North East Starter and Fish
Great British Menu begins a thrilling week with the North East heats (which for the competition stretches from Yorkshire and the Humber to Northumberland). Competing for the top spot are four chefs who are a mix of exciting new talent and one popular returner – all with top industry accolades to their name.
Gareth Bartram from Grimsby, who is head chef at one Michelin-starred Winteringham Fields in Scunthorpe, is returning, determined to light up the competition and get to the banquet. There are also three new chefs on the block: Yorkshireman Will Lockwood, head chef at one Michelin-starred Roots in York with his modern, ingredient-led cooking; Northumberland's Cal Byerley, the creative, seasonal chef behind Pine with two stars to his name - a Michelin star and a green star; and Newcastle's Rory Welch, head chef at Tra¨kol in the city, with a Michelin plate, who brings his passion for cooking over open fire.
Presenter Andi Oliver welcomes them to the kitchen, where the theme for this year's competition is inspired by Paddington's 65th birthday and a celebration of British animation and illustration – from cartoons to comics and computer games. One of the four must leave the competition at the end of the episode, which will be decided by the veteran judge of this week's competition - a previous winner who remains a surprise to the chefs until the moment they walk into the kitchen to taste their first course canapés.
Veteran and Michelin-starred Angela Hartnett OBE MBE tastes the canapés and tells Andi her initial impressions, but the rankings will only be used in the event of a tiebreak later. The scoring depends on how well the chefs do with the following two courses: the starter and the fish.
The starter this year is a vegan course, and dishes are brilliant takes on the brief with an interpretation of stop-motion animation classic The Clangers, involving a watercress velouté to conjure up the nourishing green soup of the Soup Dragons. Other dishes include: a mushroom broth served with barbecued lions mane mushrooms and fresh tin loaf, inspired by north east author illustrator Kylie Dixon and her magical mushroom adventure series; a potato and truffle spiral with Jerusalem artichoke puree – a tribute to The Cribs' animated music video Mirror Kissers; and a celebration of Hartlepool cartoonist Reg Smythe's Andy Capp, in the form of a rich broth enriched with local stout and grains served with a working man's cap. The question is which will Angela score the highest?
One chef leaves the competition after the fish course and the pressure is on to impress Angela further. Which of the two Paddington dishes will she prefer - a buried treasure dish, layering shellfish and sheep's cheese emulsion, or a risky stuffed whole plaice, cooked over the barbecue and honoring an animated fishing adventure with Paddington? There is also a brill dish dedicated to the whistling Clangers and another inspired by South Shields' illustrator Sheila Graber's Just So Stories, with pan-roasted plaice and a potato and trout roe sauce. Who will lose out in this strong field and be sent home?
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