Tonight was Dundee chef Adam Handling’s last chance to make it onto the Great British Menu 2023 banquet menu.
And in tonight’s episode, the Scotsman’s hard work finally paid off as he secured a spot with his Beano inspired dessert which scored full marks.
It comes after Adam came in third place with his starter on Monday, and second place with his fish course on Tuesday despite bagging his first perfect score of 40.
He also narrowly missed out in round three to serve his main course at the banquet by two points last night.
The judging panel, including Tom Kerridge, Ed Gamble, Nisha Katona, and guest judge comedy producer, writer and voice of Mummy Pig in Peppa Pig Morwenna Banks, were left impressed by several of the desserts.
However, Adam’s took the cake.
This year the Great British Menu banquet is celebrating British animation and illustration for Paddington Bear’s 65th anniversary, and is taking place at Brighton’s Royal Pavilion.
Food Fight
“This is now my third attempt at GBM and the second time I’ve been in the finals, so I need to get a dish at the banquet,” Adam said whilst preparing his dessert.
His dish Food Fight was a triumph in the regional heats scoring 38.
Head judge Tom was blown away by the “magical little piece of cookery” and the panel appreciated the joyfully chaotic presentation of the dish.
It featured brown butter cake, strawberry jelly and gel, long pepper set custard, strawberry tuiles, coffee syrup and meadowsweet cream.
However this time around, the chef made last minute changes adding a sour strawberry and marshmallow sorbet.
“This is the last time to showcase my food, so I’m going to just enjoy it but I’m going to go out kicking and screaming,” he added.
“I’m going to make sure everything tastes really wonderful.”
‘I love everything about it’
The dessert was again highly praised by the judges and Tom even cleared his plate.
One commended element was the burnt butter and meadow sweet cake which Adam referred to as the ‘Mistake Cake’. This is because as he was developing the recipe the ingredients were weighed out incorrectly, but resulted in the cake tasting “way better.”
“I love everything about it,” said Tom.
Nisha added: “That sorbet really floods your mouth. It’s such a natural, punchy flavour.
“Artistically it’s brilliant and in terms of flavour, it just hasn’t put a foot wrong.”
Host Andi Oliver went as far as to say it was one of the best desserts she has tried in the Great British Menu kitchen.
With that, Adam positioned in joint first place alongside fellow finalists Nick Beardshaw and Tom Shepherd. Andi had the deciding vote and Adam’s Food Fight claimed the win.
Out of the eight talented chefs from across the UK that battled their way into the finale, Adam was the only one who had been there before.
He will join London and South East representative Avi Shashidhara as well as Nick and Tom at the banquet, who also secured spots.
Adam is cooking his dessert at the finale tomorrow night at 9pm on BBC Two and will be competing to bag the Great British Menu champion of champions title for 2023.
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