The story behind Nikita Pathakji’s Great British Menu success
Nikita Pathakji has barely had chance to celebrate her memorable Great British Menu success.
The 28-year-old, who grew up in Derby, was crowned ‘champion of champions’ during the dramatic banquet conclusion of the popular BBC cooking show, which aired on Friday.
Filmed in January at St George’s Hall in Liverpool, Nikita’s halibut with curry sauce dish triumphed over offerings from fellow menu course winners Orry Shand, Cal Byerley and Ciaran Brennan, when put to a vote by the diners.
It follows up her previous televised glory, crowned MasterChef: The Professionals winner in 2022.
Nikita’s latest success is all the more remarkable given she was not even due to cook the fish course at the banquet, stepping in late on due to Corrin Harrison’s unavailability.
She was due to be at the banquet, serving the canapés, a reward for having performed strongly throughout finals week, including finishing second to Corrin on fish, who went on to share his congratulations to Nikita via social media.
“Finals week was in November and then the banquet was at the end of January,” Nikita explained, in an interview with The Staff Canteen.
“I honestly can't remember when I got told I would be stepping in for Corrin, it's a bit of a blur.
“People from the show came to my house. They told me they needed to do some backstory filming and then (GBM presenter) Andi Oliver called me up and asked if I would be able to do it.
“I saw Corrin after the banquet. His message on Instagram was so wonderful. He's a great chef and I was gutted for him that he couldn't cook at the banquet, because he did work incredibly hard to get there.
“But he still won the course. He can take that with him.”
Why Nikita spent time in hospital
By Nikita’s own admission, she probably should not have even made it to the banquet herself, aside from Corrin’s withdrawal.
“I had an ear infection when I went to the banquet and I was on my seventh day of antibiotics, but they weren't doing anything,” she revealed.
“It was gradually getting worse and worse.
“You can actually see it in some of the photos, my ear was getting bigger and bigger and more and more swollen.
“Probably if it wasn't for the banquet, I might have gone to A&E sooner, but I didn't! I have like pure stubbornness.
“And then I went to A&E the next day and ended up staying in hospital for 10 days, because it wouldn't clear. But it was completely my fault and not a cause of Great British Menu, it was just really terrible timing.
“I didn't get to celebrate actually because of that, until it aired. So it was really nice when it aired and I’m completely fine now.”
Narrowly missing out in finals week
Finals week featured a strong line-up of chefs this year, with their restaurants between them boasting five Michelin stars, as well as many other accolades.
To qualify, private chef Nikita overcame James Sherwin, Louisa Ellis and Ash Valenzuela-Heeger in the Central regional heat.
After placing sixth out of eight in the starter course, Nikita was then among the strongest performers for the rest of the week, albeit not quite doing enough to win any of the remaining spots on the banquet chalkboard.
“I think you can definitely see the progression of how it got tougher and tougher each time to come so close,” she admitted.
“Finals week is such an intense experience, physically and emotionally, because it's all actually filmed in one week. You're just cooking dishes day after day.
“I came second on fish. I really wanted it, but Corrin's dish was incredible, so I handled that well because he deserved it.
“And then joint first on main for three of us, so it was a tiebreaker. (Head judge) Tom Kerridge chose Cal, which again was an incredible dish, so he deserved it.
“I was like, fine, I've got one more shot. And then dessert, second again.
“I'm very proud of myself for how well I did during finals week. But it definitely took its toll by the time I got to the dessert.”
Putting into context how much work went into perfecting her menu, Nikita said: “I practiced a lot.
“I probably practiced the fish dish the least, because the first time I developed it, it was as I wanted it the first time, and that doesn't happen very often.
“All of the other dishes, they took a little bit of trial and error and adjusting and tweaking. The feedback after the regionals was all to do with the props and how easy it was to put together and eat, not the actual food.
“The main course, I had so much going on. I had two different cuts of meat, plus a pie, three sides, a purée and a sauce. I had to practice that one a lot, to try and do it in one hour 45 minutes.
“I probably did the full run through maybe five or six times. I would just text my neighbours saying, ‘dinner's ready’, and they would come over and eat the food!
“The kitchen would be a state because I'd just been throwing pans everywhere.
“And then the dessert took a lot because I made a lot of changes on that one, between regionals and finals."
