

Surely now there is a market for watching dishes being created to a high standard by decent chefs with no need for the pointless briefs and the care in the community aspect.

[Matthew Grant]

Yes, a more contemporary version of the old Roux Brothers series would be very welcome.

[Harters]

Yes, a more contemporary version of the old Roux Brothers series would be very welcome.

Speaking of old programmes and Roux, anyone see the revived "Food & Drink" programme. I used to enjoy that donkeys years back but I'm not so sure about the new look. Seems everything has to have a profusion of sleb chefs.

[ahpadt]

The only somewhat contemporary thing left on the BBC is Saturday Kitchen, which has the occasional interesting chef guest, despite the 'housewife feel' of the show.

[Edesia]

It's definitely not what it was but I'm still enjoying this years GBM, if only to see some of the modernist techniques on show, and to see some new names I've not heard of before. I'm concentrating on the food rather than the competition, they ran out of reasons for the show a few seasons ago when the finale was Barbara Windsor in Leadenhall market with some random people.

[KaffirLime]

I'm finding the show increasingly frustrating this year. There is at least one chef every week who refuses to make the slightest effort to answer the brief, choosing instead to trot out a restaurant dish with the cliched excuse "the humour is in the eating chef". No it isn't - there is no humour in your food!! This week it's Colin's turn and yet bizarely he keeps banging in the highest scores, presumably because Jason Atherton isn't that much bothered about the brief either. If I was Charlie I think I'd be increasingly bewildered because he seems to be the only one making any effort to produce food to the brief. The best Stephanie can do seems to be coming up with a humourous title to conventional restaurant dishes. Some of Charlies dishes have seemed a bit misguided and probably haven't desered higher scores but I'm sure if the judges had said to him, 'forget the brief, just come up with the best dishes you can' he would be presenting completely different food.

[Harters]

I've eaten Charlie's food on two occasions and really liked it. The evenings at the Marquis have not been enhanced by extremely slow service and, next time I'm in the Dover area, we'll be giving it a miss. Shame, but there you go.

[ahpadt]

That kebab was desperate. It would've been much improved just by serving it on a normal plate, even if it'd lose "the point".

Edited February 21, 2013 by ahpadt (log)

[CeeCee]

Or how cliched and grating the pointless filler will be, "these people have given so much over the years, I just want to cook something worthy of that, to give something back" - bleuuuurch!

I'm sure the five minutes of cooking each episode will be as good as ever, but if it follows the trajectory of previous series the rest of the shows will be nauseating.

This does seem a bit more respectful than the amateurs whining about some sick or dead relative or troubled loved one, trying to set an example for other single moms/overweight people/whatever excuse can be used to get through to the other round hoping "it's good enough". "Oh I worked so hard for this, I want this so bad".

If this trend continues, I'm gonna sign up for miss beautiful black as a caucasian. I want it, I have sick relatives, divorced parents and I look heartbreaking when I cry. This title will be mine, because I want to give hope and show disadvantaged kids all over the world that anything is possible!

What the hell happened to wanting to be the best based on actual merits? To be rewarded for a skill one really has or acquired. Is it a disease to want and/or do something just for yourself nowadays?

I'll take GBM over most shows on any given day...