- Welcome to Sorted Food. Our normals have been learning, battling and bickering for years now. - No, Jamie. - Why have you turned the hob? - I haven't. - You've turned mine on to six. - And quite rightly, you've pointed out, "Where on earth are they on
the scale of normal to chef?" So this year we've come
up with the ultimate test to find out once and for all. - We've come up with a load of challenges to test them on three core attributes that we believe make a top chef. That's technique, creativity and organisation. Under each attribute, there's a whole bunch of skill badges and the boys will have
to compete to win them. We love a competition, so
we'll tally them up as we go. And at the end, one of our
normals will be crowned the Ultimate Chef Skills Champion. (thunder roaring) Buckle up everyone. I don't imagine it would be a smooth ride. (dramatic thud) Now, we're gonna start off pretty easy with some low hanging fruit, plenty of badges up for grabs today in the technique category. - I feel nervous. Like truly nervous. Not just for today,
but for the whole year. - I was so much better
at coursework than exams. - It's 'cause you got your mum to do it. (upbeat music) - Challenge number one, you can lift the cloche, basic knife skills. - (laughs) oh... less optimistic - So when asked, James and I pretty much always give the same answer. What is your favourite or most
important tool in the kitchen? It's a good chef's knife
and a chopping board. There're skills you hone over
years and years of practice. So what we want from you, is to finely dice half an onion, finely slice the other
half of the same onion, julienne the carrot and ribbon the cucumber. Off you go. - Is there a time limit for this, Ebbers? - There's not a time limit, but time plays a role. Because if you take 20 minutes, you're probably not gonna pass. - Onion, bridge technique. Chop off the ends. - Bridge technique, keep the roots on the bottom. You can take off that top bit
to help you peel. (upbeat music) - Obviously Ebbers, I always want to impress you. But I can't bear the thought of the guys being able
to do it and me not. - I'm happy with that, - Julienne carrot. I'm gonna peel it first, top and tail. - So, you've done the
onion in four minutes. - Oh, boy. It's got four halves. - Four halves? You've just doubled carrot quota. - Yeah, I'm gonna go long first. So here we go. I don't know whether this is correct. Now I'm gonna go down here. Oh, I feel like I've f'd this right up. - I'm not gonna get bored. Not gonna get bored. Oh, I've got bored. - (Laughs loudly) I never julienne at home. - You're four and a half minutes in. - What I'm very impressed with, so far is no offcuts, no waste. It has all been cut off. - I've got some offcuts here, but that makes for a fantastic stock. - 10 and a half minutes, Mike. - [Mike] No, that's not good. - Ribbons please, for use in a salad, for example. - I feel like I'm missing something. But you said ribbons and
this is what I would do. - Oh, no. see, I've got duff one again there. - So I just do that. I'm not gonna have it. There's some ribbons. - 12 minutes. When are you gonna give up, Mike? - Oh, oh, no. - Stop the clock. - There, stop. Stop the clock. - Time's up. - Thank you. You may leave the kitchen. - I don't get to find out how I've done? - That's it? - You may leave the kitchen. Right. Challenge one done. Now for the judging. - I didn't enjoy it. I dunno about about you two. - It was stressful. - Up first, Mike. - I don't remember putting these on my serving plate. - I put them back on, because I think here, for ribbons, You want long ribbons, the
length of the cucumber. You cut yours in half and you kinda just peeled it. - Oh no. - The julienne, the dice and the slice were all pretty good. But you did take the longest. And if you think of a midweek meal be maybe 20, 25 minutes,
you took half your time just chopping some stuff. Jamie, let the boys see what you did. Again, like Mike, your dice and slice onion was very good. Very little wastage. Your julienne, did get a little bored. There's some real mixture in there between wafer thin and a bit more chunky. You by far got the most
out of your cucumber, a mountain of ribbons, but half of those in the middle are so wet that they're not really great. Next up, let's look at Baz's. - don't leave my schlong on the plate. - As well.
(laughing loudly) Barry, also 12 minutes on timing. All pretty good. Little bit of peel on your plate. - Oh, it's all about the presentation. - Most wastage. - Barry.
- Most wastage? - However, you referenced
where you might use that. - "Oh, I'd put that in a smoothie." No, you wouldn't. (laughing loudly) - Barry your ribbons, also, the most precise, long and perfect for salad. You've left the core, as expected. There're a lot of it that you threw away that perhaps could have been put in. They weren't perfect. The question is, why weren't they perfect? So I think in this challenge, I will award the knife skills badge to, Barry and Barry alone. - I've realised what
hurts the most right away. And I'm going to do
everything within my power to fight against that
ever happening again. - Technique skill badge, number two up for grabs today, a sauce badge. And we're looking at hollandaise. So over the last five or 10 years, brunch has increased
in popularity, no end. And still, the most popular
dish on brunch menus are egg based dishes like; eggs Benedict, eggs Florentine, eggs Royale. Hollandaise is the common
factor in all of those. Every chef is expected to know one. That's what we're testing you on. We're gonna give you all
the other components. All you have to make is the hollandaise. And you got 10 minutes to do it. Off you go. - I think I want egg yolks, melted butter. - Butter melting, I think is important. - Into a pan, onto a hob. - So I think I want egg yolks over a bain-marie. - When it comes to the technique
that we're judging them on is a combination of method, end result. We're looking for something
that has the right consistency and the right flavour. - Is this a vinegar reduction, Ebbers? - We have given you a vinegar
reduction to save you time. That's already done. - Roughly save that. Egg white omelette later? - whisk eggs up, over water. Until it goes light and fluffy and I need to... flavour. - I would like some flavour in it, yes. I think goes in now. It does. So lemon juice. Oh, what's this called? Vinegar reduction. - I'm just gonna put it. Vinegar is in. I don't want these to get too hot. 'Cause they're gonna scramble. - This is one of the core basic mother sauces. We've got it at how we cook. Once you've got that fundamental, there's so many things you can do with it. - Of the normals, I reckon I've probably made
this more times than they have. 'Cause I do love hollandaise sauce. The catch is, I very rarely make it successfully. It nearly always splits. - I imagine that this is emulsifying it and therefore making it nice and thick. - Emulsifying. