Great British Menu 2012 – Wales, the chefs, dishes and results

Week seven sees chefs from Wales compete for a place in the GBM finals but first they have to impress judge Angela Hartnett.

Richard Davies

Head Chef – The Bybrook Restaurant

Richard has worked in a number of restaurants prior to The Bybrook including Sawyards in Storrington (now closed), The Vineyard at Stockcross and Three Michelin Starred Restaurant Gorden Ramsay where he started as a demi-chef and worked his way to chef de partie.
Richard is passionate about cooking seasonal and local produce. Richard previously competed in Great British Menu in 2010.

Follow Richard Davies on Twitter – @davies_chef

James Sommerin

Head Chef – The Crown at Whitebrook

James started cooking during weekend trips to visit his gran as a child. After attending college, James started work at a local hotel before travelling to Scotland to work at the Farleyer House Hotel. When James returned to Wales in 2000 he began work at The Crown as a sous chef. He was promoted to head chef in 2003 and was awarded a Michelin Star in 2007 and has retained it ever since. Recently the restaurant was also awarded 3 AA rosettes.

James has taken part in Great British Menu three times before in the 2008, 2009 and 2010 series.

(not on twitter)

Stephen Terry

Chef Patron – The Hardwick

Stephen began his career at Marco Pierre White’s first restaurant; Harveys. Over the years he has cooked in many Michelin starred kitchens and was awarded his own during his time at
The Walnut Tree. The chef now owns The Hardwick where he, his wife and father in law work at the hotel and restaurant.

Stephen competed in the 2008 and 2009 series of GBM and cooked the fish course at the final banquet in 2009.

(not on twitter)

Mentor & Guest Judge – Angela Hartnett

Chef Patron – Murano

Angela bought Murano in 2010 from Gordon Ramsay and has been chef patron since. The restaurant has retained the michelin star it was awarded in 2009. Angelas second book ‘A Taste of home: 200 quick and easy recipes’ was released in July last year. Angela competed in Great British Menu in 2006 and 2008 and returned as a judge in 2011.

Follow Angela Hartnett on twitter – @angelahartnett

Starter

Stephen’s dish was called the ‘The Opening Ceremony’. It was a pigeon salad using squab pigeon and chicken livers cooked in a water bath with wild boar. The chef made a chicken liver sabayon – an unpractised element of the dish for Stephen which caused a little panic towards the end. The salad was served with a white onion risotto and asparagus. When James and Richard tried the food they thought it smelt very good and that the pigeon was cooked very well. Angela thought the food was tasty, well seasoned and that the flavours worked well together. Although overall a good dish, it wasn’t felt that it pushed boundaries. [ Score: 6 ]

Previous competitor and mentor James Sommerin prepared a sage cream, onion, chicken and Welsh Brie truffle toast – a kind of deconstructed chicken and stuffing. He prepared a warm pannacotta, chicken consommé, slow cooked confit chicken wings, cheese on toast and onion pearls. The onion pearls were a soup chilled in liquid nitrogen. Richard and Stephen felt the sage didn’t stand out amongst the other flavours. However, Angela felt all the flavours worked well together but that the onion pearls let the dish down as they melted rather than being a burst of flavour. [ Score: 6 ]

Richards starter was ‘ravioli of quail, parfait of foie gras, roasted salsify & Madeira jelly’. The other chefs felt it was very brave to prepare ravioli for Angela Hartnett – However the pasta was almost translucent and a success. Both Stephen and James felt the quail should have been cooked more but that the dish was beautiful. Angela agreed that the presentation was pretty but that the overall flavours on the plate need lifting. [ Score: 6 ]

Fish course

Stephen Terry cooked a complicated dish consisting of nine different types of fish and shellfish arranged on five coloured “rings” representing the Olympic rings. The red ring was provided by a tomato jelly, filled with white crab and coriander. The black ring was made from caviar and filled with lobster and a poached oyster. Cucumber jelly filled with a mackerel tartare made up the green ring,and a baked lemon jelly filled with hot and cold smoked salmon the yellow. With blue food being hard to come by, the chef made use purple potatoes for his blue ring to hold his scallop ceviche. The chef struggled to get the dish plated in time, and was a few minutes late delivering the dish to the pass even with Richard’s help. Both the other chefs and Angela had concerns that the dish was a series of canapés on a single plate rather than a unified dish. During the tasting with Angela, Stephen expressed some doubt over some of the elements of the dish. When it came to judging the dish, Angela felt the caviar and lobster was the best part of the dish – but picked up on the lemon jelly being too strong. She liked the presentation. [ Score: 6 ]

