Oh boy, was this week a tough one for our three intrepid chefs from Northern Ireland or what. Hard taskmaster Phil Howard certainly put Chris McGowan, Danni Barry and Ben Arnold through their paces, I can tell you that.
Yep, the scoring was fairly low this week, aside from a triumphant 9 for Ben’s trifle, which saw him overtake Danni right at the very end. Which was a shame because her main dish of Pork Wellington with mead sauce and mead braised pig cheeks ticked all the boxes for me. Unfortunately, her risk-taking strategy often led her down the wrong path and, in this case, out of the door.
So for the final heat, we were left with the little and large combination of Chris and Ben, who both needed to up their game for the judges. From the beginning of last night’s episode, it was obvious that the stakes were high. Richard Corrigan’s right-hand man even went so far to say that if he didn’t start achieving 9’s and 10’s, then he wouldn’t be able to go home. That’s right, if Prue, Oliver and Matt didn’t like his food, well, he would be made homeless. Simple as that. Plus with guest judge, food writer and WI advocate Felicity Cloake on the scene, the ante was well and truly upped – for Felicity is the recipe tester’s tester’s… tester, and therefore knows her stuff.
As the saying goes 'cooking does not get tougher than this.'
Wait, that’s the wrong show.