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Cooking for our Queen


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OK, I now can't bear this any longer.

Champagne Sadie and I subscribe to a dreadful gossip newsfeed called HolyMoly which published a leak about the show last week.

As informed UK foodies we should know - on the oither hand, if you like the show and don't want to know how it ends... you probably shouldn't.

HERE IS THE SPOILER

Use it wisely.

After all it could be total rubbish.

:wink:

Rather scarily, HM is usually right. :laugh:

Tim - I shall never forgive you for "outing" me. :cool:

Neither of tonights dishes appealled to me.

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As a Yank, I'm enjoying all this quite a bit. It's a good way of educating myself about the chefs I haven't as yet seen on TV in my 2 years here.

Last night's fish courses were a lot more interesting than the starters.

Is it impolite to mention that Michael Caines only has one arm but manages to cook with both? I found that the most incredible thing about the programme!

I don't know the judges but hope they'll be a bit more interesting than they appear to be so far.

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I got the impression that JBR was suffering from a heavy cold (certainly he sounded that way), perhaps that was why his starter was described as too heavy on the garlic. But has nobody told him that Her Majesty doesn't eat garlic?

That article is really quite concerning

"Buckingham Palace has reportedly banned garlic and spaghetti for the Queen's forthcoming trip to Italy ... steer clear of "messy" tomato sauces ... ban on shellfish, rare meat, foreign water and any food that is too spicy or exotic," etc. etc. etc.

Hence, I predict the winner will be cornflakes in Tupperware.

I'm sure the series will be tremendous entertainment to the cookerati. But, among McDonalds-going nation, I suspect it'll be viewed as a ludicrous excercise in buffing up pearls to lay before swine. And frankly, I find it difficult to disagree: it's hard to imagine a more ornate and offensive waste of broadcasting time and public money.

Edited by naebody (log)
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In episode one JBR said Michael will be 'cooking in the style I did 15 years ago. I've moved on to simpler food, simply presented' (or something to that effect).

Low and behold, JBR's fish course was, well something you from John Campbell, whereas MC's dih was, erh, very simple, simply presented.

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OK, I now can't bear this any longer.

Champagne Sadie and I subscribe to a dreadful gossip newsfeed called HolyMoly which published a leak about the show last week.

As informed UK foodies we should know - on the oither hand, if you like the show and don't want to know how it ends... you probably shouldn't.

HERE IS THE SPOILER

Use it wisely.

After all it could be total rubbish.

:wink:

Rather scarily, HM is usually right. :laugh:

Tim - I shall never forgive you for "outing" me. :cool:

Neither of tonights dishes appealled to me.

Hmm, doesn't the public vote for the eventual winner after the judges have whittled them down?. Her Maj might end up with one heck of a phone bill if she wants Gary Rhodes to win :biggrin:

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Glad to see michael caines win tonight. I thought he deserved it.

The judges comment seemed surprisingly harsh - it's either a reflection of the level of the competition or tv editing I s'pose. I'd like to have seen a bit more debate and discussion.

Next week's round with Richard Corrigan and Paul Rankin should be fun to watch as they're both characters.

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Glad to see michael caines win tonight. I thought he deserved it.

Oh NOOOOOO! I should have known better and not to check this thread tonight. Here in Scotland we only saw the dessert episode tonight - the final is tomorrow, i.e. on Saturday :sad: I'm glad that Caines won though, as I've preferred the look and sound of his dishes through the week..

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Can someone explain to me exactly how this programme was taped. It seems fairly obvious that the chefs didn't come in and do another complete cooking session for the judges on another day... or did they? Jenny Bond is shown wearing the same outfit all five days. She didn't even change wardrobe for the judging! Are they trying to make the audience actually believe this is done over a five day period??

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I mentioned in an earlier post that JBR comes across as a total prat.  Sure some of it was for the camera, but this guy really does think his waste product smells of roses.

I'm so glad he lost.  Quite a lot of humble pie methinks.  A complete Richard Cranium.

There was one point he got absolutely right though, and I think that explains also why he could never win it. JBR said he wasn't doing a la carte restaurant food---he was doing dishes to be served up for a dinner of 350 people. I think he really hit the nail on the head there. The chef who wins this is probably going to be the one who tones down their dishes the least. Whether or not they can then produce dishes of a similar calibre at the final event will be a completely different kettle of fish.

The judges, I think, preferred JBR's main course and dessert, whereas they were unimpressed by his starter and fish course. If his fish course had been better he might have won this round, but he obviously decided that serving a decent hot fish course to several hundred people would be unfeasible.

I wonder what happens once they have the initial rounds out of the way? Are the same judges supposed to judge the same menus a second time, or are the chefs supposed to produce something different? If it was up to me I'd make them serve up their menus to a school of 700 kids (350 per chef) and the winner is the one with the fewest leftovers. Ok, so maybe the queen ends up with turkey twizzlers but she would be guaranteed popular British food.

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Thanks for the message Richard, just watched the repeat. One thing, was Michael's lobster called "pan FRIED" or "pan FIRED"? Because the on-screen run down of the menu called it pan fired, which I assume is a spelling mistake?

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Its an enjoyable enough watch, but if it's not bad enough that they re-cap everything that happened in the last 10 mintues of the show (Andy likes the show but can't help feeling all those recaps just aren't necessary. He'll be telling us why all the flash forwards are driving him mad later in this post), we've now got to endure trailers within the programme itself for what's coming up in 10 minutes time. (Yes, it's a good show, but are all those flash backs and forwards really necessary? Will Andy continue watching the programme or will the endless reminders and teasers drive him away? Find out at the end of this post).

"Its a good show, but all the flash backs and forwards are really getting on my nerves."

Coming tomorrow - will Andy continue to watch the programme or will the endless repetition of the production style force him to switch over?

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Anyone know where/if this is repeated as I missed the final episode :(

It's mostly repetition anyway.

It's a dreadful cheap bit of television. I was thinking I'll just watch the Friday bit next week but I'm not sure I could even stand that.

Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die

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Northern Ireland this week, Paul Rankin against Richard Corrigan. When did Corrigan's home town of Dublin become part of Northern Ireland?

At least there's a lot less sniping and no goat's cheese so far.

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OK, so here is how the program is constructed:

1- What we saw yesterday was...

2- What we will see today is....

3- What we are looking at is.....

4- What we just saw is....

5- And tomorow we start the same again with the moronic voice over telling us what we see/saw/seeing/haveseen/willsee/expect tosee/haveseen but onemoretime/see again/just in case you not see....

Anyway who cares as long as the UK taxpayer is footing the bill and pass the salt pluease!

Next series are Food Writers followed by Food Critics or is it Food Writers vs Food Critics.

So if you can write 100 words article without anyone understanding what you talk about and squeeze few words about food which is not easy for a genouiane food writer then apply in confidence to BBC for Morons at Suckers Lane and make sure to put your bank details and Tuscany prefered hang out.

Woo Hoo Simon Cowell. Ere I c0me.

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Northern Ireland this week, Paul Rankin against Richard Corrigan. When did Corrigan's home town of Dublin become part of Northern Ireland?

At least there's a lot less sniping and no goat's cheese so far.

Tsk, he is from Meath like myself. We tend to get in a huff when Dubs claims Meath people for themselves. I missed the start of tonights episode but I believe he said that his family is from the North. They are obviously using the same system on the TV show that we use to select people for our national football team.

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