Fasten your seat belts for the bumpiest ride of the series so far, which Andi Oliver described as ‘a rollercoaster week’. It’s been high on drama, relatively low on scores and presumably inspired by a theme park with horrendous queues because there were frustratingly long waits for food to be served.
An offscreen drama must have preceded the heat as we learned that Kerala-born Bobby Geetha, chef patron of Fleur Café in Leeds, had only a week’s notice to prepare for the competition. He stepped in bravely to cover for an absent chef but dropped out after fish. Liz Cottam looked on track to make it through to the judging chamber but then suffered a dessert disaster, which played out painfully on screen for all to see. She returned home to the comfort of her restaurant Home in Leeds.
Left to face the judges are Mark Aisthorpe, chef patron of The Bull’s Head in Holymoorside and Luke French who runs his Nordic/Japanese influenced restaurant Jöro in Sheffield. Luke fuses his cuisines like he mixes his metaphors – ‘I think I’ve got what it takes to wipe them under the floor,’ he claims of the competition.
Appropriate for such a ‘hairy’ week, veteran chef Michael O’Hare made a very welcome return and this week’s guest judge is one half of the Hairy Bikers, Si King. He treats the regulars Ed Gamble, Nisha Katona and Tom Kerridge to tales of his travels whilst Andi Oliver desperately chivvies the chefs to get plates on the pass.
Mark’s canapé is a tomato salad tartlet with basil and courgette puree and toasted pine nuts. The judges agree it’s delicious, but Nisha adds ‘in a slightly one-dimensional way’. However, they’re all wowed by Luke’s ‘multi-dimensional’ mackerel croustade with yuzu and dashi hot sauce, caviar, crispy white kombu and nori. Ed likes its ‘face-punching flavour’, and Si admires its ‘poomf’.
You may wonder if any chef will succeed with the competition’s now ubiquitous chawanmushi. Luke tries again with ‘Maybe Eggs are Supposed to be Like This’ - an ouef-fectionate tribute to Wendy Craig’s character from the 1970s sitcom Butterflies. On his set custard goes a confit egg yolk, along with cheese and ham dashi, chopped ham, chives and a layer of hollandaise espuma. Toast soldiers are topped with truffle puree and pickled truffle slices. Tom says it’s ‘accomplished’ but ‘busy’. Despite being ‘left with a salty mouth’, Ed confesses that he’s eaten the whole thing. ‘That’s no endorsement, Ed’ laughs Nisha ‘… you do it every time’.