Recently in Great British Menu Category

Just a quickie on the winning dishes of the Great British Menu. The dishes, courtesy of Kenny Atkinson, Glynn Purnell, Nigel Haworth and Shaun Rankin were:

Salad of Aberdeen Angus beef, carrots, horseradish and Shetland Black potato crisps, by Kenny Atkinson, head chef the White Room, Seaham Hall, cooking for the North East

Masala spiced monkfish with red lentils, pickled carrots and coconut, by Glynn Purnell, chef-patron, Purnell's, Birmingham, cooking for the Central region (which you can see Caterer's masterclass of here)

Lancashire hot pot, roast loin, pickled red cabbage, carrots and leeks, by Nigel Haworth, chef patron, Northcote, Lancashire, cooking for the North West

Treacle tart with Jersey clotted cream and raspberry coulis, by Shaun Rankin, head chef, Bohemia, Jersey

Firstly, I can happily say that I've eaten Glynn Purnell's monkfish dish and it's as good as the judges claimed. Just imagine a fish curry as light and tasty as you can and you'll be somewhere near. Secondly, it's great to see Nigel Haworth, who must have twenty years on some of this year's contestants, show that simplicity, honesty and creativity can comfortably hold its own against the smears and foams of 21st century cuisine, and its a great reward for a chef esteemed in kitchens across the country. Lastly, the battle for the starter provided the source for the most gags, with the public over-turned the judge's decision and put through the diminutive Kenny Atkinson at the expense of the equally-short James Sommerin in what the other chefs labelled the Battle for Middle Earth. Make your own assumptions who they cast as Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee.

Lovely Aiden Byrne, dome-headed genius and youngest British recipient of a Michelin star, is a newby on the Great British Menu. He might have gone from London now but the capital's loss is Cheshire's gain and despite the Scouse chef saying his food is slightly simpler at his pub-cum-restaurant the Church Green in Lymm it still has the same bold flavours, exquisite technique and visual prominence of the cooking that drew plaudits during his time at the Grill Room at the Dorchester. And while it's a shame Aiden (pictured here with an invisible page three model) might not be pushing the envelope as much as he once was, it's good to see a talented chef now cooking near the relative culinary wasteland that is Liverpool.

For those new to the shiny-scalped chef's cooking he's worked at Adlards in Norwich (where he got a star), at the Commons in Dublin, as head chef to Tom Aikens, as head chef at the Oak Room at Danesfield House, as head chef at the Grill Room at London's Dorchester Hotel and now as chef patron at the Church Green pub in Lymm.

Scroll down for a cheeky snippet of his cooking via a recipe.

For those of you unfamiliar with Glynn Purnell's food, it's culinary embodiment of the idea that you are what you cook. As much as Jamie Oliver's food is simple, friendly, media savvy nosh, or Bruce Poole's warm, appealing, big-hearted grub, Purnell's stuff is playful, mischievous, Brummie fare from a man as Birmingham-centric as Friday night curry vomit.

After sneaking through to the final with a strawberry dessert last year Purnell (pictured here enjoying a choc-ice with his pal after successfully retaking his maths GCSE) is back again. This year he's up against Daniel Clifford from Midsummer House in Cambridge in a Midlands heat and he's got a lot to live up to after not only becoming not only the first chef to pick up a perfect score for a dish on last year's dessert but also gaining the arguably-somewhat-better accolade of a Michelin star this January at his eponymous Birmingham restaurant, set up in 2007 after he left his position as head chef at Birmingham's Jessica's restaurant (where he also gained a star).

Anyho, this is first and foremost a food blog, so scroll down for a recipe of Glynn that is, just maybe, one of my favourite dishes I've eaten. It's definitely the only one to have made me smile while I'm eating it. Which is more than Purnell's joke has ever done: Q: What do you say to a man with no arms when you want to know the time? A: Do you have the time on you cock?