Tabla two, let's go. Take three restaurants...
ALL: Cheers!
..with years of professional experience...
Are they all the same? Um... They'd better be.
..ask each to cook three courses...
Service, let's go. Let's go.
..and get them to score in secret.
On today's show, curious chemistry...
We're bestest friends.
Has there been an accident? Friends that have, you know...?
I got the sense that they had had history. History, yeah.
..kitchen friction...
You want me to give you a hand?
You're up here doing absolutely nothing, right?
Go downstairs, please.
Bless Lisa, she was hiding a million things on her shoulder.
..and controversial custard.
It is a vegan custard. But then it's not a custard.
Did you like it? No.
Things were getting higher and higher and higher.
..as they battle to bag a £1,000 prize.
It was cool for Halifax. Sorry, Halifax people.
Today's professional competition is in Yorkshire,
where Wallace and Gromit raised the profile of Wensleydale cheese,
and one couple hoping to be the greatest this week
are tonight's hosts Ben and Jo,
chef and manager of the Barn in Huddersfield,
which serves an eclectic range of posh nosh.
Oi, private land here, mate. Do one.
That's a warm welcome.
The restaurant itself is very much Ben's personality. Very much so.
It's a bit on the cheeky side. When it comes to the food,
the food's as serious as it can be.
Sea bass steak, please, table two.
We both cook, we both do front of house.
The plates are quite warm.
Normally, in restaurants, front of house and kitchen...
Hate each other. Yeah, it's a scrap to the death.
Out kitchen. Out, out, out.
You guys look pretty cosy, though. You an item?
No, we're not a couple. We're best friends.
We've been mates for years.
I think I've asked Jo to marry me twice on drunken nights.
Hopefully if we win that money,
I've said my half's going towards the wedding, yeah.
That's your future sorted. What's the plan for tonight?
Very much romantic food.
I like to sense a bit of love on a plate.
I just got Barry White in my head then.
You've got Barry White in your head? Yeah.
First up, dessert...
A custard's a custard,
and anglaise is something completely different anyway.
Did I miss something?
I can just see which way the night's going to go already.
Meet our next restaurateurs...
Least favourite job is polishing all these bottles. I know.
.chef Brian and front of house Lisa,
long-term partners and owners of street food bistro Disco Kitchen.
Disco Kitchen is an eclectic mix
of different gastronomies from different locations in the world.
Brian, how long is this pizza going to be?
That'll be about a couple of minutes, Lise.
I would definitely say that I'm Brian's long-suffering partner.
Right in the middle of the window. No. Right, just... No.
I am demanding.
I am borderline obsessive.
If I put it here... That looks absolutely horrendous.
We do argue because I've moved a chair
or because I've moved a table or... Because it matters.
That matters. Yeah.
OK.
Been a while, hasn't it, since you ordered them.
And what's the winning philosophy?
Always make sure that you are the best that you can be today
because tomorrow's another day. It's exhausting,
It's exhausting being with him, being around him.
In the kitchen, the hosts are whipping up their fancy custard.
Vanilla pods are really expensive at the moment, aren't they?
They'll be selling on the black market.
"Give us a fiver! Give us a fiver for your pods, love."
Yeah, all right, whack them in the milk before anyone sees.
He heats through before straining into an egg yolk and sugar mix...
Phwoar.
..then returns to the hob.
Custard anglaise as well, not just custard.
Fancy custard.
Meet our final professionals of the week, chef and owner Simon...
I know it needs to be another crumpet.
..and his front of house manager Sakina... Here we go.
..who run Scandi-inspired restaurant FINT.
We like a nice Nordic, Scandinavian feel.
The food is a little bit fancy, you know,
and it's fancier than the norm.
That's your pain perdu with banana.
Although we're not a vegan restaurant,
the menu is always designed around the idea of
making sure that people are able to come in
and just order something without having to worry about,
if that dish is going to kill me. Exactly.
Seems sensible. And I'm sensing a strictly working relationship here?
We're not a couple. We're not a couple! We're not a couple.
It's a working relationship. I mean, you are lovely, Simon.
So are you. Both of us are otherwise inclined.
I wouldn't have a chance, I'm not pretty enough.
Don't be so hard on yourself.
In the kitchen, the roly-poly is in full swing.
Ben flattens his suet pastry before adding his key ingredient.
# We're jamming, we're jamming
# We're jamming Hope you like jamming too... #
Nice rolling. Bob Marley would be proud.
So wrap it in this, so it steams it,
keeps all the air inside. That keeps it nice and moist.
And it's into the oven.
£1,000, baby.
Onto the main...
I would probably want to be asked how I want my steak cooked.
Well, my cuisson...
Pardon?
The way I prefer my piece of rump to be cooked.
Is what? Cuisson.
The different variations of...
He's just showing off, isn't he?
So cooking steaks to order?
Tonight, I'm going to be really stubborn
and telling them I'm cooking the steaks
how I would like them to be cooked. I'm going to be cooking them pink.
It will be the best thing they've ever had.
If you say so!
Ben sears the steaks before leaving to rest.
He'll cook them in the oven before serving.
So when I kiss a woman, I like to kiss them low and slow.
That's how we're going to cook our steaks tonight.
