(egg cracking and sizzling)
(light orchestral music)
- Hello, and welcome back to Sorted Food.
- Now, as we recently mentioned,
after nearly 10 years,
our mate and chef, James,
has decided to go and bag himself a better job.
(slide whistle playing)
So we thought why not have one final, epic
chef versus chef, James versus Ben battle.
- Today, the chefs will be taking inspiration
from the past 10 years of dishes
they've experienced with Sorted,
but never actually cooked.
- Now a victory for James
would mean that he leaves the Sorted Food kitchen
as the best chef that Sorted has ever had
or ever will have probably.
But if James loses, then we've all decided
that he has to stay forever.
- Yeah, we have.
- We have. - We have.
- We have, they have.
- Chefs, the last supper begins in
Three, two, one, battle!
- Can you microwave this for me?
- Okay. What is it?
- [James] It's white chocolate.
- Okay, did it.
- I'm blooming some gelatin.
This is going into water.
- I have opted for smoked guinea fowl
on a charred corn risotto
with fermented and pickled garlic buds.
It's a throwback to our very, very first
chef versus chef battle
and an incredible dish we had at "Le Pigeon" in Portland.
I've got a whole bird,
and I'm going to take the legs off.
They're going to be roasted on a tray
with some leeks and some herbs in the oven.
The breasts, we'll need later on
and the carcass I'm going to hack that up
and then combine it with
celery, carrot,
garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns and onion,
plenty of water.
And that goes into our instant pot
which I'm going to cook at high pressure
for about 45 minutes.
So we can get stock out of all the flavour of the carcass.
- You noticed how much Ebbers
is taking his frustration out
on that bird.
- So I remember that trip to Portland being really, quite
foodie and the kind of the places
we were eating were incredible.
It's all sort of farm to table-esque.
But we'd just come off the back
of a day of blindfold taste testing
ice creams and are trying to identify things.
And then while you guys went and did your own thing,
James and I treated ourselves to dinner
at Le Pigeon.
And it was just a moment we had
and it was just brilliant food.
I loved it.
- It is the moment we had.
- Oh that's a really sentimental way of looking at it.
- And we couldn't choose what to order on the menu,
so we'd got four starters
and shared them between us.
- I would've been devastated if Ben
hadn't made a risotto
in our final chef vs chef video.
- James, you've cooked more risottos
in the last two years than I have.
You've done three for the book.
You've done six for meal packs.
I haven't done a single one in two years.
- I've been developing for a mid-week meal pack,
not our chef v chef battles.
- Whoa.
- Ouch.
- So Ebbers is hitting us right in the sentimental area.
Where are you taking us through your dish?
- That was...
(Barry laughing)
- I'm doing Japan,
or Japanese influence,
because we all cooked dinner in Japan
for lots of people.
It was very intimidating.
So I thought I'd kind of infused some Japanese flavours
into some Western flavours and give it a go.
So I'm doing a toasted sesame
and white chocolate mousse on poached rhubarb.
With Nigori sake split with wasabi oil,
and a miso crumb.
- He's going to split it in a good way.
Cause whenever I split things, he tells me it's bad.
- [James] I think it's in a good way.
- In this video talking about splitting,
not good mate. - Okay fine.
(Jamie laughing)
- I'm going to start with my toasted sesame
and white chocolate mousse.
And to do that, I'm going to toast sesame seeds,
and bring milk up to a boil.
And then I'm going to blitz those sesame seeds
with a little bit of milk,
add them to the boiling milk
along with bloomed gelatin.
Then I'm going to whip up double cream,
add the white chocolate and sesame seed mix
to the double cream
and fold it in very gently.
- Betrayal?
- No, I think it's...
deceit.
- Deceit. That's what it is.
- Smells like deceit.
- My bloomed gelatin is going to go into my sesame mix.
- Oh, and there's this little after taste of...
abandonment as well.
Yeah.
- My sesame and white chocolate mix,
with the gelatin in it,
is going to go through my whipped double cream.
