A wealth of gold medals was on display again this week, unlike that other treasure noted for its golden properties – silence. No, there was little evidence of the latter and though we weren’t reaching anywhere near the levels of The Apprentice’s elevated egos, it looked like GBM’s producers had been encouraging chefs to ‘talk the talk’, producing some bold and ballsy statements from our four newcomers to the competition.
‘My main goal is to win,’ said Vince Smith, a development chef working on bespoke events across London. Sadly, this week’s veteran, Simon Rogan saved Vince’s goal for another day and sent him home after fish. Joe Hill, chef patron at The Table, Broadstairs, then said, ‘Someone’s going to go home… it’s not going to be me.’ Unfortunately, it was.
So, left to face the judges are Kate Austen, a London-based private chef, and Ashok Kumar, executive chef at Kanishka by Atul Kochhar. Andi Oliver describes Kate as ‘composed’ with a ‘steely determination’, whilst Ashok is ‘humble’ and ‘modest’. Kate says, ‘I want the main course… and I want two courses.’ Ashok says, ‘Hope for the best’ and ‘there’s always room for improvement.’
Confidently kicking his way into the famed ‘room for improvement’, aka the judging chamber, is medal-winning taekwondo athlete, Lutalo Muhammad, who eventually sits down to canapés with Ed Gamble, Nisha Katona and Tom Kerridge. Kate’s cheese croustade is topped with veal tartare, white sardine and mushroom powder. ‘Nice enough – it’s not blown me away,’ says Nisha, but Lutalo disagrees and thinks it’s delicious. However, he too prefers Ashok’s canapé of cured and smoked duck dumpling with blue poppy seed and apricot raita, whilst Ed and Tom favour Kate’s.
Inspired by the diet of a medal-winning horse, ‘Valegro’ is Kate’s innovative starter of barbecued carrot, apple, wild carrot seed risotto, oat granola, blueberries, crispy stinging nettle and hay-flavoured vegan cream. Tom thinks it lacks a prominent flavour. Lutalo thanks Ed for echoing his thoughts – ‘I feel like I’m eating breakfast.’