Right... Onto the pepper sauce.
To fried shallots and garlic
he adds white wine and cooking brandy.
Do you know what? I hope that peppercorn sauce is spicy enough.
It's certainly full of peppercorns.
We've got green peppercorns, very flavoursome.
You've got your traditional black peppercorns.
I'm going to put some pink peppercorns in there.
They tend to be more floral, but it's smelling beautiful,
like that aftershave you buy in the pound shops.
Classy! To finish, plenty of cream
and some gravy browning for colour.
How's it taste? Every time.
That worked. Yeah.
Great. They'll serve with Hasselback potatoes
and carrots later. Finally the starter...
Why grumpy?
What's going to be grumpy about the thermidor sauce?
Over to you, Ben.
This is my famous thermidor sauce, made with dill,
a beautiful herb. However, it's a pain in the butt to prepare
and when I'm having to do stuff I don't want to do, I get grumpy.
Don't we all.
He adds the chopped dill to fried shallots,
along with cooking brandy, wine and cream,
a bit of mustard, more dill and it's done.
Look at that.
Thermidor sauce.
Onto the scallops.
I love scallops, I love thermidor sauce.
Together, yeah, sounds delicious.
Oh, fishmonger's arrived.
Morning, Ben, you all right? What you got for us today?
Large hand-dived king scallops.
Yeah, I tell you what, that's the winning dish right there.
That scallop there alone is worth £1,000.
That'll be 50 grand, then, please, Ben.
We'll see you next week. Yeah, good luck. Take care.
In the kitchen, they clean up their shellfish.
Looking at the size of these, we're probably going to serve one
and then we're going to sell the rest of them on
the black market to our chefs to make some more money.
They'll fry the scallops before serving so, for now,
that's the food prep done.
Prep's gone really well. Can't wait to meet our guests.
Let's get the show on the road, Jo. Yeah. Let's go.
Thoughts about the venue, guys?
Bit pubby. Like a country gastropub.
It's not a pub. It could be a...pub?
It's not a pub.
I think it's a pub.
It's not. And after a quick change,
they're ready to welcome their first guests,
chef Simon and front of house manager Sakina.
That's a bit weird. Oh...
THEY LAUGH
Hi. Hello. Hello! How are you doing? Are you all right?
Hi, I'm Ben. Hello, I'm Sakina, pleasure to meet you.
Pleased to meet you too. I'm Jo.
Jo? Lovely to meet you. Simon. Pleased to meet you, Simon.
This is called a Breaking Blue.
I've always been about pink and blue with my colours,
so you've got it there in a dish.
Next in, chef Brian and partner Lisa.
Looks lovely.
Not sure Brian agrees.
LISA: Hi.
Hi, I'm Jo.
I'm Lisa.
Welcome to the Barn. Brian.
Hi, Brian, I'm Ben. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too.
Come on through. This is called a Breaking Blue.
So what's in it? Tequila? So, it's a mezcal tequila,
very smoky. Mm-hm. Yeah? And it's got blue CARACO.
I'm sorry?
Is that how you pronounce it? Curacao.
Caraco. I call it caraco, yeah. Oh...
Now, we're not going to have a fight about caraco, are we, really?
It's curacao, isn't it, Lisa?
C-Cakayo?
Oh, dear.
ALL: Cheers!
Thank you!
ALL LAUGH
Coming up - foodie footwear...
Would you not normally ask for the cooking of the meat?
If you order your steak more than medium well,
I will bring you my trainer instead.
..and noble name-dropping.
I've cooked dinner for Princess Diana,
the Queen, and it just becomes white noise.
Ridiculous, that he just did that.
"Just Princess Di and the Queen."
He's got a little bit more ego and a bit more to prove.
It's night one of our professionals' competition in Yorkshire...
ALL: Cheers.
..where three restaurant owners are competing to throw
the best dinner party, and tonight, at the Barn,
chef Ben and front of house Jo are hoping
to impress their guests and bag the £1,000 prize.
While Ben gets to work on the starter...
I've never seen scallops so big.
..the others are taking their seats.
It's very pink. Who's in charge of the decor?
So this is entirely Ben's personality.
His house is the same - pink and purple are his favourite colours.
Lots of character,
lots of identity, lots of personality.
So these scallops are so huge that they're just
going to take a little bit longer than normal.
Yeah, no worries! Yeah, no problem.
He ladles out the thermidor sauce, then on go the scallops.
BELL RINGS
Let's be going.
Et voila.
King scallops with grumpy thermidor sauce.
Why did you decide to put a thermidor sauce with a scallop?
I mean, everyone just cops out and does a pea and mint puree.
We thought we'd do something different here.
The colours are really nice. Exactly and so, for me, as you can see,
everywhere it's all about colour.
As I've got further into the dish, I'm enjoying it more.
Thank you. Yeah. The flavours are really, really subtle.
Those scallops were incredible.
Wherever they got those from! They were really lovely. They were.
It was well done with skill, with love and it was tasty. Yeah, it was.
What's the grumpy bit, then?
My ex-girlfriend used to call me Grumpy Doughnut
and then my customers call me Grumpy. They'll ring up
and say, "Is Grumpy there tonight? Is he cooking?"
So it's stuck with me.
