Hello, welcome to Fridge cam with assorted food.
And today is a very special day.
It is an Ultimate Chef versus Chef Battle.
And what's just happened is, before we open the fridge door,
Ben was rolling his sleeves down so he can make a point
about rolling his sleeves up.
Ready for battle.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Welcome to the Ultimate Chef Versus Chef Battle.
This is where our two chefs take the simple task of cooking
and make it as complicated as possible.
This week's brief is all around Italian food, which
is about taking simple ingredients
and celebrating them without over-complicating them.
They only have a one hour.
Let's get it on.
James is making an Italian antipasti board, including
roasted grapes, homemade flat bread, homemade mozzarella,
braised chicory, tomatoes, and I quote,
loads of other great stuff.
Ben is making blood orange sgroppino,
with homemade limoncello, a sherbet rim, and a pistachio
and fennel biscotti.
If anyone disses my drawings, I'll equalize them.
This is the biscotti.
So it's flour.
It's sugar.
It's baking powder, a little bit of salt.
And what I've ground up here is some fennel sugar--
fennel seeds with sugar.
This is going to be fennel and pistachio.
It seems to me like James is taking on quite a lot.
Thanks, Jamie.
What I mean is, all you might have to do
is just get a finished dish.
Done.
But we can just make cheese on toast if you want.
So this is milk with a citric acid solution in it.
I'm taking it up to 32 degrees.
This is rennet-- vegetarian rennet actually.
And then all you do is just go one, two, three,
four, leave it.
If it freezes, this will be my sorbet, blood orange.
This time of year, it's delicious.
Like you said, celebrate the ingredients.
Don't complicate it.
One other thing I'm adding-- tarragon
with some sugar and a little bit of the juice,
until you dissolve the sugar, and then that gets
added into the rest of the juice, and all I've done
is whiskey and egg white.
I want to just check, because over here there's a timer that
says 57 minutes, 24, 23, 22.
On here is a timer that says 51 minutes.
Well I'm going to have to serve it maybe two
minutes before your time ends.
OK.
That's where the jeopardy is.
Already he's run out of time.
Over here I've got a nice little snacking
board you can tuck into.
You've got some lovely ham you can tuck into.
Or potentially a grape, maybe, or just the nuts.
I've got grapefruit, orange, blood orange, lime, and lemon,
and I'm going to make some candy peel from all of them.
You boil it once in water, drain it, and go back
in with clean water.
Then you turn that into a sugar syrup.
The sugar syrup has to be the right ratio.
Boil it until it's sticky and does its thing,
and then drain it quickly while it's really hot,
toss it in sugar, and hope that it goes crispy
and dry enough in the hour.
What are you doing with the grapes?
I am roasting some Sable grapes.
And they're like, super-sweet, but I'm
going to roast them with some herbs,
and I'm going to salt them a little bit,
so they're kind of sweet-savory.
Ben's forgot to put the lemon in the sorbet.
This in the biscotti, juice in the sorbet.
I have some caramel almost done, which
I'm just going to toss with some walnuts
and then leave that to cool.
And I made some balsamic roasted shallots.
I'm roasting tomatoes, just a little bit of salt and pepper,
keeping some raw.
So it's like kind of giving a little nod to the simplicity
of Italy, but just doing a lot.
Are you happy with your idea, serving a slushy?
Could we put the machine in the freezer?
Would that help it?
I don't think that helps.
45 minutes to go.
So with my garlic I'll have three minutes to spare.
But it's fine.
It's all good.
This is way off.
Mine is a lot of waiting game.
This is now all about the garnishes, the finishing
touches.
My dish doesn't have a dish, if that doesn't freeze
and that doesn't bake twice.
Blood orange zest with sugar and citric acid.
I'm making sherbet.
You know when you get to Italy--
Yeah.
And so the shops are lined up-- or actually, more importantly,
the airport on the way back when you forget to buy it.
Yep.
All the shops are lined up with limoncello.
Yes.
We're getting limoncello, baby.
Limoncello.
I have no idea if it's going to be any good
or not, because Ben's making it.
You're making limoncello?
Yeah.
But if you don't do that, you can always just use a bottle
that you pre-bought.
So the jeopardy there is, if it doesn't go right,
I'll use this one that I bought.
So a little update for you.
My clock says 39 minutes.
This one says 45.
I think this one's actually going slower.
I'm making pesto.
Yes.
And it's just Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, garlic, and basil.
Something's beeping!
Something beeping!
Is it?
It's ready.
Figs.
It's figs.
The figs.
Roasted grapes and roasted figs, ready to go.
So I'm just preparing tomatoes, fennel, shaved funnel,
and some raw grapes.
So number one, limoncello, Italian.
Very Italian.
So I'm looking forward to tasting this Polish alcohol
that's going to go into it.
And number two--
(ALL TOGETHER) 96%.
It is exactly what we want for this recipe.
So what you need is a jar.
You keep missing.
Nope.
Go on the ground.
Nope.
Go wherever.
So this is 96% alcohol, which is what
you need to draw the natural deliciousness out
of the rinds of the lemon, unwaxed, beautiful lemons,
three of those.
A couple of days later, maybe three, you get this.
Ooh.
That, you then dilute.
This is 250 mil?
Yeah.
To a liter of sugar syrup.
Gotcha.
And you end up with limoncello.
Ah, I thought-- it's easy.
I had no idea.
Oh.
Oh, Ben.
Ben!
I smell all in all to make it.
Get something in something.
So now I just broke the cheese up using my knife,
and just cut a cross hatch into it.
And then I'm going to bring it back up to 40 degrees.
And then I strain it.
I'm making bread.
