In case you don’t know by now, Paul Ainsworth loves to give a ten. The veteran chef for this week’s heat has perfected his scoring announcement. The pause after ‘I’m giving you…’ is expertly judged. ‘A ten!’ projects with such unbridled joy, it even warrants a little lurch forward. Fortunately, chefs from London and the South East have provided ample opportunity for Paul to overstep the marks.
Four fresh-faced newcomers from the region entered the competition on Wednesday – Kim Ratcharoen from Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Oli Marlow from Roganic and Aulis, Ben Murphy from Launceston Place and Tony Parkin from The Tudor Room in Surrey.
Like Mr Men or the Spice Girls, Andi chose to attribute personality traits to her descriptions of this week’s chefs, so we had Focused Kim, Confident Tony, Creative Ben and Modest Oli. Young Ben had creativity literally inked all over his body; so supercool, the BBC’s subtitles tried to copy his MLE accent. ‘Nah’ they said. Sadly, Paul also said ‘nah’ to Ben after the fish course and, despite scoring a ten for his dish, Tony left after dessert. He did it confidently though.
And so, we’re left with Kim and Oli to try to impress judges Oliver Peyton, Rachel Khoo and Matthew Fort; joined this week by geologist Professor Chris Ainsworth, who has one of the best ever Twitter handles - @seis_matters.
Great minds often think alike and both Oli and Kim are combining beef and oysters in their canapés. Oli’s is an oyster custard with beef tendon and Kim’s is a fillet beef and oyster tartare. Rachel judges both dishes ‘an excellent start’ and Chris adds, ‘I’m totally spoiled already’.
Inspired by the pioneering underground farmers of Clapham, Oli serves what could well be a ground-breaking salad. Onto a swirl of syrupy stout reduction, he pipes Jerusalem artichoke puree and creamed Ragstone cheese, adding texture with a malted chestnut ‘soil’ and Jerusalem artichoke crisps. Little larva-looking roasted crosnes are next, followed by charred pickled onions and a selection of subterranean herbs. It turns out to be an underground classic – ‘That is a completely faultless piece of cooking’ says Oliver.