Great British Menu ™
Baker:
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Books, the mind's food
Amber gets started on her set cream, adding heated double cream and sugar to oven roasted hay.
Amber: "Hay feels like a weird ingredient to use, but it's like roasty, toasty, nutty, yummy."
Amber: "Working in a school now, I don't get quite so much time for fine dining pastry. Okay, so we'll see if I've still got it."
Simon Rogan: "The title of your dish, please? And the inspiration?"
Amber: "The title is "Books, the mind's food." It's a line from one of Hannah Moore's poems. Hannah Moore was an abolitionist and also an education kind of pioneer in the Southwest, and I went to one of Hannah Moore's infant schools when I was a child."
Simon Rogan: "So what are you cooking for us?"
Amber: "Honey fermented strawberries, and I've also got a hay set cream strawberry gel. There'll be a white chocolate disc that links back to the brief. And there will also be a little ice cream sandwich on the side."
Simon Rogan: "What's the ice cream?"
Amber: "Fermented honey parfait. Lots of honey, lots of strawberry."
Later still ...
Amber adds eggs to a parfait base of fermented honey, double cream, sugar and gelatin.
She checks on the hay smoke infused cream.
Amber: "It's not quite at that nutty point that I'd like. It needs a touch longer with the hay.
She pours and places the parfait in the blast chiller to set.
Amber thinly rolls chilled charcoal sablé biscuit dough. She cuts it with a stencil to achieve a uniform shape. She begins to temper white chocolate. It will be heated, cooled and whisked several times to give it a silky texture and shiny appearance.
Amber: "I'm rubbish at tempering chocolate. Don't know why I thought I would do it here. I need to bring it down to 27 or 25, I think. And then back up again a little bit so that it's workable. Absolute nightmare. Who would temper, hey? Only fools like me."
Amber: "This is a thickening agent, this strawberry puree. It'll still keep its vibrancy and fresh flavor without me adding lots of stuff to it."
Amber, speaking to Simon Rogan
"I've got a little bit of strawberry gel for you to try. I didn't want to use out of season strawberries. Puree offers a ripeness and season option."
Amber: "I'm currently focusing on this white chocolate. I'm not very good at tempering."
Simon Rogan, speaking to the camera behind the scenes
"So I tasted Amber's strawberry gel. Really lovely depth of strawberry and a little bit of acidity as well. I think that's going to be a real great addition to the dish."
Plating
First to serve is Amber. Strawberry gel is added to hay smoked set cream.
Amber: "It should just add a bit of freshness to the dish."
Honey fermented strawberries are next. Small bites of honeycomb. Sprigs of lemon thyme. Beautiful white tempered chocolate is added. Parfaits. And finally, a honey parfait sandwiched between two charcoal sablé biscuits is added as a side. All set in traditional school desks with vodka and strawberry cocktail "ink".
Simon Rogan: "The hay cream got the right amount of flavor going for it?"
Amber: "I'm really happy with how the hay came through."
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
"I think without the hay, it would be too sweet because of the honeycomb"
Back in the judging room
Simon Rogan: "Did you get the effect you want for the dessert?"
Yeah, I really want the honeycomb to be in there to add a little bit of extra crunch and texture to the dish."
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
"That strawberry gel is fantastic, isn't it?"
"Like, full of strawberry flavor."
"So tasty."
Back in the judging room
Simon Rogan: "And the strawberries, you think they add what you're after to the dish as well?"
Amber: "They've got a nice chew to them that a traditional fresh strawberry wouldn't have."
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
"I think the strawberries are absolutely delicious. Like, what a great idea."
Back in the judging room
Simon Rogan: "You happy with the amount of flavor in that sandwich?"
Amber: "The fermented honey hasn't come through as much as I would have wanted it to."
Simon Rogan: "So what would you score this dish?"
Amber: "I would score this dish an 8."
Final Judging
"Amber, for your dish "Books ... the mind's food". Presentation was outstanding. You nailed the brief, and I loved the story of Hannah Moore. The ice cream was smooth as silk, and with the delicious but not overpowering aroma and taste of hay, I wouldn't mind that recipe, actually. Tempered chocolate was a great way to showcase the link to the brief, and it was tempered well. Honey parfait was a little bit disappointing. The fermented honey could have come through a bit more. However, the charcoal sablé was crisp and flavorsome. A few tweaks, and that could definitely be a banquet dish."
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