So your nickname's Grumpy?
But you're clearly not that grumpy, so what DOES make you grumpy?
Customers, I suppose, you know.
We used to do a steak night on a Thursday night,
so when you book a table for a steak night,
I presume you're coming for a...
ALL: Steak! Steak. Thank you. My kitchen's tiny
but it's really noisy, so when I'm shouting and effing
and blinding, people can't hear me, they can't hear me out here.
Joanna comes and says, "Just letting you know there's a vegan in."
So I say, "What BLEEP vegan comes to a steak night?",
not realising the music had stopped,
the fan had gone off
and the whole restaurant was looking at me like that.
I'm sure he's a normal, of a generation, chef.
He's a chef. Gets quite hot-headed. He's a chef.
So he's a chef, then!
If you're all finished, we'll get all this cleared away
and we'll get ready for the main course.
First course down and, yeah, feeling great, feeling really good.
Onto the main...
Here's our beautiful steaks.
I'm just going to finish them off now with a little bit more heat.
In go the steaks
and out come the Hasselback potatoes.
He dishes out the pepper sauce with whole peppercorns.
On go the greens, the carrots,
and how's that steak looking?
Absolutely beautiful.
They're going to love this and if they don't,
they're in the taxi. Via, via, via, tabla two, let's go.
And there it is - rump steak with pepper sauce,
Hasselback potatoes, and carrots.
It's so good. Oh, bless you.
Would you not normally ask for the cooking of the meat?
I have a thing on my menu that says,
"If you order your steak more than medium well,
"I will bring you my trainer instead."
That's more of a chef's perspective
rather than a front of house so, for me,
I would love to have been asked,
but on the receiving end, it's really nice.
That beef was astonishing.
The chef gave it to me how he thought it should be done.
There's a confidence in that.
The jus is slightly too reduced for me
and I would have blitzed the peppercorns down into a pulse.
Really? The pepper sauce, there were so many peppercorns in it.
Actual peppercorns.
Actual peppercorns that got stuck in my throat.
With mixed reviews on the main,
Simon wants to find out about the hosts' relationship.
So what is this? Are you together together because...?
We're bestest friends.
Bestest friends. Aw.
I love Ben. I love Jo. So how long have you known each other? Years.
Has there been an accidental or, you know, friends that have...?
There have. You've obviously forgotten about it. No!
I have a very good memory.
It was a cold, dark night.
Yeah, they've obviously got undeniable chemistry.
Yeah, I got the sense that they had had history. History, yeah.
Yeah, let's move on.
We don't really know much about you guys.
Can we presume you're husband and wife? Boyfriend, girlfriend?
We just work together. I am Simon's front of house manager.
OK, so you're front of house?
He is the owner of the business and executive chef, as it were.
I thought she was the boss, I thought she owned the business.
Simon was the head chef and it was really that demographic.
I think he means "dynamic".
So not husband and wife.
We've been together for ever.
Yeah, well, we met when we were 17.
Do you get the chance to get any time apart from each other?
Because if you're working and living together...
It more than has its challenges, you know? I am exacting,
I'm borderline obsessed about standards.
To live 24/7 and work 24/7...
You know, I don't think I could handle you 24/7, Jo.
Two days a week's enough for me.
I've worked high-end restaurants,
cooked dinner for Princess Diana, for Bill Clinton,
the Queen.
I used to be Simon Cowell's personal chef,
blah-di-blah-di-blah,
and it just becomes white noise.
I mean, that was ridiculous, that he just did that.
"Just Princess Di and the Queen."
"Simon Cowell's private chef,
"but none of that matters because it's all white noise."
He's just... I've met a million Brians before.
He's got a little bit more ego and a bit more to prove.
Two winning courses down.
Job's a good 'un. We've got it in the bag.
It's not won yet. You've still got dessert to go.
He dishes out a small puddle of custard onto a plate.
On goes the roly-poly and... Oh, jam from a jar!
BELL RINGS Via, via, let's having it.
And dessert is good to go.
The thing about Jam Roly-poly Man,
sometimes I do little late-night drop-offs
for certain ladies that would ring up wanting an after hours...
Or if you wanted a late-night roll, here's your...
He's your Roly-poly Man. Yeah.
That's a pretty niche service.
When I read it, I thought it was going to be soggy,
jam stodgy, and it's not. And it's crispy...
And lovely.
Have you made your own raspberry jam?
I didn't want to stress myself out. It's a French one.
You know the one I mean. I know it, I know exactly, yeah.
I loved how spirally it was and it was crispy.
But that jam almost was the best bit
and the fact that I know he didn't make the jam is a bit annoying.
It absolutely, for me, needs to be just drowned in custard.
I think he's tried to refine the plate a little bit.
Do you want some more custard?
ALL LAUGH
There you go.
Scores out of 20, please.
Amazing food. Amazing food, amazing ingredients.
I would come back.
They made us so welcome.
We've had a great time. The food's been delicious.
There's been a few little things
but, on the whole, I'd say...
I think we'll go... ..a solid, 16.
But it wasn't perfect so, for us, it's going to be
a 15. A 15.
So the Barn has laid down
the gauntlet with 31 points.
It's the second day of the professionals' competition
and we're in Halifax with Brian and Lisa from Disco Kitchen.
