What is Britain's Best Dish?

So the auditions are over... and TV fame beckons.  Sort of.  Maybe.  On 19 May, I took part in auditions for a new ITV show, Britain's Best Dish to air late summer.  The format seems quite simple:  amateur cooks compete against each other first regionally then nationally, to produce Britain's Best Dish.

London auditions took place at Vinopolis.  Some 70 or so keen cooks turned up to try and impress the judges (Ed Bains, John Burton-Race and Jilly Goolden) with a brief pitch about their dish.  After waiting for a few hours in a reception room, chatting with my new pal Josh, we were summoned to the interview room.  Here, we sat (or rather nervously paced) waiting for previous victims to come out.  As we waited, five of them came out - one-by-one - having been told their hard work had gone to waste.  They hadn't got through.

What would the judges make of my slightly quirky dish?  Others had arrived with their whole dish beautifully presented and ready to eat - I simply had a photo and a bottle of wine...  Had I underprepared?  That would be the usual course of action for me, certainly.

After a few minutes grilling, the verdict was in.  Despite John B-R's reservations about every aspect of the dish, I was in!  Celebration, jubilation and a big sigh of relief.  But now, the hard work really begins.  I have to perfect my dish and do everything I can to impress John B-R if I want to get further in the competition... And I'm glad to say that Josh got through as well.

I don't yet know when the filming will take place, I'm just hoping that it's not when I'm on holiday! 

So what's the dish?   I'm not going to tell you.  I'm going to leave you in suspense.  I will tell you that it is a main course, its principle ingredient is pork and that it packs a few surprises.  You'll have to tune in and see!

tags: britains best dish  

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