it might not render during the cooking.
Marianne dedicated her dish to Sir Peter Mansfield, the developer of the MRI and named it after him ‘Assiete of Game: Sir Peter Mansfield’. She cooked three types of wild game: muntjac, wild rabbit and grouse. She pan-fried the muntjac, sous vide the grouse and the wild rabbit was made into a cannelloni.
First up to the pass was Ryan, and the only issue that Daniel found with it was that there wasn’t enough! In fact, Daniel said that everything on the plate was exquisite.
Second up was Sabrina and it didn’t go to plan for her. Daniel found that all the positives were ‘eclipsed by the disaster of the lamb en croute’ because the fat didn’t render at all in her pastry and Daniel found the potatoes bland and in needing of more seasoning.
Marianne, who scored highly the day before with a 9, was hoping for another high score. Daniel found the cooking of all three meat components to be faultless, however, the cannelloni needed more sauce and for the second time of the day Daniel found that the plate needed more food.
When it came to the scores Sabrina received a 5, Marianne received another 9 and incredibly Ryan was given the second 10 of the week for his dish.
The dessert course
On the fourth day, it was time for the chefs to make their dessert in their last ditch attempts to wow veteran judge Daniel Clifford.
All three chefs had a point to prove, Marianne wanted to push for her first 10 of the week while Ryan wanted to maintain his momentum and Sabrina wanted to regain hers after her main.
Marianne was very theatrical with her dish, ‘Carry on Dr Bakewell’. A sharing dessert made up of a bakewell soufflé served with a raspberry coulis in a syringe and semifreddo ‘tablets’.
Second up was Sabrina, who took inspiration from a childhood favourite ‘Jelly and Ice Cream’. Made of a rhubarb and grenadine jelly with a white chocolate blancmange and a pistachio ice cream. She did have an issue when she was making her jelly because it wasn’t setting, so she took the risk to make it again from scratch with more gelatine.
Ryan wanted to get another 10 with his dish, ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’. He had a lot of complex elements involved in his dessert. He made a chocolate and olive oil ganache, candied hazelnuts, honeycomb, pulled chocolate tuilles, aerated chocolate and salted caramel ice cream. He served it with a hazelnut liqueur.
Knowing that the scores they received would decide who made it through to the regional final, the chefs were under a lot of pressure. Daniel found that Marianne's inspiration really came through with her presentation, but the elegance of it was ruined when it came to serving the soufflé. He also found that the almond flavour of the bakewell was not prominent enough.
Sabrina was in last place in the lead up to dessert day so knew she had to pull it out of the bag to guarantee a place in the final. Daniel enjoyed how the blancmange and jelly were set but found the blancmange was too sweet and said that the overall dish lacked a ‘wow factor’.
Up last to the pass was Ryan. His complicated dessert showed Daniel a lot of skill and he redeemed himself with the salted caramel ice cream - after the issues he had with his brown sauce ice cream in the starter. However, Daniel found the overall dish too rich and said that it was needing a savoury element.
When it came to the scores, Marianne received a 7 meaning that she was going through. This left the last spot for one of either Sabrina or Ryan. Sabrina received a 6 and Ryan was given a 8. This meant that Ryan was going through to the regional final, alongside Marianne.
The Central regional final
Regional finals day for the central region was upon the remaining Great British Menu Chefs from the central region. Ryan and Marianne now had to impress the esteemed panel of judges to try and get a spot in the national finals.
Joining the exacting panel of judges was Daniel Smith, a consultant paramedic who was one of the first people on the scene at the Manchester bombing. He proved to be a very able judge.
Ryan and Marianne had received criticism for their dishes throughout the week from veteran judge Daniel Clifford and had the option to change up their dishes to try and impress the judges more.
For the starters, Ryan received mixed reviews, all the judges were big fans of the brown sauce ice cream which had gone wrong earlier in the week, but the judges were mixed in their opinions of his doughnuts. Marianne’s dish was labelled ‘super-luxe comfort food’ by Oliver Peyton and the judges found the dish to be overpowered by the truffle in it.
Ryan was criticised by Daniel for his fish course lacking a crispy texture so he added some crispy salmon skin to add to his dish, which the judges were big fans of. However, they weren’t sure all the techniques Ryan used complemented each other. Marianne made alterations to her dish as well. She decided to pan fry her scallops instead of sous vide following feedback earlier in the week and Andi Oliver found the dish to have ‘something kind of motherly about it’.
Onto the mains and the judges had varying opinions. Ryan’s main course parked debate as Matthew Fort was a fan of how the muntjac was cooked however the other judges preferred Mariannes cooking of it.
With the desserts, Ryan added a balsamic gel to cut through the richness of his dish. It must have worked because Daniel Smith stated that it was his favourite dish and Matthew thought it was a ‘fabulous note to end on’. Marianne did not fare quite as well. She heeded Daniel Cliffords advice by adding more almond to her bakewell soufflé but stuck to her guns by still only making one large soufflé as opposed to smaller individual ones. The judges were big fans of the wow factor of the dish but found the raspberry coulis a little overpowering.
Once all the dishes were served all that was left was to find out was who was going through to the regional final. It was Marianne who got the nod with the judges enjoying all her food. Unfortunately for Ryan this meant this was the second time he did not make it past the regional final.