Tonight, we're going to be serving fun,
fresh and tasty food. It's more street-food-esque.
It's more relaxed. Welcome to the disco.
Thanks very much. What's everyone expecting?
It could be a country pub somewhere. No.
It could be a trendy little bistro somewhere. No.
It could be a street food place with loads of crazy music.
Wow, spot on.
I think it's going to be a bit of a curved ball.
I think it's going to be, like, weird food.
Weird, like a runny hen's egg on a wild garlic veloute?
That's a thick soup, to you and me.
It's the time of year. You know, for the next month or so,
everyone's going to go wild garlic crazy.
I know I am, and so's Brian.
The smells around here are incredible.
If you like garlic. Right, enough of that.
Listen, you don't see veloute on many menus at all these days
so, yeah, that's definitely his classic point coming through.
Back at the stove,
the wild garlic goes in the pot before Brian makes
a start on the roux for his veloute.
Salted butter into a warm pan, always using a wooden spoon.
Oh, why's that?
Why? I don't know why.
Right, then. To the melted butter, he adds flour...
Just going to cook that out for another minute or so.
..before adding stock, double cream,
then blitzing in the wild garlic, and on to the eggs.
The pressure's on for a soft, runny boiled egg.
Yeah, they're not easy to do. Yeah.
Deep pan, so the egg's got lots of room to breathe.
Bit hard to breathe in boiling water.
They're cooled, peeled and wrapped in sausage meat,
so in fact they're Scotch eggs.
This process is called pane-ing.
I'll probably get beaten up for that pronunciation
but I'm a northerner.
"Pane" is a French culinary term for dipping in flour,
egg and breadcrumbs.
He'll deep-fry them before serving.
They're also adding a Parmesan tuile
and Lisa's braving the kitchen for the first time.
Done, Chef. Thank you very much.
Is that OK? Is that to your standard?
Well done. No, great. One, two, three, four, five, six, please.
Yes, Chef.
Have you finished yet, Lise?
Yeah, I think so.
Are they all the same?
Um... They'd better be.
The one on the end's a bit small.
Well, that's got half the amount of that,
and that into that, so...
So... Well, no, let's just... I'll bake them and we'll see.
Once baked, they'll be served on top of the egg.
So it's onto the main...
A lot can go wrong with a burger. Yeah. Is he going to mince his own?
Is he going to make his own patty? Has he bought it in?
They look bought in, for sure.
We're going to be creating the miniature burger.
So you need to turn big patties into little patties.
Pulling it and squeezing it.
Pulling it and squeezing it? Inwards, yeah.
Pull it and squeeze. Pull and squeeze.
Ah, the old pull and squeeze! I love that dance move.
Now we put them back in the fridge and let them relax,
and then ten minutes before... Relax in the fridge? Relax, yeah.
Nothing more relaxing than being in the fridge, believe me.
Are you sure you know what you're doing?
I've forgotten more than you know. Charming.
He'll cook the burgers later, so it's on to the Steve Jobs slaw.
Maybe Steve's the pot-wash guy and that's his job, chopping slaw.
Slaw. Maybe. Not sure about that.
You OK? Yeah. You're doing a good job, actually.
I'm doing a good job? I have chopped an onion before.
Brian chops some cabbage and combines with the onion.
A bit of Steve Jobs slaw, I'm guessing that's APPLE coleslaw.
Oh, cos it's apple!
Of course. I just got that now.
Apple! Yeah.
To be honest, I've only just got that as well.
In goes apple sauce,
mustard, horseradish, raisins and parsley.
Right, so we leave it.
They'll dress the coleslaw later
and knock up the burrito and poutine before serving.
On to dessert...
Classy. Classy, yeah. Again very French.
He starts by rolling out his premade shortcrust.
I'm hoping that all the way through it is exactly
the same thickness of pastry.
I hope so too. It goes in to blind bake.
You don't want it to be too hard,
but you don't want it to be too soft. Don't want it soggy, do you?
What's the verdict?
Yeah, very happy with that.
To cream, butter and chocolate,
he adds orange liquor before heating in a bain marie.
Have a whiff of that, doesn't that smell good?
SNIFFS Smells great!
It goes onto the pastry and is left to set.
He'll serve with creme fraiche and candied zest later,
so for now that's the food prep done.
As an entire meal,
I just don't know how these things go together. They don't.
It's soup, burger and a tart.
Who you calling a tart?
Never call you a tart, darling.
A final table touch-up
and they're ready to welcome their first guests,
last night's hosts, Ben and Jo.
Hello. Hello! How are you? Nice to see you.
Do you think we've got enough balls?
You can never have enough balls, can you, really?
There's room for more.
Bit of a fun vibe and a relax.
There's no rules here apart from be respectful.
Well, that's one rule.
Hello. Hi!
And here are Simon and Sakina.
Nice to see you. And you. Nice to see you.
Welcome to Disco Kitchen and here's to a great night.
ALL: Cheers.
Coming up - green-eyed girlfriends...
I've thrown a few pints over his head on the Coliseum dance floor.
Have you? There might be a few more tonight after today.
..and indecent proposals...
I would like to ask you,
would you make me the honour of being my number one?
BRIAN: Yeah!
It's night two of the professionals' competition in Yorkshire...
ALL: Cheers.
..where long-term partners Brian and Lisa are hosting
two other duos at their restaurant Disco Kitchen.
Upstairs, Brian's deep-frying his Scotch eggs.
How long's it going to be? As long as it takes.
As long as it takes, there you go.
Lise, can you just wipe any dirty fingermarks off these bowls?
Yes, Chef.
Good job, Lisa.
Downstairs, the others are checking out the venue.
I can see Brian gets behind here on his decks,
giving it some of that, yeah.
When I turned up, it wasn't the restaurant I expected.
It was cool for Halifax, I think.
What are you saying?!
Sorry, Halifax people.
Beautiful, love it, absolutely love it.
It's really nice.
Back in the kitchen, let's have a look at those eggs.
This is make or break.
It's a soft, runny boiled egg and if it's not,
I'm in the doodoo.
I'm happy with that.
They go in with the veloute
and are topped with a Parmesan crisp.
I've just realised I haven't put soup spoons out.
Have you done it now? Shall I run down and do it? Yeah.
Of course. Sorry. You can't serve the food before the cutlery.
Yes, Chef! And there it is,
a hen's egg with wild garlic veloute.
Scotch egg. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Honest feedback to myself is most welcome.
Righto.
It's super delicious
and not what I expected as a veloute.
It's absolutely beautiful but as a starter,
I just feel it a bit... A bit big.
From the menu description, that is not what I was expecting.
I thought it was really tasty, I really enjoyed it, yeah.
Beautiful. Beautiful. Fabulous colours, flavours,
but it was very filling for a starter.
Those Parmesan crisps, they're so lovely.
Did you actually use the Parmesan crisps that I did?
No, no, you made them, didn't you? Lisa is not normally involved.
It's not my habitat. I didn't even know where to stand.
I was so awkward, I felt really awkward,
I didn't know where to stand because it's his domain.
And has he been bossing you around? You know what,
he's been really, really nice today. Like, yeah.
Are you sure about that?
Yeah. Do you want some water? Does anyone want some water?
Sorry to interrupt. Yeah? Yeah. Get some water. I'll get some water.
Well, that didn't last long.
What's that we were talking about you? About in the kitchen?
No, I'm not listening.
I think the impression I got tonight,
it was quite a stressful service.
There's just so much passion and so much desire
to get it right that it just throws you completely awry.
Moving on...
So why is it called Disco Kitchen?
The discotheque was one of the first environments
where different classes of people,
different cultures of people, rubbed shoulders with one another,
so the word "disco" to me means
an eclectic mix of something.
Gastronomy is from different parts of the globe,
so that was the interpretation.
So, yeah, it's something that doesn't make sense
but if it makes sense to you, Brian, that's what matters.
Disco Kitchen to me should have roller girls
scooting around the place and having a little bit of...
They could do some great roller girl things here, couldn't they, yeah?
I thought it was well received. Did anybody dislike it?
No. So that's my opinion.
Law of averages suggests it was a winner.
On to the main, and there's plenty to do.
So we're serving a selection of some of our bestsellers, basically.
He starts with his garlic bread burrito before moving on
to his poutine.
Traditionally, in Canadian poutine, you would have curds,
but this is fior di latte which is a bit of a posh mozzarella, really.
Next up, his teeny-tiny burgers.
I'm getting confused with all these bundles I've done.
Pardon? Nothing. Do you want me to give you a hand, or not?
I'm conscious of our guests.
You're up here doing absolutely nothing, right?
Go downstairs, please, and just run the service.
Yeah, all right, see you later. Bye. Bye.
All right, Brian, keep your hair on.
Yeah, I think he's best left by himself.
Oh, OK, all right. That's all right.
He's having a little moment, yeah.
Bless Lisa, she had a smile that was hiding
a million things on her shoulder.
Now on his own,
Brian puts the finishing touches to his burgers -
mmm, cheesy -
before dressing his apple coleslaw,
and it all gets served up on...
Oh, an old record.
It's a bit of theatre,
it's a bit of fun and I'm hoping that they get it.
We'll soon find out. There it is,
burger on the dance floor,
garlic bread burrito,
poutine and apple slaw.
I don't want to eat it, it just looks too good, too pretty.
Eating off the record,
it's freaking me out because, as a child,
you always got told, "Don't scratch the record."
For me, I can see there's so many different elements in here and...
My question... Sorry to interrupt. My question to you is...
In your own time, fella.
Does that work?
How do you feel? I feel that's great.
I'm sat down in my dining room for the first ever time.
Yeah.
And I've eaten the burrito and I don't like it.
I think I may have misheard that.
I don't like it. It's probably the worst thing on the plate.
That's opened the floodgates.
That weird garlic... Even Chef wasn't happy with it.
I said, "Well, why have you served it?" Yeah.
He didn't taste it, did he?
There was a lot happening on there, lots of flavours.
My mouth didn't know if it was coming or going. Too busy.
Yeah, too complicated.
Your Canadian little dish here, you don't see it.
It's delicious, but it's not curd and chips. It's...
Yeah, good point, I suppose.
Just call it cheesy, lovely gravy chips.
