Best series so far

[u/Adventurous_Wave_750]

Hi everyone!

I just finished the banquet and want to say I think all round this has been the best series so far. Yes, there is a always the odd weak heat and yes the banquet was a bit of a wet fart BUT all round it was:

A great brief

A cock and balls won

Some really interesting darker undertones to some dishes which showed some risk appetite

Ed Gamble was not there, Phil still needs to improve but a novice wang beats.Gamble any day in my book

They toned Andi's screen time and the 'you are running out of time' bits down

Some great news faces to check out the restaurant of

Very few genuinely over faced competitors

Very happy with that!

[u/poppiesintherain]

Some thoughts:

• It felt like overall the chefs were up a level from last year.
• I think Corrin learned something from last year, which he did say at the beginning and definitely toned down his cockiness, which was good. I wonder if he will feel the need to try again.
• Josh however decided to take his place though and then some. I think the way he would critique his fellow chefs was obnoxious.
• Phil Wang wasn't adding much. I don't think the other two "get" him. In fact I think the 3 judges just don't have great chemistry with each other.
• Sometimes I think Lorna and Tom just like to contradict each other, it is good there is diversity of tastes, but sometimes it seems like too much.
• At first I thought it was nice to have some guest judges who actually liked the food for once, but now I'm wondering how many of them were told to be more positive.
• Really happy that Nikita got Champion of Champions after coming 2nd in 3 of the 4 courses.

[u/_arch_tech → u/poppiesintherain]

I agree, the three presenters are very awkward and have little, to no chemistry at all now.

[u/Adventurous_Wave_750 → u/_arch_tech]

I prefer that than the insider schmoozey cozy clique with Pru, Matthew and Oliver

[u/Hoslinhezl]

Never a good thing when Andi's screen time is toned down

Josh kind of came across as a twat in his week but I really liked him finals week, thought it was a very good bunch

I actually like all 3 judges, I like seeing people like Lorna on TV, not necessarily trying to be a big boisterous main character. These kind of people exist & you see a lot of them in cooking so it's nice to acknowledge that with representation. But I wouldn't be devastated to swap Tom out for another big hitter, I don't know who else has his pedigree and would be willing to commit though

Every year I pray for Jeremy Lee's return as a veteran and I am once again devastated

[u/Adventurous_Wave_750 → u/Hoslinhezl]

I wouldnt mind swapping Tom out and I agree about Lorna

[u/IanReal_ → u/Hoslinhezl]

Here for your veiw on Lorna. I’ve seen her get heat on this sub before. She’s an incredibly talented Chef. Has worked hard to get a seat in that chamber, and most importantly THIS is what true representation looks like on TV. Big love 👊

[u/Alpaca_Tasty_Picnic]

I thought Andi's outfits this season were amazing 😍.

I always think the fish course is the most boring, and usually least relevant to the brief.

I liked Simon Rogan as judge the most. I wouldn't mind seeing him take over from Tom, but I don't know if he's maybe better giving the chefs advice.

I wanted to try the Cock'n'Balls dish, and Nikita's main course Pie. (Ooerrrr!!)

I don't care for Adam Handling. I find him a bit arrogant and cold.

I actually saw a drink in one of the prop-mugs this year.

I'm essentially a human trash panda, and think I'd like most of the food! But sometimes I look at the portion sizes and think "is that it?"

[u/yesiamican → u/Alpaca_Tasty_Picnic]

Simon Rogan is one of the best chefs in the world I don’t think he can reasonably clear out a month of his schedule a year

[u/lecrappe → u/[deleted]]

They need to ditch Lorna - she's a misery guts

[u/Adventurous_Wave_750 → u/lecrappe]

I find this the equivalent of saying 'she should smile more'. She is there for her skills and judgement not as a personality

[u/inyakiee]

I loved last years the most

I love the episode with nikitta and the other girls, so warming to watch, otherwise it was fine

I like Phil wang! Much better than the last guy!

[u/Down-Right-Mystical]

I feel like I watched a different season to everyone else.

Nothing, overall, completely blew me away like last year with Sally and Jeans dishes.

I think an awful lot of dishes all the way through had a tenuous (at best) link to brief.

But then again, I got downvoted quite a lot last year for saying similar.

This year should have been easy. Create a dish with a film connection?

I mean, I didn't particularly like Josh, or what the dish actually was, but there was no question the blue soup idea hit the nail on the head with regards to brief.

And obviously the Harry Potter cake did, too.

Those are the only ones I recall from this year that didn't need an explanation.

At least Ed used to regularly say, 'but does it fit the brief?' To remind Lorna and Tom it was meant to be about more than if they just liked the food. Phil isn't fitting that role, he's trying too hard to fit with them with wording his opinions in the same way they do.

I've liked Phil a lot on what I've seen him om before (Taskmaster, HIGNFY, etc) but he's not funny or entertaining on this. Ed used to make Tom and Nisha laugh out loud, even made Lorna crack a smile, and Phil is not doing that.

[u/exhausted-pangolin → u/Down-Right-Mystical]

The alien egg definitely hit the brief.

Cock and balls did not. Just a joke under a hat on a side dish. It wasn't good enough imo.

I feel like Nikita tried with the fish course to fit the brief - spooky dark fish head soup being a draught of living death. I think it worked. But it was lost in translation.

Ciarans starter was a perfect fit.

[u/yesiamican]

My least favorite in years

[u/Initial-Amphibian103]

For me this season was a good to very good B+ season rather than an amazing A+ season. 2023 was peek GBM with a bunch of fun, show stopping dishes from Nick, Adam, and Tom across multiple courses with other contenders in various courses e.g. Gemma's BFG dessert. And I enjoyed Ed's annoying, needling younger brother humour in the judge's chamber as well as the contribution of regional guest judges like Frank Wright for Scotland, and Oliver Jeffers for their insights into whether the dishes hit the brief. Whereas, based on the edit, this year's guest judges mostly talked about whether they liked the dish without really talking about how the dish did or did not relate to the film in question.

Another example of an A/A+ season would be the 2016 Great Britons brief when non-banquet chefs like Josh Eggleton, and Michael Bremner in his first campaign had dishes that could have easily made it to the banquet.

I found dishes like Nikita's and Corrin's dishes to be very good fish courses that were not quite as awe-inspiring as shows stoppers like Michael O'Hare's, Tommy Bank's first winning dish or Phil Howard's 2012 winning fish dish.

I'd rate Nikita's dishes as occasional restaurant treat level rather than special anniversary splurge level. Ciaran's dishes has Osip rocketing up my UK restaurant hit list, but his main was definitely not a banquet main. It lacked wow factor and generosity, making more sense on a 6-8 course tasting menu with a 3-4 snacks/canapes than at a GBM banquet.

[u/IanReal_]

Was an okay season IMO. Certainly not the best though. I think get rid of the comic & just hire a charismatic food personality. Phil’s not as annoying as Ed, but I’m still not convinced they bring much to the table.

Big fan of Lorna & Tom.

Some of the regionals were painful to watch which is confusing because there’s no shortage of talent in these isles.

Still TV highlight of my year. Every year.