Securing a position in this year’s Great British Menu regional finals wasn’t meant to be for esteemed Aberdeen chef Kevin Dalgleish.
The pressure was mounting in round two of the Scottish heat as Kevin, who owns city centre restaurant Amuse by Kevin Dalgelish, battled it out against Dundee-born Adam Handling and Tannandice’s Mark McCabe.
This comes after former contestant Tunde “Abi” Abifarin, head chef at Farin Road in Edinburgh, was forced to leave in round one with 10 points.
Adam and Mark were neck and neck with 17 points while Kevin had 13.
Tonight, the three remaining chefs were tasked with serving a unique take on the brief – celebrating British animation and illustration inspired by Paddington’s 65th Birthday.
They had to create a main course, a pre-dessert or palate cleanser, and a dessert.
Their fate was put in the hands of the show’s veteran guest judge Tom Aikens, who was the youngest chef to ever gain two Michelin stars, while host Andi Oliver also sampled the dishes.
Charming and flavourful mains
Kevin paid homage to Desperate Dan and his favourite food of cow pie in a refined beef cheek pie with onion crumb puff pastry and glazed vegetables.
His main was named A Refined & Dandy Cow Pie.
Being four points behind Adam and Mark meant there was a lot riding on the dish.
Kevin explained what went into pulling everything together which included braising the beef cheeks and making a “lovely” red wine sauce and a lattice pastry top, among other steps. He admitted the lattice pastry top may prove a risky choice as the strips are very fine.
“It all sounds great on paper but at the end of the day it is just a pie. It has to be an amazing pie,” Tom said.
Before judging commenced, Kevin said: “excited to get the dish in front of Tom and I need a big score obviously to try and jump these guys [Mark and Adam]”.
Both fellow contestants gave the plate a score of eight with Adam saying it was the tastiest dish the Aberdeen chef has made so far. Kevin gave himself nine.
Mark and Adam took inspiration from The Wind in the Willows by Edinburgh-born Kenneth Grahame for their main courses.
Named Badger’s Sett, Mark aimed to transport the veteran and his fellow chefs with a candlelight dinner of lamb rack, fresh brioche stuffed with lamb stew, smoked yoghurt, and pickled elderberry sauce.
He explained he had a lot of admiration for the tale and even has a tattoo of Badger on his arm – from the exact scene that his dish was inspired by. It was scored eight and nine by the chefs.
Adam’s main Ratty’s Picnic featured cold chicken, beef cheek and spiced aubergine tart, roasted broccoli with stilton, battered gherkin, and gerkin ketchup washed down with ginger beer.
There was a nod to his grandmother in the meal who used to read the story to him as a child.
Bringing along a nine-page long prep list, which he went on to say is “apparently the biggest they’ve ever had on the show”, it picked up scores of eight and nine. Adam gave himself 10.
When it came to judging Tom marked Kevin and Mark seven, and Adam 10.
Blind tasting
For the pre-dessert or palate cleanser course, Tom blind-tasted and ranked each one as they would be used in the event of a tie to decide who goes home.
Adam said: “A 10 from Tom Aikens. I am so happy, I couldn’t have put any more into it. But I’m not taking my foot off the gas, I want another 10.”
Mark’s Take My Hand dish was inspired by Scott Hutchison’s ‘Be Kind’ illustration and comprised layered lemon verbena mousse, damson jam and candied hazelnut set like a tea cake.
Kevin’s elderflower yoghurt ice cream with gooseberry compote was inspired by The Gruffalo, while Adam created a lemon pannacotta and lemon sorbet with wasted wine foam and apple balls as a creative nod to Glasgow-based illustrator Helen Kellock’s The Star in the Forest.
Adam had problems with his pannacotta. Nevertheless, it was complimented by Tom and was his favourite dish of the three followed by Kevin’s, his runner-up, and Mark’s.
Mixed results for desserts
After a glimpse of their pudding skills, it was on to dessert.
Mark, who was in the dangerous middle ground of the leaderboard, was apprehensive about the course.
“I’m a little bit nervous going into dessert, I don’t feel like it’s my strongest dish,” he said whilst preparing his Tinkerbell dessert of honey and yoghurt cake with woodruff custard and strawberry sorbet.
It was inspired by Scottish J M Barrie’s Peter Pan. J M Barrie was born in the town he went to school in.
Despite having trouble with his custard and starting it again from scratch, Kevin and Adam scored the dessert seven.
Adam, true to form, left himself a lot to work on to bring his trifle-inspired dessert together.
It celebrated food fights in the Beano manual and brought together a riot of burnt butter cake cubes, long pepper custard, strawberry jelly, strawberry rocks, and meadowsweet cream.
It picked up scores of 10 from both fellow chefs. Host Andi also loved the plate and admitted to being “blown away by it.”
Kevin opted for an opera cake layered up with chocolate cremeux and orange marmalade as a homage to an episode where Paddington sings at the Opera.
While Tom complimented the presentation and said it has potential, it wasn’t enough to secure his position.
In the end, Tom scored Adam eight, Mark five, and Kevin six, meaning Kevin was forced to leave the competition with 26 points.
Adam walked away from the round with 35 points and Mark with 29.
Both are still in with a chance to represent Scotland at the regional finals and will return to cook on the BBC Two programme at 8pm tomorrow night.
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