Great British Menu

[BigFatLiar]

New series

Starting date KLAXON!!!! Set your New series of Great British Menu starts 8pm Tuesday 31st January!"

Theme is British Animation

Interested to see what they make of of tonight.

I'm sure they're all good chefs in normal life but for this competition I think they;ve missed the mark.

Watched this with horror. Nothing Great or British or even "Menu" about any of it. Dreadful. And no link to the brief (agree about Paddington and Chinese New Year.????). The food didn't look appealing at all and the props were too much. It felt like they'd just cooked an unimaginative dish and grabbed a handful of things from the toybox to scatter round the plate.

And the humour and energy and healthy competitive banter was gone - it was grim to watch. I used to like this show but find myself drifting away this year.

We lost interest to the extent we did not notice who went through. Nothing met the brief or grabbed our attention.

Chefs this year seem particularly bad! But weirdly not aware they are bad. I don’t know what’s going wrong with the chefs they choose for each region but they are doing their regions a disservice.

I personally think the brief is too wide and too general. It should be more specific ie. Children’s animation only.
I think the producers broadened it probably to be more “ inclusive “ but also as some years every chef did the same thing.
But I’d rather all 4 chefs hit the brief with the same good idea than none of them did with 4 crap ideas.
also I think they need to give the chefs more help with actually meeting the brief as some clearly don’t understand what that means exactly.

And final point, the judges are also crap. Bring back Oliver , Matthew, andi plus brief related guest. I couldn’t care less what the current judges think with the exception of Tom Kerridge where I am mildly interested.
I was v interested in what the previous judges thought. Their opinion mattered.

Agree. I like Ed Gamble usually, but can’t understand why he is here. I thought Matthew and Oliver had got a bit grumpy by the end and can see why they have changed things a bit, but it’s really lost its way this year. I’m hanging on for the Midlands round as that’s my area, but not sure I’ll bother with any others.

jay55

Should swap the runners up from the first two regions with the winners of this week and last.
Just been catching up and very much thought this. There's been little/no attempt at the brief (no! Sticking a plastic toy next to a bowl of coconut gunge doesn't make it themed!).
And yes, why is the sous vide suddenly the new gadget in town? I see it has its place, but it was done to death five years ago and now it's everywhere again.
I suppose because it's easy - you stick something in there and forget about it until the timer goes.
I think Spencer - given the amazing dishes he turned out, with brilliant nods to the brief - did well not to belabour some of them with a fish slice.

And no link to the brief (agree about Paddington and Chinese New Year.????)

Exactly! They showed a clip of the show with Paddington trying to pick up a dumpling with chopsticks, failing, then saying "Excuse paws!" - laugh.
Was there one bloody dumpling?

I am enjoying this thread far more than the show. It has been utterly embarrassing for the last two weeks.

I suspect that the chefs have been given any random episode or animation by the production team, and told to work with it. I never get the sense that any of them know the characters or cartoons they are supposed to be linking to. Also agree it’s a rubbish brief.

and oh Caroline, giving herself a 10 and being adamant that everything on her dish was great…

and oh Caroline, giving herself a 10 and being adamant that everything on her dish was great…

That was a tad mortifying.

Dont think I can be arsed to watch tonight, hope for better next week.

Evening all. I can hardly bear to watch

I’m here, but watching in a tiny corner of my phone from bed!

@Wolfcub was that a Paddington joke?

Evening.
Agree it's like watching doctor who from behind the sofa when I was little, so I could duck for the scary bits.

Yes, the brief this year is terrible. It's too unfocused and there's too much crossover with previous years (BBC programmes and children's literature).

A feeble one but yes

🤣🤣🤣

I like Jane Horrocks and she was a nice guest on Saturday Kitchen but, again, the connection to the brief is a bit tenuous.

It is good to see what the chefs will be doing for vegetarians though.

I like misha but she can’t half bang on

I thought Jane Horrocks had died, and realised if mixed her up with Emma Chambers.

Chardonnay vinegar: the Co-op Sea Salt and Chardonnay Wine Vinegar Crisps are the best crisps in the universe.

If they don't serve this dressed as Madame Cholet they are missing a trick

Those cookies are more dog biscuit size.

No dish ever needs more mushrooms…