The head chef of Ambleside’s Rothay Manor has made it to the final of the BBC’s Great British Menu.
Dan McGeorge competed in the North West heats earlier this month.
He was one of four chefs battling it out for a place in finals week, fellow competitors included Kirk Howarth of Plates, London, Dave Critchley of Lu Ban, Liverpool and Ashwani Rangta, of Gupshup, Altrincham.
The first two days of the programme saw the 30-year-old Liverpudlian produce six dishes, based around this year’s theme of British innovation.
Veteran judged chef Tom Aikens alongside presenter Andi Oliver oversaw proceedings in the kitchen, before eliminating chefs in two stages as the programme progressed, before going on to decide who would cook for the judges’ panel.
Dan and fellow chef Kirk Howarth made it through as the final two. Each then had the opportunity of cooking their respective menus for the esteemed panel of judges made up of food writer Matthew Fort, restaurateur Oliver Peyton, broadcaster and food creative Rachel Khoo and guest judge Wayne Hemingway MBE, designer and co-founder of fashion brand Red or Dead.
Dan‘s menu kicked off with a canape, BBQ Not BBQ, marking the building of the Bridgewater Canal by James Brindly, which allowed coal to be shipped across the north. The canape featured venison tartare, with a charcoal emulsion, squid ink croutons and barbecued beetroot.
His starter, Doctor’s Orders, celebrated Lucy Cradock, Liverpool’s first practising female doctor. A deconstructed take on the classic Liverpudlian dish, scouse, made with Herdwick lamb loin, black garlic, carrot tops, confit pink fir potatoes, finished off with a sauce served from a giant syringe.
His fish course, Deep Blue Sea, was a nod to early submarine designer Reverend George Garrett, whose first design sank off the coast of Rhyll. Featuring barbecued monkfish, served with cockles, kohlrabi and a silver submarine flavoured with Xo sauce, which when dropped into a dashi sauce submerged and dissolved in the process.
The main course, The Amazing Adventures of Isabella Bird, marked the achievements of this intrepid explorer, orientalist and first female member of the Royal Geographical Society. The course was made up of six Asian dishes, one from each of the countries Isabella visited, including Korean fried lamb sweetbreads with a sticky barbecue sauce, Japanese tempura vegetables, Vietnamese morning glory with oyster sauce, soy marinated quail eggs, stir fried lotus root and barbecued char sui pork.
Matthew praised the whirligig of flavours, but Oliver questioned if there are too many. Rachel strongly disagreed, saying ‘’I think it’s really exciting’’, while Wayne Hemmingway commented that his veggie version was ‘’right up my street’’.
Dan’s pre-dessert, Deliciously Squidgy,, was a take on a British classic, his own version of the famous malt loaf invented by John Rahbek Sorensen. This featured circles of malt loaf, malted milk ice cream, a brown butter crumb, caramelised yoghurt, poached rhubarb, a rhubarb tuile and a rhubarb gel.
His final course, Give A Dog A Bone, celebrated the training of the first four guide dogs by Muriel Crooke and Rosamund Bond. It featured a bone shaped milk chocolate mousse, with a miso caramel centre, sprayed in chocolate, served with a miso caramel sauce, salted caramel ice cream, honeycomb miso tuile and yuzu gel and zest.
Wayne said: “I could eat it until I was sick” and Oliver added: ‘‘Lovely back story, lovely pudding’’.
Dan now goes through to finals week to represent the North West.
Dan said: ‘‘I really didn’t expect to win with such strong competition, especially from Kirk. But I’m really chuffed that I did and now I’m going to push on in finals week to see if I can get a dish to the banquet and do the North West proud.’’
