dessert, which he had altered since regionals to reduce the sweetness in all the elements. Also joining them was Michael, who didn’t just adapt his dish, but changed it completely. Taking inspiration from WI recipes, Michael created a rather concerning sounding custard from mash potato. Fortunately, the judges loved it and thought about incorporating it into their own desserts from now on.
During the nail biting final, Prue, Oliver and Matt had the difficult task of finalising the menu. They were proud to announce that joining Matt would be Richard, who Matthew described as “a triumph of hope over adversity”, would be cooking both the starter and the dessert courses alongside Michael and his “wonderful and amazing” fish dish which won through to the banquet. 
The day before the banquet, the chefs received some help, or hindrance, from three of the regional guest judges, and everyone seemed to be quite calm and collected. Until preparation time ran out.
Matt was nowhere near ready to leave the kitchen, but admitted defeat, and left his goats cheese to crisp up in the dehydrator… Which someone turned off during the night, resulting in a very stressed and upset chef in the early hours of banquet day. To add insult to injury, just as Richard and Matt were setting up their indoor BBQs, the fun police arrived and ordered them outside, which was obviously a massive inconvenience for the time-poor chefs.
Just as things couldn’t get any worse for Matt, the pressure cooker started playing up, meaning that the goat bones he had just chucked in there would either need to be cooked in separate smaller units, or the several men flapping around the machine would need to find a way to fix it. Fortunately, they did, and things were starting to look up. As ‘Jerusalem’ began to play for the ladies at the banquet, Richard was frantically rushing around the
kitchen trying to plate up his starter. The song felt like some sort of countdown to the chaos.
Barking orders to the chefs and the front of house staff, Richard started to think aloud how he wished someone else would have won a course at the banquet. Drama aside, the responses were all very positive, Prue saying that the meal was “better than what he served at the finals”.
Michael was the only one who seemed cool and collected throughout the experience. Taking three and a half hours to create 60 canvases, he was able to start cooking with only a couple of hours to go until service.
Recruiting the others to help spray-paint his boards, Matt had a whale of a time, thinking about the “misspent youth” he had whilst graffiti-ing with dashi sauce. Greeted with a surge of gasps and “wow”s, Michael’s take on fish and chips had ladies taking out their phones for a quick picture before diving into the artistic meal. 
Presenting his story book before the meal, the guests were saddened by Matt’s story behind the ‘wasted’ billy goats, destroyed at birth. With everyone on board, Matt was eager to serve his dish to the ladies with impeccable standards while it was still warm, however the service was just not fast enough, putting pressure on the chef.
Thankfully, the meals were delivered on time, and Daniel Clifford, the judge from London and the South East, was astounded by the talent, commenting “it’s the greatest dish I have ever tasted on Great British Menu”. After an astounding meal, who wouldn’t want to sip a lovely Victoria sponge cocktail?
Richard chose to serve those first; the 280 bottles that Prue and his family helped to label earlier in the day. “It really reminds 
me of my childhood” was just one of the passing comments regarding the amazing trifle that 100% hit the brief. As the last episode of the series came to an end, I felt a mixture of satisfaction and sadness. For the last 9 weeks my evenings had been consumed with consommés, purees and a variety of confit meats, and suddenly it was all at an end. Until next year that is.
While the chefs (who should be wearing name tags, for the audience’s sake) were all twiddling their thumbs and giving each other glares in the kitchen, Prue was harping on about how great it would be to have Jacqueline O’Donnell, the only woman in the competition, to go through to cook for the WI.
