Right guys, so Main Course last night- Another 9!

Whilst of course it was great to get a 9, I felt once again slightly disappointed with myself. I feel like both my fish dish and my main course were technically 10/10 dishes, but I let myself down with the execution. Very annoying.

I suppose, that really shows the scrutiny were under from the veteran judges. If your dish isn’t perfect you’re not getting that 10, and you’re definitely not going through to the banquet. These judges don’t give out 10’s willynilly you know! But I found that really helped though,  as it made me really want to push on and  impress Tom.

Whilst it was mostly a good day of cooking, and I now know I’ll definitely be cooking on friday, I was still slightly disappointed with myself. But these are all things that can be easily rectified for the judges on Friday. And I’ll be aiming for that 10 tonight!!

I’m gutted Chris couldn’t continue with the show. It was strange with just the 2 of us in the kitchen, but I really enjoy cooking with Mini and as you can tell we have good crack. I think we just set each other off, and bounce of each others humour really well. Mini seemed a lot more relaxed yesterday. So relaxed in fact, that he managed to squeeze in a quick fag break whilst cooking his main course! Whilst I was running around like a mad man!! I thought his dish was a fantastic dish in both concept and execution. Delicious! I actually gave him a 10, even though this wasn’t shown on the show last night. Ye, perhaps his venison could have had a little longer to rest, but the whole dish was extremely tasty.

As I said Chris left, which meant both me and Mini would inevitably be cooking on Friday but I don’t think that effected the competitiveness in the kitchen. We were both still so keen to get as high a score as possible, and both wanted that 10. Yeh, we have a laugh in the kitchen, but it’s still a competition and I want to go to the Banquet more than anything.

Nothing can really prepare you for filming Great British Menu, well I don’t think anything can prepare you for T.V really. But everything about it is just so alien. The time limits, the interviews, the cameras everything about the whole experience is just so strange. Don’t get me wrong it’s so much fun, and such an incredible experience to cook with such incredible chefs. Being a chef and working the hours we do we don’t often get the opportunity to spend time with other chefs socially, never mind in the kitchen! So it was fantastic to see how Chris and Mini’s styles have developed and how they do things.

I think the reason I’ve been getting such high scores, is not entirely because of the dishes I’ve presented but also because of advice I’ve received from my pals Michael O’hare and Kenny Atkinson, 2 past champions! That really helped me sort of know what to expect when I got there, and gave me advice as to how best to prepare for the show. I’d definitely urge any chefs that are thinking of taking part in Great British Menu, to get as much advice as possible from chefs that have done it before, but no-one can really prepare you for the crazyness of the GBM kitchen.

I’m really looking forward to cooking my dessert tonight. This dish doesn’t involve salt either, so that means under seasoning isn’t a worry tonight! Phew! This dish means an awful lot to me, made in memory of my grandfather, so fingers crossed for a 10.

Thanks again for all your support, please keep tweeting and facebooking and commenting as it’s so great to hear how enthusiastic and encouraging everyone is. Enjoy the show!

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