He is essentially selling cheesy chips
with gravy as poutine, and it's not.
It's cheesy chips with gravy. Just say what it is.
With the main course causing confusion,
Ben wants to find out more about the hosts' relationship.
Under pressure as a couple, how do you cope with things?
I've learnt to not take it personally when he's, you know,
on one. Kicking off.
Have you considered swapping roles?
No, I just... I wouldn't want to. That would help you so much.
There was an incident on Saturday evening. We were at it...
I'm sorry?
No, I don't mean...
ALL LAUGH
SAKINA: Easy now, Chef.
The only thing they're going to do by swapping roles is benefit from it
and they will understand how each other works.
It should be that in any business.
On to dessert, then,
and Brian's dividing up his chocolate torte.
Agh! What's the matter?
One side of the tart is about 3mm and this side is... 4mm.
Nobody's going to know.
I know. "I know! I know." I know.
And now I know.
On goes a blob of creme fraiche and candied orange.
Are we going?
Yes, but easy.
I am doing it easy.
And there we have it, chocolate and Seville orange torte.
When I saw that, it was a piece of art.
Oh, Ben, that's lovely. Oh, Ben, you're so lovely.
Give over! You'll get me waffing in a minute.
It's really delicious, Chef. It's immense, it's really immense.
Super balanced, it was really well made.
The candied oranges were delicious.
It was like we were in a different restaurant. A different restaurant.
It was like we were in France
and we're waiting for a little espresso to come with
a glass of water. Affogato. Amazing.
I think our host must have some disco stories.
You've named your empire from it.
I've thrown a few pints over his head on the Coliseum dance floor.
Have you?
When we were, like, 18, 19, yeah.
When you were courting? He was a bit of a one with the women.
Was he?
In my mind, we'd officially finished.
I was talking to another female.
Got a few pints thrown over his head, yeah.
There might be a few more after today but...
Look at your curly-wurly hair.
It's like someone out of the Mondays, innit? Happy Mondays.
Yeah. That's Alan Davis, isn't it? Scores, please!
I had a great night tonight. For me, unfortunately.
the food just didn't quite meet my expectations.
Because Brian was clearly so in the moment,
I think it impacted them both and the night. Yeah.
For me, it didn't flow very well, wasn't consistent.
And for that reason, we're going to give them 13.
They're lovely, lovely people
but the food just didn't quite hit the mark,
so for that reason I think we've agreed...
BOTH: ..we're going to give it 12.
Oh, dear.
So Disco Kitchen are bringing up
the rear in last place
with 25 points.
It's the final day of the professionals' competition
in Yorkshire, and the turn of Simon
and Sakina to host at their Scandi-inspired restaurant FINT
in Leeds. How are you feeling about tonight?
I'm quietly confident that we'll do really well.
I'm probably not as quiet but I'm confident. I know!
Going on the first night
and then after our night has finished, I'm slightly worried.
Personally, I think we're in the lead
and that our night was better than last night. Yeah.
You are in the lead but it's all to play for.
The hosts are kicking off their night with...
You love soup as a starter.
I think soup is the greatest invention of mankind.
I can't... Like, soup as a starter...
Come on, Sakina, give us the hard sell.
It tastes like a version of curry sauce
which you get maybe at the fish and chip shop.
Thanks for that. Sakina's normally front of house
but today she's helping in the kitchen.
So we've got our own curry spice. Caraway seeds,
pink peppercorns, fenugreek, ginger.
In go lentils and green chillies.
It's a soup, at the end of the day.
One you have to have on the menu
to keep Grandma happy in the corner.
Look at that. Look at that.
The sweet potato is sliced
and added to the mix with veg stock.
Oh! Smelling delicious.
Once boiled, it's in to blitz.
That's it then, simple, done.
It'll be served later with his sexy bread.
It's on to the main...
That, to me, sounds Scandinavian.
I don't know what he's trying to do there.
It's not like a Chinese sweet and sour,
but the Swedish version.
You're getting the sweetness just from the lamb itself.
For the lamb base, they add mixed vegetables to
a pot with seasoning and in go the shanks.
We're using Oetker.
I'm sorry?
It's acetic acid. If you went into a chippie,
this is what they've got on the counter
but they've put some caramel colouring into it
so it looks like malt vinegar.
Interesting.
It's potent, innit? Yeah, it is potent.
A splash of water and it's on to the heat.
The presentation I know will be small, very, very precise.
You say that. How do you make a lamb shank small? Oh, yeah.
Looks like he's pulling the meat from the bone.
We'll have to take off some of the skin
and gristly bits so it's a bit nicer to eat.
Onto the brunkal.
Brunkal? Have you heard of that?
I have but I don't know what it is.
Helpful. Simon?
Strictly speaking, it just means brown cabbage
but it's much nicer than the name suggests.
First job, slicing cabbage.
Come on, put your back into it, Sakina.
Give it a bit of heft, girl. I can't do it.
It's like you've put cabbage in a pan before!
In go mixed spices and a caramelised vegan butter,
and it's on to simmer.
Next, the cavolo nero and pumpkin seed cream.
Those flavours are going to be fighting.
There's a lot of fighting. There's a scrap,
there's a scrap right there in that dish.
The cavolo nero is boiled before it's dunked into ice.