James Sommerin’s fish course was lobster served with Iberico ham, spiced butter and broccoli. The lobster was served with an aubergine caviar flavoured with cumin, thyme, parsley, garlic and orange. The two other chefs seemed underwhelmed by the dish, unsure of what the broccoli added to the dish and noting the spiced butter wasn’t as prominent as it could have been. Angela commented that the orange in the aubergine caviar was over powering and agreed with the chefs that the broccoli seemed unnecessary. She did, however, like the lobster and spiced butter. She summarised the dish as tasting good but not being innovative. [ Score: 7 ]

Richard Davies also used lobster in his dish, poaching it and serving it with a compressed tomato terrine, scallops, baby fennel and a tomato caviar. The dish was served cold, with the exception of the scallops. The chefs gave the dish a lukewarm reception, questioning the terrine’s lack of vibrancy and the fact that the dish seemed to lack something to bring it all together. In judging, Angela was impressed by the lobster and the tomato caviar. She agreed with the chefs that the dish needed something to unify the various elements, and that the terrine lacked in flavour and suggested the addition of seasoning, olive oil or some basil. [ Score: 6 ]

Main course

Stephen’s ‘Bunny Pentathlon’ was rabbit cooked five ways; a burger prepared with the loins served with slaw and triple cooked fries, faggot prepared with the offal, ham wrapped loin, confit legs in a jelly and pressed shoulder fritters. Having been late twice already this week, there was a lot of pressure on the chef. When served both Richard and James felt it was a very large plate of food for a four course banquet. Angela like the inventiveness of the dish and thought all 5 elements worked well together. However the jelly needed seasoning. [ Score: 9 ]

James prepared ‘Mangalitza pork, liquorice, carrots and leeks’. Although the chef doesn’t like liquorice himself he understood the flavours working well together. Throughout the day, he couldn’t decide whether to serve the loin or tenderloin along with the jowls – in the end he served both. Both Richard and Stephen thought the flavour of the pork wasn’t as strong as it could have been but that all the components sit neatly together. Although Angela doesn’t like liquorice she felt the chef showed an understanding of how flavours work together but did it push boundaries. [ Score: 7 ]

The main Richard chose to cook was ’slow cooked rib of beef, beetroot ketchup, bone marrow and braised shallot’ served with a horseradish ice cream and watercress breadcrumbs. It was traditional flavours with modern techniques – he cooked the rib of beef in a water bath. James and Stephen thought the ice cream could have been stronger. But found the hot and cold elements to be an unusual thing in the mouth. Angela thought there were lots of new techniques on the plate and although she had reservations about some elements she thought it worked well. However, the beef needed to be cooked for less time. [ Score: 7.5]

Dessert

Stephen continued his olympic themed dishes through to dessert and prepared ‘bronze, silver or gold’ involving a trio of desserts; chocolate mousse, lemon meringue pie and strawberry trifle. Each dessert had a bit of gold/server/copper leaf on. The chef served them on a slate with silver domes over the top. Richard and James thought the dessert reminded them of grans cooking but weren’t keen on the chocolate mousse. Angela thought the presentation was fun and quirky but didn’t like the mousse. [ Score: 7 ]

James’s ‘Raspberry and lemon cheesecake’ was a deconstructed take on the dessert with raspberry sorbet , cheesecake snow, raspberry gel, rapsberry and lemon sherbert meringues and pistachio biscotti. He also used dry ice flavoured with raspberries the create something for people to smell. The other chefs didn’t see how the dish fitted together and didn’t see the relevance of the pistachio biscotti. Angela thought it was fun and displayed modern techniques although didn’t think the chocolate cone (with the snow) was actually needed. [ Score: 8 ]

Richard Davies’s ‘Passion fruit cream & gel with bitter chocolate sorbet’ involved making chocolate sorbet and then wrapping the sorbet in some gold leaf. He created a chocolate soil using cocoa powder, flour, butter and sugar. James and Stephen thought the soil spoilt the dish and didn’t feel the plate of food was groundbreaking. Angela thought it was an accomplished dish that was executed well and the sorbet was perfect. [ Score: 8 ]

After tasting all the dishes, Stephen Terrys menu was picked to go through to the finals.

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