performer so far with two 8’s, wanted to get a big score leading into the dessert round. Inspired by his cousin who is a theatre nurse, ‘A Rare Breed’ was celebrating the people who make up the NHS. A theatrical dish made of a northern Irish ribeye centrepiece that was controversially cooked in a water bath accompanied with short rib nuggets and chips, cooked in a 3 part process.
Veteran chef, Jeremy, maintained his high standards in his verdicts on the dishes. He found Shauna’s dish to be technically flawless, with all its components working in harmony and all cooked perfectly, however, if the cottage pie element was removed Jeremy questioned if the dish would be special enough.
Tommy was praised for the amount of thought that went into the presentation of his main and how his sweetbreads tasted. But, Jeremy said there were too many elements in the dish which made it a ‘cacophony of confusion’.
James, while making sensational nuggets and making a real sense of theatre in his dish was criticised for the lack of flavour and texture in his beef.
This meant that Shauna was scored an 8, while the boys were given a 7.
Northern Ireland dessert
The last course of for the three Northern Irish Great British Menu chefs was dessert. With only one point separating them, they all had the chance to secure themselves a place in the regional finals on Friday.
In the lead after scoring an 8 for her main, Shauna wanted to keep ahead with her dessert ‘Tea & Toast to Say Thank You‘. Having been head pastry chef for Marcus Wareing for 3 years she was pulling out all the stops to wow Jeremy. Focused around tea and toast it was made up of a bergamot cheesecake, toast ice cream and a tea infused vodka cocktail.
James Devine, the resident competition chef wanted to get his highest score of the week with his dessert dedicated to the first responders called ‘Orange Aid‘. A 5 layer dessert focussed around chocolate and orange flavours it comprised of a coffee sponge base, a parfait centre and it was serve with a ‘whiskeycello’, which was a riff on limoncello.
Tommy who was the only chef as of yet to have scored a 10 this week wanted to replicate that score with his dessert titled, ‘Thanks a Bunch‘. A thank you to the whole NHS, it was designed to be like flowers and a box of chocolates. A very technical dish made up of 13 elements it involved a chocolate mousse, filled with passionfruit served alongside a caramelised white chocolate ice cream.
Jeremy knew the importance of this course in determining who was going to make it through to the regional final. He was looking for absolute excellence in the Northern Irish Great British Menu chefs desserts. He found Shauna’s dessert to be a touching tribute made of finely balanced flavours but, he hated the tea.
James, who has always put on show with his courses was praised for his presentation and the intial hit of flavour but was criticised for the lack of clearly defined layers in his dessert.
Jeremy loved the message behind Tommy’s dish and the chocolates in the little boxes. He was not a fan though of the mousse’s texture and found the dish to be lacking in elegance.
With all the feedback given all that was left was to find who would go through to the regional final. Shauna went straight through with her score of 8 while, iincredibly, both James and Tommy scored a 6, meaning they both ended up on the same score. This left Jeremy with the unenviable position of having to pick one to go through. He opted for Tommy, citing his reasoning for choosing Tommy as Tommy’s outstanding fish course.
The regional final of the Great British Menu pitted Tommy and Shauna against one another to try and get their place in the national finals.
Joining the esteemed group of judges to help work out who was going to get their place in the final was Shehan Hettiarachy who was the lead surgeon in the major trauma unit at St Mary’s Hospital on the day of the Grenfell fire.
Tommy was up with his starter which Jeremy had said earlier in the week ‘lacked refinement’. To counter this Tommy made changes to the dish, including covering the duck egg in breadcrumbs instead of filo pastry and adding crunchy bread. Matthew Fort described the egg as being the ‘hero’ of the dish.
Shauna started off her day with her starter which she made minimal changes to but did remove the onion bhaji, instead making into a crumb. The judges found it lacked in certain aspects.
Tommy, who had scored the only 10 of the week for his fish course made the bold move to change his artichoke puree for a cauliflower one. The dish went down just as well though with the judges all finding it to be fantastic.
For her fish course, Shauna heeded Jeremy’s advice and dropped the second trout element of her dish. Oliver was a big fan of how the dish mentioned mental health, but they all found the dish to be a bit confusing.
Both chefs made beef and rarebit for their mains but Tommy made changes to his main course. He had deep fried his sweetbreads earlier in the week but now he pan-fried them and made the rarebit into a croquette. Andi was critical of the dish, saying that ‘everything was not quite right’.
Shauna stuck to her guns and kept her takeaway element, which the judges actually found to be the best part of her dish.
Unfortunately, though they thought the Galloway beef was dull.
For dessert, Tommy went against Jeremy’s advice and kept his dessert exactly the same. Matthew found that the little chocolates in the dessert had too much passionfruit in them for Matthew and Shehan thought the dish didn’t have the right execution.
Shauna’s final dish of the day was a mixed bag, Oliver was not a fan of the tea cocktail but enjoyed the yoghurt and bergamot cake. However, in general, the judges seemed underwhelmed.
Once all the dishes had been served all that was left was for the judges to put the contestants out of their misery and let them know who made it through. Only 3 points separated them and it turned out that Tommy made it through!
