Great British Menu ™
Baker:
Season:
Week:
Challenge Type:
Tatty Muirhead
Returner Amber kicks off with a herb oil.
Amber: "This is based on a fennel oil, which will go with all the fennel elements of my dish."
Amber sweats down fennel for her puree before adding double cream and sea beet powder.
Amber: "My fish dish is called Tatty Muirhead and it is inspired by David "Tatty" Muirhead. He won an MBE for his tireless work towards helping fishing communities down in Cornwall. He's not very well known, but the communities that he helped, he's a really big inspiration for them."
Michael Caines: "What have we got going on and how is it going to be presented?"
Amber: "We've got haddock that I am confiting in brown butter, serving that with a fennel and sea beet puree, then a perry butter sauce. Also got a fish skin tuille, which will be served with a haddock brandade. And then I'm doing a salad of the mooli radish here and hopefully that's going to look like the tangle of fishing line because he was known for handline fishing."
Amber spiralizes radish, giving texture and pepperiness to the dish.
Amber: "I'm adding Cornish dulce and nori and different types of Cornish seaweed just to give it that really tangled fishing line look."
Amber trims haddock fillets and poaches them in a brown butter confit."
Amber's dealing with her fish skin crisis.
Amber: "Unfortunately, it's not quite working. So what I've got is the buckwheat cracker from my canape, and I'm actually just putting all the flavors that are in the rest of my dish onto this cracker so that it hopefully ties the whole thing together."
Plating
Fennel mayonnaise is piped onto the improvised crackers.
Amber: "This is a little haddock brandade Perry."
Sauce goes into fish jugs. Fennel and sea beet puree is first on the plate. Buttered confited haddock is next.
The plate is finished with spiralized pickled mooli radish to resemble tangled fish nets.
Michael Caines: "Are you happy, chef?"
Amber: "Yeah. I was disappointed with my fish cracker, but we've gone for a buckwheat, seaweed and fennel pollen cracker instead. Hopefully that brings all the flavors together just as nicely."
Michael Caines: "Let's start with the cracker. It's not quite what you intended. Nevertheless, are you happy with it?"
Amber: "I'm actually really happy with that. Buckwheat surprisingly gives quite a nice little warm, toasty element to slightly fresher flavors."
Michael Caines: "And you feel all of those elements work well together on the cracker?"
Amber: "I think so, yes."
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
"Harmony."
"Absolutely."
"I think she's smashed it really good."
Back in the judging room
Michael Caines: "Turning to the main dish itself, are you pleased with the texture and the outcome?"
Amber: "I am pleased with it. I think it could have had a little bit less time in there, actually."
Michael Caines: "Tell us a little bit about the sauce. Are you pleased with how that's worked?"
Amber: "I am pleased with the sauce. It was something to marry all the flavors together."
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
"I think it's delicious."
"It's a really lovely plate of food. Really clean, delicate flavors."
Back in the judging room
Michael Caines: "If you were to give it a score, what would you give it?"
Amber: "I would give it an eight."
Final Judging
"Amber, your dish. Tatity Muirhead. The presentation was lovely and I really thought the theme was well considered. It was fantastic seafood presentation. The cracker was a happy mistake. It was delicious and I think you should use this going forward if you get the opportunity. Mayonnaise was lovely and had a great balance in seasoning and a real highlight for me. The confit of haddock was slightly overcooked. I thought the radish might be a bit of a distraction for the dish, but it really did work well. Really a conscious piece of cooking and I loved it. Well done."
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