Twenty four of the finest chefs in the country including many chefs from Great British Chefs site are competing in eight regional heats for the opportunity to create a four course menu at special banquet at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate 25 years of Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day.
As with previous years, the show follows the familiar format with three chefs from each region cooking a starter, fish course, main course and dessert for a veteran judge who will select two chefs to cook their menu again on Friday’s show for the judges Matthew Fort, Oliver Peyton & Prue Leith. On Friday the three judges will be joined by Vic Reeves to see how funny the dishes really are.
Representing the Central are Will Holland (who recently joined Great British Chefs site) from La Bécasse in Ludlow, Daniel Clifford from Midsummer House, Cambridge whose main course made it to the banquet last year and Richard Bainbridge from Morston Hall Norfolk. All three chefs are veterans to the show, but it’ll be the first time that laughter is part of the brief. We asked Will Holland what it was like returning to Great British Menu for another year, he said " It was a pleasure to return to the Great British Menu kitchens as a reigning Central region champion after being away for 2 series. Although Daniel Clifford and Richard Bainbridge were my competition, they are good friends and I hold a lot of respect for both of them so we had a lot of good fun cooking together for a week. It was great to see how each of us interpreted the brief differently and how our different cooking styles and backgrounds came through in our finished dishes. I was really confident with all my dishes that I cooked in the competition."
Monday’s episode leads with starters. Daniel Clifford we are sure won’t be making a chip sandwich with his dish A Trip to the Chippy. Richard Bainbridge’s starter, banana split won’t be a dessert! Will Holland will be serving goats cheese mousse, balsamic jelly and gingerbread.
Fish courses on Tuesday include Catch of the Day, Tongue in Cheek and poached brill, crab, celeriac and tomato essence.
On Wednesday all the chefs are getting involved helping Richard to baste an inflated cow’s bladder in red dye, to give it the appearance of a giant red egg, it’s part of his main course. Daniel Clifford will be making Tongue in Cheek (not to be confused with Richard’s fish course with the same name on Tuesday) and Will Holland is creating a dish of roast longhorn beef rib eye, bread and bone marrow pudding and parsley paste.