And then I'm going to put some chopped rosemary through it.
This isn't biscotti, because biscotti means twice-cooked,
and this has only been cooked once.
I need it to cool down just enough to be able to handle it.
There are under 30 minutes to go, and the panic has set in.
Looks gummy.
I've put it into cheese cloth, just because it makes it easier
to drain quicker.
Oh no.
Oh, is it sober?
What does that mean?
Oh, I don't where to put myself right now.
Can I get it for you?
Uh.
Ooh.
There's ice in there, isn't it?
Oh.
Who's the favorite fan of limoncello?
Face.
I like limoncello.
Thank you.
I mean, it's taking three days to make,
so we can't include it in the results.
But, it's good.
It's warmth as well.
Can I help at all?
Nope.
Oh, you can get out of the way.
I mean, no offense.
I love you.
Good news.
Your sorbet only needs 30 minutes.
Bad news, you've only got 24.
However, have you seen its viscosity now?
It's cooling.
It's getting there.
Whether it will get there, I don't know.
But it's getting there.
[INAUDIBLE]
Now I've got time to kill, so I'm
going to sprinkle sugar into a bowl.
What do mean now you've got time to kill?
Wow.
That was one hell of a step.
20 minutes.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Taking the break back out.
Second bake of biscuits-- it probably
needs about 15 minutes.
You have 16 minutes.
Really loose balls.
You don't want to work it too much,
otherwise it becomes very stiff.
And then this is going to go into the microwave
for a minute.
I'm going to take it out, have a look at it.
And then 30 seconds at a time until it's stretchable.
The way you know that it's ready to stretch
is that it's too hot to hold with your bare hands.
So I'm going to put some rubber gloves on.
Geoff, you don't need this caramel?
What are you-- no, you can't use my caramel.
You can't use my caramel.
It's my caramel.
Ben, is this is going to be the second thing on your plate
that we can't judge you on, because James made it?
James is proper stressing.
Ben's funning around over here with James' caramel,
making twills.
My stress is just internal, because there's
nothing I can do.
It's freezing, it's baking, It's bubbling.
I'm just desperate.
Nothing I can do, nothing to do.
[LAUGHING]
With five minutes to go, this is James's plate.
This is Ben's.
Has it frozen?
We don't know.
We-- we don't know if it's frozen, cause he walked off.
One minute remaining!
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Ladies and gentlemen, step away from your plates.
Hoo ooh ohh.
That was a tight one.
You know what time it is.
It's time for the sexies.
First things first--
[CLAPPING]
And hour.
That was impressive.
It was impressive.
And tight.
That was very kind of you.
Right.
OK.
I'm just gonna-- jeez.
It's not savory.
I'm impressed with cheese in an hour, James.
I really just wanted to do something different.
Yeah, mate, it's different.
James made mozzarella.
I did, didn't I?
You made mozzarella.
It has got a bit of that squeak to it, but with the salt,
the pepper, the olive oil.
That is-- that's delicious.
The sweets and sours are coming from a place
that I didn't expect them to come from, because
of what you've done to them.
Beyond just the colors, and the flavors, it has extra texture.
We have the combo of the raw and the cooked.
Awesome.
On to sweet.
Like a pornstar martini but in reverse.
Thus, the limoncello's on.
A reverse pornstar martini-- that sound more like a move.
You going to get some-- get some--
get some-- get some sorbet.
Oh.
Fizz and smooth at the same time.
As you can hear--
[CRUNCH]
--very crunchy.
The twice baked worked.
I took a tiny spoonful, but it filled my mouth with a froth.
It is delicious.
And it needs both elements.
It needs the sorbet with the pistachio.
Guys, we need to come to a decision between us
as to who the winner is.
Shall we vote?
Yeah.
So we've come to a decision.
Good.
Now, we have gone for the dish that we felt had everything.
The flavors complemented each other very nicely.
The textures were there, and then they were there,
and then they were there.
It added a little bit of fizz.
But then they went and made cheese.
And that is why we have to give the Chef Versus Chef award--
what's the award called?
Head chef.
Head Chef to James.
Have I just been promoted.
[CLAPPING]
Good job.
I suppose the big question is, which dish would you
have picked?
Comment down below and let us know.
I mean you don't have to pick your favorite.
You could have 'em both.
And one day we could do these [INAUDIBLE]..
They go well together, don't they?
If you want to come to one of our super clubs
and experience this or something like this,
then you have to sign up to the club
because, we get to experience this every day,
and you should too.
Yeah, boy.
Well, we need to know, do you agree, first of all?
And secondly, what should our next chef battle theme be?
Do you know what time of the week it is, Jay?
It's Dad Joke of the Week, isn't it?
Right.
So, the other day I was doing--
I don't like to admit it, I quite like these.
I was doing a little bit traveling.
I was sitting in an airport restaurant,
waiting for my flight.
And I felt a little bit hungry, so I get something to eat.
So I was just going to look at the menu.
And obviously I was looking at the sandwich menu.
As you do.
And all of the sandwiches were named after airplanes.
I was like, this is fantastic.
I'm going to get--
I'm going to get the jumbo jet.
So, I ask the waiter for a jumbo jet,
and came back a few minutes later with this really small
sandwich.
And I looked a little bit confused.
But he walked away, and I was really hungry, so I though,
do you know what?
I'll eat it and I'll question it later.
So I ate it.
It was quite nice.
And he came back to collect my plate.
And I said, excuse me, was that the jumbo jet?
And he went, yeah.
It went pretty quickly, didn't it?
Not one of your strongest.
What?
No, because-- because--
It went pretty quickly.
Yeah, cause airplanes fly fast, don't they?
Shut the door.
Right.