Elly Wentworth amongst first ever all female line up on Great British Menu

Last week saw much fun and frivolity in BBC Two’s Great British Menu, with the South West Region of the UK highlighted and the shows first ever all female line up.

Talented chefs Olivia Barry of Adelina Yard in Bristol, Nat Tallents from the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall, Charlotte Vincent of the Five Bells in Clyst Hydon and our own Elly Wentworth, Head Chef at the Angel here in Dartmouth.

Celebrating 100 years of British broadcasting is the theme of this year’s series, featuring dishes created around classic British TV shows. The show, now in its 17th season, is presented by the ever-smiling Andi Oliver and has a new judging line-up of: Michelin starred, GBM double banquet winner, Tom Kerridge; Restauranteur Nisha Katona and comedian and Food podcast presenter Ed Gamble.

Elly, who was delighted and honoured to be asked back again for this year’s show, took great care deciding on her menu and worked really hard at creating interesting, unique dishes, that met the shows brief. It was also really important to Elly that sustainable and local produce was used wherever possible, such as the free dived scallops, caught on a single breath and delivered to her door still snapping from Greenstraight Scallops that were used in her fish course. Interesting fact: Elly is a demon and super quick at shucking scallops! Plus, everything had to taste amazing!

She started with a Fish & Chips canape, followed by her starter ‘If You Don’t Like Duck, You’re Rather Stuck’ – a duck ravioli with duck consommé, bitter orange gel, cranberry & bitter orange chutney. This was based on an infamous Fawlty Towers ‘fine dining’ episode, although there was nothing faulty about Elly’s food!

Elly’s fish course was inspired by the legend that is broadcaster David Attenborough. Not many of us have been untouched by the outstanding programmes he has produced over the years. Ocean Greens served up beautiful brill, hand dived scallops, turnips, sea lettuce and preserved lemon.

For Elly one of the stand-out broadcasts of the last 100 years for her personally was the wedding of Will and Kate. She remembers watching the whole thing transfixed! This course saw her serve up a Windsor Banquet of lamb loin, apricot, lemon thyme and spring onion and was certainly fit for a future King and his Queen.

Pre desert of orange, crème fraiche, grapefruit and cocoa granola, focussed on Only Fools and Horses and much time and effort went into creating the 3-wheeler to house it in!

Elly’s final course was her nod to Art Attack – called ‘Try it for Yourself’ featuring blackberry, lime, goats’ yoghurt and an artist’s paint board complete with paintbrushes to splatter sauce – a nod to her friend and colleague Craig, the pastry chef at the Angel, who sadly passed away in 2021.

All in all, a fantastic week, albeit hard work, and Elly was delighted with her feedback, even though she missed out by just a few points. She has already had so much deserved success in 2022 so far with the Angel awarded Gold Best Restaurant from the Devon Tourism Awards, Best Restaurant with Food Drink Devon and Restaurant of the Year with Taste of the West.

If you missed the series so far, don’t panic you can catch up on all the excitement and wonderful food prepared on BBC iPlayer!