Britain's Best Dish
Contents |
Host
Mark Nicholas (2007-10)
Mary Nightingale (2011)
Co-hosts
Judges:
Ed Baines
John Burton Race
Jilly Goolden
Voiceover:
Caroline Morris (2007-10)
Rob Jarvis (2011)
Broadcast
ITV Productions for ITV1, 17 September 2007 to 27 May 2011 (189 episodes in 5 series)
as Best Dish: The Chefs, 31 October to 23 December 2011 (40 episodes in 1 series)
as Britain's Best Celebrity Dish, 23 February 2009 to 3 June 2011 (20 episodes in 2 series)
Synopsis
A 5pm teatime slot competition for amateur cooks, in which they're challenged to cook their one best dish. Unlike certain other programmes, only one dish is to be cooked.
The final was decided by a premium-rate telephone vote, which we still say defeats the whole object. It's for eating, not looking at!
Somewhat bizarre in the choice of a cricket presenter as host, but at least it means that we can make excellent jokes about looking at the slow-motion replays on the Snackometer.
Champions
2007 | John Kenny | Slow-cooked pork belly with spiced roast apple and crackling |
2008 | Susie Carter | Smoked trout and watercress tart |
2009 | Murray Grant | Strawberry soufflé with cream pannacotta and strawberry coulis |
2010 | Jonathon Davies | Seared masala cannon of spring lamb |
Spring 2011 | Conor McLean | Vanilla friande with amaretto cream, fromage blanc sorbet and blueberry compote |
Autumn 2011 | Chris O'Halloran | Cinnamon ice cream with bittersweet chocolate sauce and cookies |
Trivia
The first series was produced by the appropriately-named Helen Cooke.
The first series also aired after a chat show hosted by Coronation Street's Antony Cotton in the same slot for five weeks, which unsurprisingly flopped.