(Jamie laughing)
- Look, we got the balloons.
It's also a time for celebration.
So I've got a nice Pinot noir
from Oregon from the same place.
And I thought not only is it perfect for me
to reduce some down into a wonderful syrup,
- low tannin, nice and fruity -
but we can also enjoy glass because James,
you might not be allowed to drink in your new kitchen
while you're cooking.
But no rules here.
- It's a good point actually.
If you go into a professional kitchen,
you're going to have to buck up your game.
- Yeah, that's the point.
- Oh, right. Okay. I see.
- Cheers.
- There's nothing I'd like better at 9:30 in the morning.
- Oh nice, delicious.
Thank you very much.
Good morning.
- The great thing about Portland, Oregon
in the summer when we were there
was how bountiful all the fresh produce was.
In the spring here in the UK,
we've got some wonderful, fresh produce.
I'll come to that later, but corn is not there yet.
But we've also learned that some things frozen,
or tinned, or canned,
are just as good for quality and consistency.
So I've opened a tin of sweet corn.
I've drained it and now I'm going to char it.
- That's a really long winded way of saying
"I'm using sweet corn."
(Barry laughing)
- I'm transferring my white chocolate and sesame mousse
into a round ring cutter.
I'm also going to set it in a silicon mould
and I'm going to decide which one to use
because I'm not sure yet.
It's going in the fridge for about an hour.
I'm excited about this bit
'cause this bit is also inspired by another video.
It's the birthday cake crumb mix
from the milk bar birthday cake that I cooked for Ben.
But instead of rainbow sprinkles, I'm doing miso.
I'm going to mix together:
plain flour, caster sugar, brown sugar, baking powder.
And then I'm going to pour in
vegetable oil and miso paste,
mix it all together.
Kind of crumble it over some baking paper
put it in the oven for 10 minutes.
- I'm reducing a large glass of wine
down into a couple of tablespoons
of really intense wine syrup.
If you're gonna that,
pick a red wine without too many tannins in it,
or sort of low tannin
because that will concentrate as well.
You want the fruitiness to come through
and in the natural sugars in the wine
more so than reduction of tannin.
- "I've done a wine course."
- I want something really shiny and syrupy
'cause it really is going to be the glaze at the end.
So with a bit of richness,
from stock that are reduced down to jus
and this will be the syrup.
It just glazes the plate.
- The rhubarb is super simple.
I'm going to chop it up.
Chuck it in a sauce pan with some sugar, mirin, and water.
Bring it up to boil
and boil it for like four minutes with the lid on.
For the wasabi oil,
I'm going to blanch some spinach for 30 seconds.
That's just for colour.
That's going to go in a blender
with oil and wasabi paste
and just blend it for like a minute.
It's very green.
(upbeat music)
- So with the legs of the foul roasted,
and kind of braised in a way with the liquid
and the tin foil lid,
I'm now picking off the meat,
chopping it up.
I'm going to add fresh herbs,
the wine reduction,
season it to taste and create little bon bons
that I'll quickly chill before pané-ing.
- He's making chicken nuggets. Isn't he?
(upbeat music continues)
(cheering)
- So I'm sure people are gonna have questions
about what's next for you.
We have done a longer video,
where we sat down and had a chat
around the table,
but what does that next adventure look like?
- Well. Off-camera here,
I have always been a development chef.
I just happened to join you guys on camera.
So it's going to be much the same.
I'm still going to be a development chef
just for someone else.
I just want to learn a bit of new stuff
from other people.
I'm not gonna be head chef.
So I've got someone to learn from who is above me.
I think that'll be really good.
- There's probably just hope for us all.
That it's still possible
to get a job after all this rubbish.
- Well, even after this video.
And this.
- James, it's Easter,
will you cheer up?
- And this.
- So Mike's is deceptively simple.
- And definitely this.
- Crêpes Suzzette. Sorted.
(everyone laughing)
- That, I'd forgotten about that one.
