After falling foul of what Andi Oliver described as ‘a bad day in the kitchen', former finalist Andy Sheridan looked gobsmacked to be the first to leave this week. ‘It is what it is,’ said the chef patron of Restaurant 8 in Liverpool, Newcomers Nina Matsunaga and Ryan Stafford saved their ‘bad day’ for Wednesday, with a duo of disappointing desserts. Nina, chef patron at The Black Bull, Sedbergh, narrowly lost out to Ryan, executive chef at Fold Bistro near Stockport.
Having missed out on a place in finals week in 2021, Blackburn-born Kirk Haworth has returned for a second chance to wow the judges with the wizardry of his completely plant-based menu. Set to open his first fine dining vegan restaurant in London this spring, he made a surprising convert of this week's veteran Michael O’Hare, but can he now do this same with judges Ed, Tom and Nisha, who are joined this week by gold medal-winning wheelchair rugby Paralympian Stuart Robinson?
It’s a good start for Kirk, as Stuart and Tom love his canapé cornet of whipped cashew cheese, artichoke jam and black truffle. However, Nisha and Ed prefer Ryan’s croustade of achari-spiced carrot with lime and coconut yoghurt. Ryan’s starter is an Olympic torch of truffled Jerusalem artichoke parfait, drizzled with ember oil and served with flames of crispy shallot, purple and white kale and cavolo nero. It’s presented on a little pile of kindling, which is dramatically set alight. ‘Love the crispy, toppy bits,’ says Tom, but he’s less happy with the temperature of the parfait. Nisha disagrees, saying the coldness helped her ‘taste things better, in a strange way'. Stuart says his was unexpectedly warmed by a bit of burning string.
Inspired by Paralympian taekwondo gold medallist, Amy Truesdale, Kirk’s starter features a black belt of pickled kohlrabi in charcoal powder. Caramelised maitake mushroom is brushed with chilli oil, mounded with kimchi and generously drizzled with spicy Korean mayonnaise, before being flecked with gold puffed rice. The mushroom sits on a pool of black rice mole and the dish is served with a little flask of yuzu-ade. Ed’s wowed by the 'incredible attention to detail’ and Nisha agrees ‘it’s like nothing I’ve seen before'. Tom says he feels his mouth ‘is in a fight with an Olympian taekwondo specialist', but that turns out to be a compliment, as he concludes: ‘it’s a mega dish'.