It's like Scandinavian cabbage. Go from your sauna,
jump into the frozen lake.
I can see it now.
A quick squeeze and it's into the blender
with herbs, pumpkin seeds and olive oil.
Good-oh.
He whacks a whole celeriac in to roast,
then it's time for dessert...
Rhubarb - brilliant. There should be lots of flavour,
lots of colour in there.
Sakina precisely slices the rhubarb.
Is that 5cm?
It's onto a bed of tarragon and smothered in an orange syrup.
What's not to love? What is not to love?
What's not to love.
Then it's in to roast.
BRIAN: Custard again. That was Monday night's...
Yeah, battle of the custards.
Yeah, ours is very different
so I'm glad we're not replicating anything that's been done already.
Well, you don't often see seeds and oat milk in custard.
So we've got a vegan custard
because we like our menu to be accessible.
In go sugar and vanilla syrup. Funky chicken? Very nice.
Sunflower seed custard, so will we be picking seeds
out of our teeth when we're chomping away?
Hopefully not, as it's all blended and sieved.
Happy with that, Chef?
Absolutely. Winning custard.
They'll add the shortbread, oat and seed crumble
before serving, so for now, that's the prep done.
I think we're going to smash it out the park.
I think we are. It's going to be great. Come on, let's get ready.
Not in a million years would I have put that with them two.
I would. Really? Yeah, I would.
We're so not worried about this menu, are we, Jo? No.
And after a quick change,
they rustle up a cocktail
and are ready to welcome their first guests.
Here we go.
It's current leaders Ben and Jo from the Barn.
Good evening. Good evening, good evening.
Welcome. Hello, Chef, how are you? Nice to see you.
What do you think of the place? Yeah, beautiful, yeah.
Typical, nice, cute little Leeds,
you know, spot on.
Next up, last night's hosts, Brian and Lisa from Disco Kitchen.
Come on in, nice to see you. Are you all right?
As glamorous as ever. Nice to see you. So what do you think?
It's Scandinavian, minimalistic, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Cheers. ALL: Cheers.
Coming up - fashion feuds...
Too stylish for me,
I didn't like that. You were going to show me up. Too stylish?
I don't like anybody else who's in the room who's more cool than me.
What a ridiculous thing to say.
And someone collects the cash.
In second place we have...
It's night three of the professionals' competition
in Yorkshire...
ALL: Cheers.
..where chef Simon and front of house Sakina are hosting
a night out at their Scandi-inspired restaurant FINT.
In the kitchen, they're dishing out the soup,
salting the butter and slicing the rye bread.
Ooh, it's a right wedge, that.
I got a bit chunky. Yeah, perfect.
Let's get them up to our guests, then.
Yeah, lovely. Thank you, Chef.
And there it is,
sweet potato and lentil soup with borodinsky bread and butter.
Thank you so much. You're very welcome.
So borodinsky bread is just a dark rye bread
with coriander seeds and some other spices.
It's beautiful, it's beautiful.
It's lovely. For me, just slightly a little bit more seasoning.
Sometimes I try to err a bit more cautiously
but I should have remembered my crowd.
A soup as a starter, it's not my cup of tea.
I want a treat.
It was tasty but, again, it was a soup, but it was tasty. Very sweet.
I loved it, I thought it was so tasty.
For me, massively under-seasoned.
With the soup a bit hit and miss, talk turns to decor.
As soon as I walked through that door, I felt at ease. Yeah.
The colour palette... It is very soft. It's warming.
So different to ours, but I love it.
It was my other half who's got the eye. He designed all this.
Is your other half Swedish?
He's half-Norwegian.
It's smart. Smart.
It's lovely, it's a very welcoming environment.
So, Ben, if you weren't in this industry, what would you do?
I think it would obviously have to be a male swimwear model.
Ohh! Yeah.
My dream job would be professional wine-taster.
OTHERS: Ohh!
The more you try, the better you are at it. I'm up for that.
Get your nose right in.
Get the aroma, what are you finding there?
Ooh, what are we getting? Let me guess. Grapes?
Blackcurrant? I was going to say blackcurrant.
Any other budding sommeliers in the house?
Yeah, it's fruity. It's soft and fruity.
Do you know what, it's giving me quite a lot of tannin.
Is it? Yeah. Oh, it shouldn't do. It's definitely not the wine.
It's definitely not the wine that's giving you the tannin.
If I, as a customer, am saying it's my experience having tannin,
then she told me it's not.
I thought that was massively peculiar.
So we're one course down. The next course is going to be...
Still pretty confident, yeah.
..is a little bit different again and, you know...
But I'm sure they'll love it.
Time for the main.
Simon starts by slicing up his root veg.
Celeriac is a really ugly veg. It does look like a bit of a brain.
Mmm! Fried brain. Next is sauce.
To reduced stock, he adds cream and dill.
Dill and lamb goes amazingly well. It's a very Nordic thing to do.
It's added to the lamb shank.
Happy, happy.
Then it all goes on the plate with a large spoonful of
the herby cavolo nero puree.
BELL RINGS Right, service, let's go.Let's go.
Sweet and sour dill lamb shank with roasted celeriac,
brunkal and a cavolo nero and pumpkin seed cream.
