What a week that was! After the long wait, the Great British Menu came back with a bang for 2016.

With Adam Handling easing through, Ally McGrath (our favourite after a hugely interesting and informative interview he gave us here) lost out on the say of Daniel Clifford after tying on points with Michael Bremner. In truth, Michael deserved his place in the final after cooking perhaps the best ever fish dish in Great British Menu, at least in the eyes of Daniel Clifford, a man whose judgement counts for an awful lot!

Despite a poor start to the week with starters that didn’t exactly hit the brief nor the flavour expectations, the standards rose to incredible heights once the fish course came about.

Adam Handling seemed to ease ahead for the whole week (despite his Asian-inspired dishes not really seeming to fully impress Daniel) but it was always going to be a tough call as to which of him and Michael could impress the judges.

With the mains leaving no huge impressions nor changing the rankings too much, it all came down to dessert, with Ally needing to pull off a big score to get back in with a shout. When it came to dessert, Michael crashed and Ally came through with his amazing tempered chocolate, but with Michael’s fish dish having already earned a 10 from Daniel, he had earned his spot.

In the final, the judges were again impressed by Michael’s fish dish, A message to the Lodge Star, however, Adam’s main course of Korean style Wagyu beef toast dinner (which was as confusing to us as it sounds!) managed to make more of an impression on the judges!

What really counted though between these two equally excellent chefs was the real touch of magic. The judges, us here at Leedsfoodie.co.uk and probably everyone at home couldn’t help but be impressed by Michael’s Message in a Bottle fish dish that combined seafood that was treated with respect, especially the mackerel, with a quintessentially modern take on British food at its very best. It earned a 10 from all of the judges and ensured that it was Michael and not Adam who went through to the final.

Dish for the banquet? Not quite the house, but pretty much everything but the house would be on Michael’s A message to the Lodge Star fish course getting to the banquet.