- I forgot about my rhubarb
while we were having a friendly chat.
- [Barry] Oh no.
- Turns out you have learned something from our normals.
(everyone laughing)
- It's not an absolute disaster.
It's just a little softer than I would've liked.
- We're probably going to have to take that into account
when judging.
(funky guitar music)
- [Ben] Meanwhile,
I'm going to sweat off the shallots in butter and oil.
And once they're nice and soft,
then I'll add garlic, herbs, and bay leaves.
(funky guitar music continues)
(distant chattering and steam escaping)
- That's what Ebbers' ears looked like
after James said that he was getting a new job.
- One thing we learned about pressure cookers,
is not to overfill them.
I'm getting a little bit of splash back now.
Once it's finished going, I'm going to strain it off.
The stock is perfect for
the risotto... the rest of it,
I'm going to reduce down into a wonderful rich jus.
Risotto rice, going in,
toasted in all of that buttery, oniony goodness.
Then a splash of white wine reduced by half
and then, a bit at a time, with the Guinea fowl stock.
- You must've learned a lot
from each other over the last 10 years as well.
Is there any standout things?
- My approach has always been,
ever since the student cooking days,
a little bit of cowboy,
a little bit of bish bash bosh.
Let's get ourselves 90% of the way there,
as quick as possible with as few barriers.
And that is my approach to most things in food.
Whereas James has a wonderful discipline
of try-test perfectionism,
that has absolutely changed everything we do.
That's what I'll take from what you've left
of a decade of fine tuning everything we do.
- That's really nice - That's so cute.
- I dunno where the cowboy analogy comes out. But I-
- [Barry] Why a cowboy?
- I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Ebbers.
He gave me the opportunity.
I did know of you, before that,
like, you came back for a...
careers evening at university
and I sat there.
- Oh, I didn't know this.
- I was in the audience.
And you were the only person that I,
I thought had done a great job.
I was like, oh, he's built himself,
like, the perfect company to just
buy all the ingredients he wants,
get all the equipment he wants
and just cook.
- It's amazing how in Ben's version of the story
that he told to James all those years ago
it was just Ben that had done that.
- A few weeks ago.
I picked some wild garlic
and we talked about the advantages
of frozen pellets of spinach
only in season for a while.
So I bought like,
I literally filled up a rucksack full of it.
Got it home, washed it,
blanched it, squeezed it into my own pellets.
And now I've got wild garlic pellets in the freezer
to use, and I'm going to use some of them in this dish.
I also picked
some wild garlic buds
and then I lacto-fermented them
for a week
and then pickled them in cider vinegar.
And what they are is a wonderful,
almost caper-esque
like floral citrus-y, tangy thing,
that's going to just finish and garnish the plate.
They're lovely.
- You couldn't do that in your job.
Take your shoes off the work surface.
- Well hopefully wherever you're going,
they're going to pay you better
so you can buy some new shoes.
Look at the bottom of them.
They've got holes in them.
- They're just so comfortable though.
Don't close up on my shoes.
- There you go, James, have a little-
- What have-
- Let me set you up a little pané station.
So this dish, it all comes together the last few minutes,
but the Guinea fowl leg
balls have now set up.
Flour, egg, bread crumb.
They're going to be fried.
(Jamie laughing)
Guinea fowl breasts pan fried skin side down
for most of the cooking.
Then we'll turn them.
Another couple of minutes
and then I'll get a gadge out.
Finish the risotto by stirring through the corn,
the wild garlic, and the pecorino.
Stir it all through, season to taste.
- So Ben, what badge you going for today?
- Taking a leaf out of your book.
Going for "guinea fowl" badge,
(laughing)
up there with the "squid".
- So what is the deal with the chef skills challenge now?
Cause there's going to be a gap of a chef.
- Well, you're not getting away that easy.
I'm still going to judge you.
I've still got plenty of badges up my sleeve
I can hand out,
but also, perhaps it's the opportunity to
reach out to some top chefs around London.
