Wednesday, June 06, 2012

The Great British Menu messes up again

I saw the final rounds for the starter and fish dish this week on BBC2's "Great British Menu" and was flabbergasted by the change implemented.

It seems they've cottoned on to the same thing we the viewers have in that some of the dishes being produced aren't up to scratch and therefore it is pointless to waste the judges time by tasting them again.

By itself this might seem a good change, but it comes at a price of the suspension of disbelief for me at least. The two central tenets of the show is that it is a regional competition and that they are choosing a menu. Of course come the final decision they start cherry-picking the dishes, but this codifies that.

If you're going to start picking now, why not pick earlier? I've seen dishes getting perfect marks from the presiding chef judge that the trinity of judges never get to even taste due to poor accompanying dishes letting down the entire menu.

The joke is that this entire 'competition' from the get-go has been set up to determine who has the best menu, who is the best chef, but the end result is about setting out the greatest dishes possible.

To me this final change just rams home how pointless the previous rounds were in regards to the final output.

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