It's back! The show that I both adore and compulsively hatewatch. The food looks delicious! Everyone is a bastard! The editorial decisions are questionable! I have strongly mixed feelings about the people involved!
This time round there's a Comic Relief tie-in, and the brief is to create dishes that make people laugh. It's tougher than it sounds as almost everyone appears to be entirely humourless about the process, with wildly differing views on what constitutes 'funny'.
It kicked off last week in the South East, with Matt (the new boy), Tom (the old hand) and Adam (Tiny Phil Daniels with a thousand yard stare). It had all the old features of GBM that I find so fascinating; Oliver Peyton whining mournfully, Matthew Fort being posh and making 'Dad' jokes, Prue Leith brokering the peace, strategic editing that makes it look like the competitors spend 80% of their time eyeballing each other, and, of course, chefs aggressively dick swinging. The only way you can pick a favourite is by trying to find someone who seems a little less prickish than the others.
Here's my round up:
Biggest Prick of the Week - Richard Corrigan. I intensely disliked his leading questions showing obvious disapproval and his wheedling rhetoric. He made me uncomfortable. I shouted at the screen a lot.
Least Prickish Prick of the Week - Matt. The new boy actually seemed quite nice, and I think he handled the brief better than any of them.
Moment of the Week - Tie between Arabella Weir smacking down Matthew Fort when he tried to pretend that a dish that wasn't funny was just funny in a different way (it wasn't), and in the final when Tom raised his hand to clap it on Adam's shoulder in a congratulatory way, and Adam instinctively put up his arm defensively to block the blow.
Bronwen's Favourite Dish - Tom Aikens chicken/egg nonsense. Looked fancy, and I'm a sucker for a sabayon.
Wild Card of the Week - Oliver's mint green blazer. Whut.
I'll try and make weekly reports, because the people need to know, godammit. Watch this space.
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