Great British Menu 2012 – North East, the chefs, dishes & results

Week three sees chefs from the North East of England aiming to get their dishes on to the menu at The Olympic Feast, but first they’ll need to impress judge Nigel Haworth.

Stephanie Moon

Consultant Chef – Rudding Park, Harrogate

Returning contestant Stephanie Moon is the only female chef in this year’s series of Great British Menu. Stephanie’s early career took her around the world working in top restaurants in Australia, Germany, Switzerland and North America. In 1995 she returned to the UK, where she worked at a number of restaurants before coming Head Chef at The Clocktower Restaurant at the Rudding Park Hotel. Although she left the role in 2009, she continues to work with the team she built up whilst running her consultancy businesses and tutoring at Leeds College.

Read our interview with Stephanie Moon.

Follow Stephanie Moon on Twitter – @stephaniejmoon

Charlie Lakin

Head Chef – The Marquis at Alkham, Dover

Newcomer to the competition Charlie Lakin grew up on his parent’s small holding in Yorkshire. His culinary career started at just 14 working in a pub kitchen. He went on to study catering before working at several restaurants in his home county, including working with previous Great British Menu contestant Andrew Pern at The Star Inn in Helmsley.

The chef describes his style of cooking robust and rural – ‘more weightlifter than sprinter’.

Follow Charlie Lakin on Twitter – @marquischarlie

Colin McGurran

Chef Patron – Winteringham Fields, Scunthorpe

Chef Colin McGurran’s culinary career started out at Bournemouth College. After a period working in the Middle East, including working as banqueting manager to the royal family of the United Arab Emirates, he returned to the UK. Back in West Yorkshire, he setup a successful pub and restaurant with his sister before moving on to take over Winteringham Fields.

At Winteringham Fields, Colin and his team grow, rear or forage 90% of the ingredients used in their kitchens.

This is the chef’s first appearance on Great British Menu.

Follow Colin McGurran on twitter – @colinmcgurran

Mentor & Guest Judge – Nigel Haworth

Owner – Northcote, Blackburn

Chef and restauranteur Nigel Haworth is best known for his Michelin Starred restaurant Northcote (Lisa Allen, a previous competitor is Head Chef there); but also owns several pubs which have also built up a reputation for good food. He arranges an annual festival, Obsession, inviting ten of the UK’s top chefs to his restaurant to cook a special menu.

Follow Nigel Haworth on twitter – @nigelhaworth

Starter

Stephanie’s dish, “Get Set, GOat’s Cheese” involved the chef making goats cheese during the 90 minutes cooking time – a process the producer she visited during the show told her usually takes four days. The goats cheese was served with a scone made with the whey, crisp bacon, home made butter and some sprouted seeds. In a nod to the Olympic theme, the plate was marked with start/finish lines. The other chefs thought the cheese was good, but felt the dish was too simple. Nigel was impressed by the fact that the chef had made both the goats cheese and the butter, but felt the goats cheese needed a bit more “punch” and the scone wasn’t light enough. [ Score: 5 ]

Colin McGurran presented a dish called “Quail in the wood” in which he used as much of the bird as possible, making a parfait with the liver, a confit of the leg and poaching the breast before coating it in a gelled quail stock. With this he served a tempura battered quails egg, skewered on Douglas-fir, and a black olive ’soil’ (a last minute addition to the dish). The dish was presented on plates made from bark which sat amongst a display of foraged leaves. The dish received a cool reception from the other chefs, and Nigel felt the dish was too complex picking poor seasoning and a lack of crispness to the confit legs as areas for improvement. [ Score: 4 ]

Charlie’s starter was a rustic dish of wild rabbit served with carrots, Douglas-fir and capers. He serve the rabbit three ways, making a rillette with the leg and shoulder, smoking the loin over cherry wood and making crackling from the belly. The rabbit was served with soused carrots, carrot and Douglas-fir panacotta and a Douglas-fir vinaigrette. Again the reaction from the chefs was mixed, with Stephanie complementing the rillette, but disliking the soused carrots. Judge Nigel Haworth was more impressed with the dish, saying although the dish appeared rustic the cooking was elegant; he was also pleased to not the pine didn’t over power the rest of the dish. [ Score: 7 ]

Fish course

Stephanie Moon’s dish, “See Food?” consisted of gurnard served with a Whitby crab consommé, garnished with popping candy, wood sorrel and dill. The dish was served with sensory inhibitors – blacked out goggles and nose clips to allow the eater to try the dish without either the sense of sight or smell. The chefs were unsure of the dish, but it was judge Nigel Haworth was even less convinced saying he had chosen to ignore the “gimmicks” as he didn’t like them and that he felt the popping candy just didn’t work. [ Score: 6 ]