The aroma around this table right now is just divine.
So this is brunkal?
Yes, yeah.
A Swedish version, whack it together,
of bubble and squeak, Chef, would you say?
Absolutely, absolutely.
Beautiful braised lamb. Thank you.
The celeriac, a triumph. My only comment,
the cavolo nero puree was quite claggy.
Everything on that dish I enjoyed.
The overwhelming factor for me was that
I didn't understand that puree that superseded every other flavour.
I didn't get sweet and sour.
With the Swedish sweet and sour, you don't add any sugar.
All the sweetness is coming...
It's just what's in the lamb. It's not a sweet and sour.
So when you read it... It's not like a Chinese sweet and sour.
I didn't get any sweet or sour flavours.
I got the dill.
I don't really place dill with lamb.
With the main falling a little short,
the group discusses first impressions.
When I first met you, not a couple. Then a moment later,
they are a couple. Then they're not a couple.
You've clearly got the most beautiful, lovely relationship.
You clearly support each other. You'll make me cry.
Jo and Ben, they're lovely people
and I'm really glad that I've met them.
Too stylish for me.
I didn't like that. You were going to show me up. Ooh.
Too stylish?
I don't like anybody else who's in the room that's more cool than me.
Anyone who thinks they're cool is not cool.
What a ridiculous thing to say.
The first night, between you... We could see you were so in love.
It was beautiful.
Whether in ten years' time, that's a different story,
you know what I mean?
Living with someone that you work with
must be really tough. It's a love and hate relationship.
But bet they work really good together.
ALL: Cheers. Cheers for getting through it.
On to dessert, and Simon reheats his rhubarb.
So these are dried apricots that we've pickled off.
In they go, and it's time for that slightly unusual custard.
It's not what you expect from a custard
because it's not double cream and eggs.
A sprinkle of crumble mix and it's done.
Do you know what, I'm very happy with these today. Good.
Wonderful.
It's rhubarb and apricot crumble with sunflower seed custard.
Go on, have a sniff.
Brian?
Brian!
Oh, he's back.
The rhubarb was amazing. It was super sweet,
it was super tangy, it was super acidic.
For me, it didn't work. That's all right.
It reminds me of something that I would eat
when I'm going to the gym.
It was like a smoothie that had been heated up
with loads of nuts thrown on it.
Like something that I would eat in a morning that I don't really like.
I'd like to know how, how have you made custard?
It is a vegan custard
so I can't use eggs, I can't use cream.
Then it's not a custard.
OK.
A vegan sausage roll is not a sausage roll,
and that's my point. I feel very strongly about this.
I call it a custard because what else would I call it?
That is not a custard to me, I'm sorry.
OK. So as a sauce for a dessert, did you like it?
No.
OK.
It was a grey, claggy, underwhelming...
..don't know what.
Then you challenged me last night about the poutine.
But poutine is such a specific thing.
But it's not a registered trademark as a heritage...
Well, neither is custard. Neither is custard.
I'll call it a vegan sauce. Just for you. Have an option.
Crumble and vegan sauce on top.
Everyone's like, "Why don't you just call it custard?"
"Cos Brian said not to call it custard."
Fair comment, fair comment. I'll serve what I want to serve
and how I serve it. Yeah. Fair comment. Do what you do.
Yeah, absolutely. We don't do... Yeah.
Ooh, it's a bit awkward.
Yeah, Brian was a little bit annoying
but I don't really care what Brian says, if I was honest.
Things were getting higher and higher and higher,
and it was putting a little tinge on the evening
because we were all having a good time.
It was getting a bit too much - for a bit of custard, really.
It's a fair point. Hello, what's going on here?
I would like to ask you, Jo,
would you make me the honour of being my number one
best female friend with possible benefits?
OTHERS LAUGH
No possible benefits.
SAKINA: It's the wrong finger.
BEN: Exactly!
Is that a yes?
Mwah!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Oh, I think it's a no.
I always carry a spare.
This one's flashy as well. Jo, you had it all.
Brian, someone's finally made an honest woman out of me.
If that makes you happy, darling, carry on. Crack on!
We've done enough to be...
Not third. ..not third.
Scores, please.
Enjoyed it a little bit more than you.
But, equally, I thought it was a very strong night. Yeah, it was.
So we're going to give it... BOTH: ..16.
Tonight we're going to score Simon and Sakina...
Whoa there!
They need another 16
from Ben and Jo to win outright.
ALL CHEER
ALL GASP
In third place we have
Brian and Lisa with Disco Kitchen.
Oh, well done, guys.
In second place, we have, Simon and Sakina of FINT.
Which means the winner is...
Ben and Jo gave Simon and Sakina 13, meaning the Barn are the winners.
It doesn't matter,
it really doesn't, and we've made some good friends.
Brian? Disappointed.
Yeah.
Hey, forza, forza, forza.
Very worthy winners, they've been smashing it all week.
Just looking forward to having a night
when I'm not having a three-course meal.
Whoo!
I'm going to cry now.
You big, soft lemon. I know.
That's why I have to be there, to man you up.
All right, why do you have to...?
We were doing so bloody well, for God's sake.
# It's a nice day for a white wedding
# It's a nice day to start again... #
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