Great British Menu ™
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Out of This World
Vegetarian Eddie is using dairy rather than fish for the fish course. To make sure his dish can compete, he's dialing up the flavor, making a punchy rhubarb sauce in a rotovap machine, which will concentrate the rhubarb flavor at a low temperature.
Eddie: "By using the rotovap, we'll get this very fresh rhubarb flavor, but like hyper concentrated down."
Eddie: "The title of my dish is "Out of this World". And the inspiration is Bernard Lovell, who established Jodrell Bank."
"I'm going to do halloumi marinated in rose koji, and that'll be battered. So you get a little bit of that feel of something like a fish course , especially since it is served with some samphire tartare. And then we're going to use sugar, kelp, seaweed in a couple of different ways and get that flavour of the sea coming through that way."
Notes taken during cooking
Eddie's making a charcoal batter to coat the hero of his dish, the halloumi.
Eddie: "And then we're going to add the good stuff, vodka and water."
Later ...
The next stage for Eddie's charcoal batter is to aerate it in a siphon gun.
Paul Ainsworth: "I hear the rhubarb's ready. I'd love a taste."
Paul Ainsworth (behind the scenes) ... "I've just tried that rhubarb molasses that he's basically put through the rotovap, and it is just like the purest form of rhubarb. The flavor, the purity is absolutely stunning."
Plating
Eddie's plating his fishless fish dish first. He's aerating his batter with CO2 gas that's only just arrived.
The salad, along with pickled apple stars topped with oyster leaves, samphire and fried sugar kelp are first to be layered in illuminated moon shaped bowls.
Eddie: "And I will grab the halloumi. Sticking a little bit, but, yeah, there we go."
The fried halloumi is given a metallic luster to resemble a meteorite, then nestled into crater like dishes. It's served alongside the rhubarb sauce and a model of Macclesfield's Jodrell bank telescope just in here.
Eddie: "So the title for the dish is out of this world. And the inspiration is Bernard Lovell, who established Jodrell bank and Lovell Telescope."
Paul Ainsworth: "I mean, we've got to talk about the presentation first. Exactly how you wanted it?"
Eddie: " Pretty much, I think. Yeah."
Paul Ainsworth: "First of all, the halloumi, the batter. How do you think that worked out?"
Eddie: "It's a little thicker than I would like, but that's just about that."
Paul Ainsworth: "Dressing how you want it?"
Eddie: "I think the rhubarb molasses is ... is nice."
Paul Ainsworth: "Was quite taken aback that it was just halloumi. I expected that there was going to be maybe some, like, kombi or seaweed elements."
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