Navigating the Great British Menu banquet
The banquet itself was not without its hurdles to overcome, notably some of the logistical challenges at St George’s Hall. The kitchen was on a different floor to the dining hall, while some building regulations meant certain cooking methods had to be performed outside.
“The first day was really challenging, because you're thrown into a brand-new kitchen,” Nikita explained.
“We found our feet and then were able to make a plan as a group. We moved benches in the pass to just outside the hall, so there was a whole service kitchen there.
“There's always a way and chefs are pretty stubborn! We'll find a way to make it work, and we did. It was good in the end, the service was smooth.”
Reflecting on the moment she was announced as champion of champions, Nikita said: “I definitely wasn't expecting it.
“I had a tough time during the banquet because I felt a little bit of imposter syndrome, because I didn't win the course. And so I did really want it, because I needed to prove to myself that I deserved to be there.
“I love that dish so much, so to have it voted for by the room of people is just incredible. I can't really put it into words. It's unbelievable to me still.”
The difference between Great British Menu and MasterChef
Asked how different the Great British Menu experience was compared to her time on MasterChef, Nikita said: “I spoke to lots of people who have done the show before and they all warned me that it's very, very intense.
“MasterChef is also incredibly challenging, but it's one challenge a week, for a period of three months and it's constantly creating and inventing. It's completely different.
“Whereas this show, for regionals, you film it in a week and for finals, you film it in a week. And it's just the two most intense situations to be in, especially regionals actually.
“You are also working with the same dish over and over again, trying to perfect it as much as you can. Then there’s also storytelling involved, which is probably my weakness. I love creating new dishes, but it has to relate to a story and that was a really big challenge.”
She continued: “(Winning) is really exciting this time, because I'm launching a restaurant. I couldn't have planned it - the timing has worked out amazingly.
“With MasterChef, I felt completely out of my depth, but I was also just sort of finding my feet, deciding what I wanted to do next.
“Whereas this is happening at an amazing time, because we're launching a restaurant.”
Nikita’s next chapter
Following her training at Westminster Kingsway College, Nikita gained Michelin-starred kitchen experience, working at the likes of Claude Bosi’s Bibendum, Core by Clare Smyth and Kitchen W8.
More recently, she has been running sold-out supper clubs at her family home in Clapham. But there is no time to sit back and enjoy her Great British Menu success.
From May 20, she will be running her own restaurant, Maai, alongside her mum Rima and sister Isha on Abbeville Road, in the same part of town as the likes of Adam Byatt’s Bistro Union and Michelin-starred Trinity.
“Maai means mother,” Nikita explained.
“As soon as I got invited onto Great British Menu, the next week, my sister booked a sabbatical for this year, and we decided that we were going to go for it and open a restaurant.
“We're calling it modern British. It's a sharing plates concept. Classical techniques, which is my training, but flavours from all over the world, which is kind of what you’ll have seen me do on MasterChef and Great British Menu. That’s really my style.
“I’ve lived in Clapham for 10 years and love the neighbourhood. It’s a great atmosphere here. There are some great restaurants already, but only a few. We want to build on that and really make it a great neighbourhood and great destination as well.”
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She continued: “We're going to have the à la carte and there'll also be a tasting menu.
“And then on Sundays, we’re calling it ‘roast-ish’, but not a classic roast. It's a nod to my Great British Menu main course. And my Great British Menu fish dish will also be on the menu.
“On the other side of the restaurant, there's also a little bar area. My sister's amazing at making cocktails, so we're going to have a really great cocktail offering, and we'll have a little bar snack menu that goes alongside that.
“The supper clubs are really what spurred this on. We wanted to expand on that because they were in really high demand and we love doing them.
“We will do supper club nights in the restaurant once or twice a month.
“It's really about family hospitality. We don't want to be stuffy or pretentious. It's an extension of our home. We want to feel like people are coming into our home.”
'Lifelong dream' to open a restaurant
Asked if this had been in the plans before her Great British Menu journey, Nikita said: “It's absolutely a lifelong dream. But opening a restaurant is really, really hard. And so it had to be the right time for us, because it's never the right time in the world to open a restaurant, but it's the right time for us.
“So it just sort of spurred us on to just go for it. I wouldn't dream of doing it on my own. I couldn't do it without my mum and sister.
“We want to build a really great neighbourhood restaurant that people want to come back to time and time again.
“Proper family hospitality, food that makes people happy. That’s the goal.”
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