With actual skills,
who can come and test you for real.
And they won't be as nice as I am.
- There's no need to embarrass ourselves
in front of real people.
- Firm with a bounce,
you don't want to over dry it,
but,
unlike a lot of game
you don't want to serve it under done.
So it's not game-y that you can serve it pink.
You do want to cook it through like chicken.
But you don't want to dry it out.
- What sake you going for there James?
Love this, the sake I like.
- Unfiltered.
Right team, two minutes left.
(intense music)
- Oh!
- 30 seconds.
Ten,
nine,
eight,
seven,
six,
five,
four,
three,
two,
one.
Stop cooking forever.
Well, until he comes back.
- Do you want to say it one last time?
- Are we going to put them through "sexies"?
Is that why?
- Sexies
(heavy hip hop music)
- Hello. I'm gate crashing here.
- Oh, hi.
- Hello
- I'm coming to the party.
- Nice that you could join us.
- That's why I threw a few extra nuggets on.
- Thanks mate.
- Should we just dig straight in?
- Yeah.
- For the purposes of judging,
we now have to set aside any sentimentality.
This is just chef versus chef,
base it on what's in front of us.
- Cheers. Just imagine it's a little bit warmer.
- Cheers.
- Wow that wild garlic bud.
- Yeah, the wild garlic is great.
- I'll tell you what this dish is missing.
It's a knife.
- That is a very tasty risotto.
I love the fresh pop of corn in there as well.
- All that risotto practise has paid off,
and he brought it all out for my final battle.
And it's delicious.
- Those nuggs as well.
Really, really tasty.
- Well played Ebbers.
- It's good.
- Now, do you wanna put some spinach over your dessert?
- Yeah. As usual.
Not a hundred percent sure.
What this is.
I have to tell you about it,
but it's a white chocolate and sesame mousse
with some miso crumb and rhubarb.
- He's made it look chef-y.
Like, you know, those oily little, blah.
I don't even know what that is
and I don't know how to do it.
- When you do oil and vinegar,
and you dip bread into it,
but it never goes together.
- Yeah. Yeah. It's exactly like that.
(laughing - Don't go!!!)
- I mean, now that I've portioned it,
it looks pretty horrific.
Doesn't it?
Good luck everyone.
Also done an Ebbers and served some alcohol with it.
- Kanpai, Kanpai.
- Oh, that is delicious.
- We're back, we're back.
- For the last time, in a while,
James. Cheers.
- Cheers.
- Ooh.
- It's one of those dishes,
you can't help but smirk at.
'Cause you sort of go,
why does that work?
How does that work?
But boy does it work.
- That is absolutely, stunningly delicious.
The pickled ginger is the bit right at the end.
Cause you get like almost a really sweetness.
Then the candied stuff from the crumb.
Then the sesame kicks in
and it's going all savoury
and then really salty because of the miso.
And then suddenly you just get hit
by a warmth of ginger and wasabi.
And it's kind of like just...
- Clever.
- Yeah.
- You've both given us a really hard decision to make.
- Well if they're going... I'm going back for more of this.
- It didn't take long for us to decide.
For us, there's a standout,
genius plate in front of us.
It's complex. It's delicious.
It's James Currie.
(everyone clapping)
- Thank you. Is it just cause I'm leaving?
- Would you agree?
- I would a hundred percent agree.
- That was...
- Because yet again, it just needs thinking outside the box
and then delivering them.
- Thanks guys.
- That's not anywhere near the box.
So that's what, that's what gets me.
Like there's thinking outside of the box
and then over here there's Barry.
And then all the way over there is that dish.
- Yeah, absolutely amazing.
- Well for one last time, Kanpai, James.
- For now.
Thank you. And thank you.
- Cheers.
- So when he does come back,
- Yep.
- What's your predictions on the size of the arms?
Are they going to get bigger,
after he's gone, or smaller?
- Come on. Let's keep it to food.
- Yeah, I am.
(lip smacking)
(laughing)
- That was weird.