It’s Welsh week on this year’s Great British Menu and one of the professional chefs in the kitchen wowed his fellow competitors and judge Angela Hartnett with a string of ten out of ten scores.
Chef Nathan Davies’ cooking was so impressive that it even led to his restaurant’s website crashing due to the number of people trying to visit it.
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Nathan Davies is the co-owner of Aberystwyth’s SY23, which has just been awarded a Michelin star and named the best new restaurant in the UK by the prestigious Michelin Guide.
He’s known for his flame cooked food which makes the most of local produce and he even brought his own hand-made barbecue with him into the Great British Menu kitchen.
This year the four Welsh chefs are competing to cook a course at a banquet celebrating a century of British broadcasting with dishes taking inspiration from a variety of TV shows, including Saturday evening family favourites and once in a lifetime events.
The other Welsh chefs competing for a place at the banquet are Cardiff's Larkin Cen, chef patron at Bristol’s Woky Ko, Mark Threadgill, head chef at the Portmeirion Hotel, and Newport's Tom Phillips, head chef at London’s Restaurant Story.
Nathan Davies’ starter took inspiration from the TV show Merlin and featured barbecued and slow-cooked lamb neck served with hay smoked onion hearts, fermented ancient grains, beer broth and miso puree.
Cleverly presented in a book of potions, Nathan’s fellow contestants all scored him a 10 with chef Larkin Cen saying, “I think you nailed it.” Judge Angela Hartnett scored the dish a nine with presenter Andi Oliver describing it as “exceptional cooking” with “big bold flavours” and a “great connection to the brief”.
Nathan’s fish course, inspired by the BBC documentary Coast, impressed even more. Combining ingredients from around the coast of Wales, the dish featured a barbecued scallop served with razor clams, a Japanese sanbaizu sauce, chive oil, scallop crumb and seaweed.
Responding to the dish, chef Mark Threadgill said “when you’re eating it you can taste like you’re walking across the coast,” and all three of Nathan’s fellow competitors scored him a 10 out of 10. Judge Angela Hartnett was also blown away by Nathan’s cooking, scoring him a 10 and saying “you nailed the link to the brief” and describing it as a “standout dish.”
Such was the impressiveness of Nathan’s cooking that during the episode the website for his restaurant SY23 crashed, and Nathan posted the following message on Instagram: “GBM has meant that the whole world is on our website. Please be patient with getting on, it’s currently having a moment.”
It’s the second year in a row that Nathan has scored a 10 out of 10 for his fish course and he’s now the favourite to progress through to the judges’ chamber on Friday, February 17 with a current total score of 19.
Fellow competitor Tom Phillips is second in the running with a combined score of 16, having scored nine for his sweet bread in a vin jaune sauce inspired by the drama Northern Lights and seven for his turbot in a vanilla sauce inspired by Doctor Who’s favourite dish of fish fingers and custard.
Larkin Cen was the third chef to make it through to the next episode with a total score of 15 for his char sui pork starter, inspired by Fireman Sam, and a barbecue monkfish katsu curry, which took inspiration from the first colour TV broadcast.
Chef Mark Threadgill also scored a total of 15 for his curried quail starter “Don’t eye up my Bhuna”, inspired by the iconic Gavin and Stacey takeaway scene, and a Doctor Who inspired panko-crumbed sea bass dish with brown crab set custard.
However, Larkin progressed through to the next episode in a tiebreak because his canape was rated more highly by judge Angela Hartnett.
At the end of Wednesday, February 16’s episode, two chefs will progress through to the judging chamber where they’ll have to impress celebrity chefs Tom Kerridge and Nisha Katona as well as comedian Ed Gamble and a guest celebrity judge.
One chef will then go through to the finals and compete for a chance to cook at the banquet.
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Great British Menu continues tonight on BBC Two at 8pm.
