Few things in life make you feel quite so old as when Great British Menu’s ‘veteran’ chef is barely thirty. Tommy Banks had a Michelin star by the age of twenty-four and has twice achieved success on the show in getting his fish courses to the banquet. Now he shows he can easily give the old guard a run for its money – presenting a fresh, unfussy interpretation of the judge’s role, whilst still performing his contractual obligations of pacing in the corridor, shuffling the score cards and looking inscrutably pensive.
Tommy welcomes newcomers to the competition, Chris McClurg and Alex Greene. Both originally from County Down, now working as head chefs at Michelin-starred restaurants, Chris is at Paul Ainsworth’s No.6 in Padstow and Alex is at Deanes Eipic in Belfast.
Missing out on the judges’ chamber this week was another newbie, Glen Wheeler from Fermanagh who is chef=patron of the Michelin-recommended 28 Darling Street in Enniskillen. Glen’s kitchen stint ended on a high with his near-perfect Champagne Pavlova but it just wasn’t enough to pop past Alex and Chris’s identical scores.
For his starter, Alex offers ‘Breakfast: Oh You Pretty Things’ dedicated to Bowie and all the artists who have mentioned breakfast in their songs. There are quite a lot allegedly, so do feel free to identify them if you have a spare hour or two. He arranges ‘petals’ of set cep ketchup, interspersed with roasted and pickled mushrooms, then places a duck egg yolk on mushroom foam and scatters with pork scratchings as the centre of his ‘flower’. Bacon and dashi broth in a teapot and a slice of stout soda bread complete the breakfast table.
The broth hits the spot with Andi, who praises the ‘good dashi’ and Oliver agrees it’s ‘absolutely delicious’ but Matthew picks at the set cep, calling it ‘carpet underlay’. Guest judge, the charming Loyle Carner, asks ‘is it a bit underwhelming?’
With fond memories of post-gig kebabs, Chris presents ‘Brixton Academy Through the Years’, a cleverly classy, on-brief starter that gained him top marks from Tommy Banks. Cubes of hogget breast are cooked over charcoal, then skewered with pickled cucumber, fried veal sweetbreads and a battered oyster and pocketed in soft charred flatbread. It’s accompanied by a bowl of yoghurt, mint, lemon and oyster leaves, a bitter leaf salad and dukkah on the side.
‘Oh man… delicious!’ says Loyle, but Andi is quick to question the hogget seasoning and Matthew asks for views on the salad. ‘It works within the context of the meat,’ replies Loyle. Matthew teases him for sounding like a professional judge. ‘I’ve been gunning for your spot for a long time,’ Loyle responds dryly. ‘Don’t think I’m here by chance!’