Great British Menu ™
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Cawl Cennin (Leek and Potato Soup)
Seb kicks off mixing his dough for his batard bread.
Seb: "The title of this is Cawl Cennin. It's leek and potato soup. I'm going to be doing a leek velouté with confit potatoes, sous vide fennel, poached leeks. And then I'm going to serve it with a classic French batard bread. But I'm going to roll the bread in polenta and charcoal and then I'm going to serve with a vegan rarebit. I'm going to serve some pommes soufflées separately."
Notes taken during cooking
Seb: "I'm looking for a nice thick rarebit. So I want to pipe it into my confit potatoes."
Spencer Metzger: "So where does the Welsh rarebit go on the dish?"
Seb: "I'm going to scoop out the inside of the confit potatoes and pipe in the rarebit. Only a small amount is going to go on the dish. It does have that weird acidity towards it at the end, but once it's piped within the potato and then it's warm."
Spencer Metzger, having tasted the Welsh rarebit and speaking to the camera
"Seb's vegan Welsh rarebit, to be honest with you, was quite underwhelming. I'm expecting mustard, Worcester sauce, punchy cheese flavor. He hasn't really extracted that and it's quite claggy as well."
Plating
First up to the pass, Seb coats his bread in charcoal.
Seb: "Bread's in the oven for 10. Hopefully my pomme soufflées turn out okay."
Seb struggles with his crispy leeks and eventually dispenses with trying to fry them.
With the crispy leeks canned, Seb needs his pomme soufflées to play ball.
He places leek fondants and his vegan rarebit confit potatoes.
And it's sink or swim for his pomme soufflées.
Seb: "Don't collapse. Don't collapse. Don't collapse. They collapsed."
Seb: "Yeah, I'm not going to serve the pomme soufflées."
Seb serves his soup and bread starter minus the crispy leeks and pomme soufflées.
Spencer Metzger: "So how's everything come out, chef?"
Seb: "Average. I'm disappointed."
Spencer Metzger: "Is there meant to be a garnish on top?
Seb: "I was aiming for some crispy leeks."
Spencer Metzger: "How's the actual leek soup itself?
Seb: "The consistency could do with being a bit looser.
Peers, talking behind the scenes
"The soup is really tasty."
"The color is really, really good."
"Maybe I would have liked it a tiny bit smoother. Maybe."
"It looks like it could get claggy."
Back in the Judging Room
Spencer Metzger: "And the potatoes, do you think there's enough Welsh rarebit on that dish?"
Seb: "I feel like you probably get away with a bit more, but because of its distinct style of the vegan cheese, I didn't want it to overpower the other flavors."
Peers, talking behind the scenes
"There was very little rabit on there. I tried a little bit on its own. It. It was really nice. So I think as a rarebit dish, put a lot more rarebit on it."
Back in the Judging Room
Spencer Metzger: "And the bread itself?"
Seb: "Probably could have done with extra time. There were different batches on the tray and I didn't select them myself."
Peers, talking behind the scenes
"The bread's messy. It's nice effect. But I've got charcoal over my hands"
"Yeah. Now I've got charcoal over my hands."
Back in the Judging Room
Spencer Metzger: "So if you were going to score this dish, what would you give it?"
Seb: "Three or four, Chef."
Spencer Metzger: "Why so low?"
Seb: "I missed the bar on elements that meant to be on the plate."
Final Judging
Spencer Metzger: “So, Seb, for your dish, “Cawl Cennin”. The soup was slightly too thick. It should be silkier, a little bit more velvety. The Welsh rarebit itself should be rich with mustard cheese and the ale. I feel that you could have really boosted those flavors quite a lot. The bread was a good idea. However, it was a little bit underproved, and I found that the charcoal on the outside left your fingers all dirty with two crispy elements missing. This starter was essentially a bowl of soup and some bread.”
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