They have our tastebuds in their hands...

So after eight weeks of whittling down the 28 Great British Menu chefs we have the seven finalists. These in turn will be narrowed down again next week until we have a winning menu for the Heston Blumenthal hosted extravaganza showcasing the pinnacle of modern British cooking at the iconic gherkin building next month.

I have followed this and indeed the last two competitions very closely over the last three years. The first in 2006 was to celebrate the Queen’s 80^th birthday, where the stunning Marcus Wareing custard tart was introduced to the world and D and I rather ambitiously tackled the entire menu without the aid of sous chefs or a safety net. The following year was our chefs showing off at the ambassador’s residence in Paris and saw Mark Hix triumph producing two of the four courses and astonishing everyone with his unique crayfish and rabbit Stargazy pie. D and I planned to reproduce that menu also but somehow never actually found the time to actually take up the challenge. This year I am not sure we could even contemplate such a feat, the world has leapt ahead and it’s all about water baths, Pacojets and the somewhat despised foam. Hmmm I think we’ll have to ponder this one. Well we don’t need to make a final decision until the ultimate menu is announced. But it’s going to be a combination of one of each of the following.

Starters:
Glynn Purnell's Rabbit, pea and black olive trifle with rabbit lollipops
Stephen Terry's Asparagus and Carmarthen ham with goats' cheese
Tom Kitchin's Wild boar British breakfast
Danny Millar's Sweetbreads with peas, broad beans and morels
Nigel Haworth's Warm hot pot salad, sweetbreads, pickled red cabbage
Chris Horridge's Wild pigeon with broccoli sprouts and omega rich seeds
Jason Atherton's Bacon, lettuce and tomato with Croque Monsieur

Fish Course:
Glynn Purnell's Pike noodle mousse with a salad of cauliflower, enoki mushrooms and summer herbs
Stephen Terry's Organic salmon and smoked salmon with crab fritters and cockle 'popcorn'
Tom Kitchin's Smoked pike served with summer baby beetroot salad, watercress and horseradish cream
Danny Millar's Smoked eel 'jellied' with apple and beetroot
Nigel Haworth's Line-caught Whitby cod, trotters, tripe, broad beans and peas
Chris Horridge's Poached ling, broad beans with liquorice-ginseng foam
Jason Atherton's London cure salmon with avocado purée and horseradish 'snow'

Mains:
Glynn Purnell's Veal fillet rolled in liquorice charcoal with tamarind jam, liquorice purée, black rice and rocket
Stephen Terry's Salt duck breast and duck hash with quails' eggs, peas and broad beans
Tom Kitchin's Barnsley chop with braised summer lettuce parcels, kidneys and sweet breads
Danny Millar's Caramelised pork belly with Strangford prawns and potato and bacon sauce
Nigel Haworth's British white beef, smoked marrowbone, baby cauliflower and watercress purée
Chris Horridge's Rabbit, carrot purée and vegetables
Jason Atherton's Dexter beef fillet, ox cheek, smoked potato purée and marrow bone

Desserts:
Glynn Purnell's Marinated strawberries with tarragon and black pepper honeycomb with burnt English cream surprise
Stephen Terry's Milk jelly with tomato and nettle syrup
Tom Kitchin's Heather honey parfait with gooseberries, elderflowers and raspberries
Danny Millar's Poached rhubarb with crisp porridge, hot milk and ice cream
Nigel Haworth's Curd tart with rose petal cream and redcurrants
Chris Horridge's Blackcurrant mousse tartine, berry soup infused with basil and wheatgrass foam
Jason Atherton's Arctic roll, berry salad and raspberry sarawak pepper jelly

I’ve had my favourites all the way through the competition and was really rooting for Nigel Haworth, Jason Atherton and Tom Kitchin. I thought Jason and Nigel’s competition were tough especially the much revered Atul Kochhar. The judges always seem to go doolally over Atul’s food and even though I admit that it probably is utterly amazing and defies categorising, I still struggle with the British tag. His influences are so very much Indian, he was born and bred there and came to England early in his cooking career. But then the same could be said for the careers of Raymond Blanc, Giogio Locatelli, Jean-Christophe Novelli etcetera etcetera. Atul declares his food to be Anglo-Indian which is considered acceptable for this competition but why is his ‘fusion’ food so very British but Angela Hartnett’s equally praised food born of her Italian-Welsh roots is considered ‘not cricket’ and just wrong for this platform? I think I’ve probably worn out my soapbox on this subject so I will leave it at that… for now!

Unfortunately Angela didn’t get through but I was delighted that her fellow Ramsay-family chef Jason did and Nigel showed these new pretenders (especially Anthony Flinn) that he knows his stuff and isn’t as much of a dinosaur than the extremely arrogant Anthony believed. They was actually rather a lot of cheffy handbags at dawn this year, the laid back but exceedingly talented Jeremy Lee, Richard Corrigan and Mark Hix opted not to participate this year and instead we had a few chefs who like to snipe at each other and fling the odd finely honed tempered steel Japanese knife towards the back of their opponent. Contrast Chris Horridge and Elisha Carter last week and the ‘are you honestly going to put a soupçon of butter in that dish, don’t you realise you could kill your diners?’ with Jason helping Atul out with both of his foams and an errant Pacojet today. Last week I secretly hoped that both Chris and Elisha could both be eliminated as they were as bad as each other!

Now if it were my choice for the menu to grace the hallowed tables of the gherkin before the worlds’ eminent chefs I think I would select:

Tom Kitchin's Wild boar British breakfast
Nigel Haworth's Line-caught Whitby cod, trotters, tripe, broad beans and peas
Jason Atherton's Dexter beef fillet, ox cheek, smoked potato purée and marrow bone
Glynn Purnell's Marinated strawberries with tarragon and black pepper honeycomb with burnt English cream surprise

Though a lot does depend on if they have the original rule of a chef only preparing one course because I like the idea of Jason’s starter - Bacon, lettuce and tomato with Croque Monsieur and Nigel’s Warm hot pot salad, sweetbreads, pickled red cabbage does really appeal to my Northern tastes.. Also Tom’s dessert - Heather honey parfait with gooseberries, elderflowers and raspberries sounds interesting though it did look rather like a car crash! Actually Jason’s Arctic roll, berry salad and raspberry sarawak pepper jelly would be a real giggle as well!

I have to admit that I am going for the chefs I favour as well as the food. I know it should be all about the food but Chris annoyed me too much last week to consider his Rabbit, carrot purée and vegetables despite the judges singing its praises from on high! Oh decision, decisions though of course it won’t be my choice. The judges will deliberate and cogitate and decide the top three perhaps for each course and then the great British public can hit their redial buttons to decide the eventual winning combination. I do so hope they choose well, the worlds’ chefs will be watching and I guess D and I will be ruminating whether we can possibly simulate a vacuum-packed-poached-in-a-water-bath dish, without losing our sanity. I suspect that the resultant feast will be one to savour but not really to tackle in the confines of ones own inadequately appointed (for the modern molecular gastronomist at least) kitchen!