Colin’s fish course, “Mullet in a seabed” was an intricate dish which consisted of mullet fillets served on an edible ’seabed’ created with sea radish, purslane, compressed cucumber, purple potato ‘rocks’ and an edible anchovy flavoured sand. The dish was the covered in a sheet seaweed gel representing water. Both Stephanie and Charlie loved the look of the dish, but were unsure about the gel. Nigel was also impressed with the presentation, but felt the mullet was slightly under cooked and under seasoned. [ Score: 8 ]

Charlie Lakin cooked a dish of beetroot marinated monkfish served with sea radish and cauliflower. The monkfish was cooked sous-vide, a technique the chef doesn’t usually make use of. Both chefs liked the dish, especially the fish – as did the judge Nogel Haworth – complementing the chef on his execution but suggesting the dish needed more seasoning. [ Score: 7 ]

Main course

Stephanie’s main course was “Team Spirit Re-Vealed” – rosé British veal rubbed with hyssop and smoked over cherry wood; the veal was presented branded with the words “Team GB” and served with a “Team GB croquette” consisting of oxtail to represent Britain, leeks to represent Wales, potatoes for Ireland and coated in Scottish oats. Charlie thought the dish was perhaps a bit cumbersome and wasn’t keen on the rub, but Colin did enjoy the veal and the rub. Nigel did like the dish, complementing Stephanie on the perfectly smoked veal and the croquette – although it was slightly too big. [ Score: 8 ]

Colin McGurran’s dish was “hay smoked pigs head served with mock apple and textures of onion”. The chef braised and then smoked the meat from the jowl, made a black pudding cream from fresh pigs blood and made crackling from the skin. The mock apple was made by dipping a apple mousse in liquid nitrogen to freeze it then into an apple gel. The chefs thought the portion size was too small; something Nigel agreed with – they also felt the black pudding was lost. Nigel liked the combination of flavours, and the contrast from the apple. [ Score: 9 ]

Charlie Lakin cooked a seared fillet and braised blade of Dexter beef, served with snail and bone marrow croquettes and wild garlic. The croquettes were made by mincing the snails with the bone marrow along with the wild garlic, and were designed to “burst” when cut. The chefs loved the beef, especially the blade but felt the croquettes were too greasy. Nigel also loved the beef, but he also liked the croquette although felt it needed more garlic. [ Score: 7 ]

Dessert

Stephanie prepared a podium of puddings with the three levels representing stronger, faster and higher. Stronger was a chocolate marquise with chilli, Faster a banana salt caramel isotonic drink and Higher being a Yorkshire honeycomb parfait with nut brittle with goji berries. The other chefs thought that the dish was too large to end a four course meal. Nigel thought the chilli flavour didn’t come through in the chocolate but that the nut brittle was nice. He thought the combination of all the desserts was too rich to end the banquet. [ Score: 6 ]

Colin prepared “Chocolate, Rhubarb and Custard” – a rhubarb & custard sorbet, praline and crumble within a chocolate sphere. When the Crème anglaise was poured over the chocolate sphere it should have melted the chocolate and the heat stable sorbet should have stayed in tact. The other chefs loved the effect but were disappointed with the crème anglaise which had been overcooked and split. Nigel was very surprised Colin hadn’t practiced the dessert more but thought the dish was interesting, but wasn’t sure of the flavour combination of rhubarb and dark chocolate. [ Score: 5 ]

Charlie’s dessert was an Earl grey and strawberry soufflé with gorse flower ice cream. When Stephanie and Colin tried it they thought the ice cream tasted more like a mousse and also questioned if it met the brief – ideal for a restaurant but not necessarily a banquet. Nigel thought the soufflé had a good texture but he wasn’t keen on the ice cream. [ Score : 6 ]

Stephanie was unable to recover from the low scores received earlier in the week and left the competition leaving Charlie Lakin and Colin McGurran to cook for the judges on Friday.

There was mixed feedback throughout from the judges with them thinking the quail in the woods looked great, but that the dish didn’t deliver and Charlie’s rabbit was oversmoked. Colin changed the dessert he prepared and used white chocolate instead of dark and tried to flame the sorbet – however, it failed to light and the judges weren’t impressed at the lack of practice. The judges unanimously selected Colin McGurran’s menu so he will go forward to compete in the end of series final.

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