Great British Menu ™
Baker:
Season:
Week:
Challenge Type:
Worker Bees Weekend
Eddie begins his dessert by making a caramel base for his dark chocolate parfait.
Eddie: "I have to really watch the temperature on this."
He combines it with melted chocolate and then folds in whipped double cream before filling molds.
Eddie: "The title of my dish is Worker Bees Weekend. And the inspiration is Robert Lowes, who was a workers rights campaigner in the 1800s, and he fought for the rights of mill workers who used to work a six and a half day week. He fought for them to have a half day on the Saturday. And so he's now seen as the grandfather of our modern day weekend.
Eddie: "We've also got some cherries marinated in cherry brandy. They're going to go in the base of the parfait here. Just cut through that richness a little bit. Then alongside that, I'm tempering some white chocolate. And on the side, we're going to have a granita made with lavender, which is going to be that tricky balance to get that lavender flavor coming through without it being bitter or like a perfume or air freshener. "
Later ...
Eddie adds brandy soaked cherries and leaves the parfait to set.
For his granita, Eddie combines an infusion of pea and lavender flowers with sugar and lemon before reaching for the liquid nitrogen.
Eddie; "So this is going to help me freeze these individual droplets of the granita. It's going to help me to get it done in time. It's also going to hopefully give me a nice texture to the granita."
Later still ...
Eddie's tempering white chocolate. He covers the cocoa butter, transfers with tempered white chocolate, sprinkles with caramelized almonds and fennel pollen. He's not done with the liquid nitrogen either. He's now lowering his chocolate parfait into it to speed up the freezing process.
He adds a dusting of gold and moves on to demolding his white tempered chocolate.
Plating
Eddie plates his chocolate parfait.
He dishes up the granita, garnishes the parfait with honey lace. A drizzle of raw honey and the white chocolate discs, and his dessert is complete.
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
"I just find this very beautiful."
"Eddie's good at making things look beautiful."
Back in the judging room
Paul Ainsworth: "Let's start with a dark chocolate parfait. The texture, the set, the temperature of that, Is that how you wanted it to be?"
Eddie: "Yes, I think it is. It's. It's just about there."
Paul Ainsworth: "Those sour cherries in that parfait, is there enough in there for you?"
Eddie: "I'd like to up the amount of those a little bit, just so they cut through a little bit clearer.
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
"This is a very interesting combination, isn't it? The lavender."
"You only get the floral note of lavender. It's not the taste, which is really clever."
Back in the judging room
Paul Ainsworth: "Is the thickness of the white chocolate disc as you wanted?"
Eddie: "No. Should be almost paper thin,"
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
"If you're going to absolutely try and find something to fault. It's the thickness of the chocolate."
Back in the judging room
Paul Ainsworth: "How would you score this dish?"
Eddie: "I would love for this to be an eight."
Paul Ainsworth: " And what are you knocking two points off for?"
Eddie: "The white chocolate. I made a really silly error there. Also. more cherry would have balanced that parfait better."
Final Judging
Paul Ainsworth: "Eddie, for your dish Worker Bees Weekend, the dark chocolate parfait was really well made. Delicious. I really like the combination of the sour cherry, the chocolate, it balanced well with that dish, but I wanted a bit more of it. That lovely, chewy texture of those cherries would have been just welcomed. The lavender granita was fantastic. I love the way you go from that dark chocolate back to the granita. Very clever. Overall, Eddie, it was a really good dish. I just felt it was missing something, maybe something to bring the dish together."
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