Full chef line-up for Great British Menu banquet revealed

The full line-up of chefs cooking each course at the 2021 Great British Menu banquet has now been revealed.

 

This year’s final, airing on BBC Two, saw chefs present their dishes to 70 guests in an outdoor marquee to adhere to coronavirus guidelines.

 

To tie-in with the theme of the series, which celebrated British innovation and invention, the banquet took place at the Unesco World Heritage site of Jodrell Bank in Cheshire next to the historic Lovell telescope.

 

Guests voted for their favourite dish, with Dan McGeorge crowned the champion of champions.

 

The full line-up of chefs is as follows:

 

Starter

 

Alex Bond (North East)

 

Bond’s dish, the Founding Father, is created in honour of physiologist Sir Robert Edwards, who developed the fertility treatment IVF.

 

It is based around a coddled duck egg topped with sherry vinegar jelly, salted lemon, chives, crispy chicken skin, roasted hen of the woods mushrooms, a cep mushroom caramel and a cep hollandaise foam. This is served with a side dish of crispy chicken skin and truffle curd and finished with fresh truffle. The dish was described as "simply sublime" by the judges.

 

Bond has worked at Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham and Turners at 69 in Birmingham. He opened his Nottingham restaurant Alchemilla in 2017 and it was awarded a star in the 2020 edition of the Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland.

 

Fish course

 

Roberta Hall-McCarron (Scotland)

 

The Edinburgh chef impressed judges with her dish Maxwell’s Colour Wheel, which celebrates Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell’s revolution in colour photography.

 

Described as a fine dining take on the traditional Scottish fish and potato soup cullen skink, it is comprised of pan-fried turbot topped with fried potato tarts and a confit quail’s egg yolk. This is served with a sauce made from Arbroath smokies and chive oil.

 

Judges praised Hall-McCarron’s fish course as a sophisticated take on a homely dish, adding that her level of skill was faultless.

 

The chef previously cooked at Tom Kitchin’s Edinburgh restaurant the Kitchin and at nearby Castle Terrace, before opening her restaurant the Little Chartroom in 2018.

 

Main

 

Oli Marlow (London and the South East

 

The executive chef of Simon Rogan’s Aulis and Roganic in Hong Kong and Aulis London made his debut on the show this year.

 

His main course Special Delivery is a takeaway-inspired dish that pays tribute to World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee and references how online ordering has helped restaurants survive the pandemic.

 

Served in a wooden takeaway box, it features stuffed chicken wings, guinea fowl breast with roasted yeast, barbecued mushrooms glazed in a soy pickle, and crispy potato nests topped with slow-cooked egg yolks. This is accompanied by a mushroom ketchup, chilli and garlic mayonnaise, and dill pickle chicken gravy.

 

The dish was such a success it left judge Oliver Peyton unable to find a single criticism.

 

Marlow did an apprenticeship at Chewton Glen in Hampshire and later worked as sous chef at Maaemo in Oslo and under Jonny Lake at the Fat Duck.

 

Dessert

 

Dan McGeorge (North West)

 

The former Acorn Award winner and head chef at the Rothay Manor hotel in the Lake District impressed judges with his dish Give a Dog a Bone, which paid tribute to the creation of the Guide Dog Association in Wallasey, Wirral in 1931.

 

It features chocolate mousse shaped as bones and filled with softened miso caramel and covered in chocolate. This is served with chocolate ‘soil’, set miso caramel cubes, confit yuzu gel, salted caramel ice-cream and a miso honeycomb tuile.

 

Judges praised it as an “extremely elegant” dessert with a “high degree of skill…beautifully disguised by the playfulness”.

 

McGeorge previously cooked at the Lawns restaurant in the Wirral and the Bath Priory.

 

Canapés and pre-dessert

 

Jude Kereama (South West)

 

The chef narrowly missed out on serving a full course by just a few points, but made it through to the banquet as the highest-scoring runner-up, where he will serve the canapés and pre-desserts.

 

Born in New Zealand, Kereama moved to the UK 20 years ago to work in London before moving to Cornwall. He now runs Porthleven restaurant Kota, which holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and Kota Kai.

 

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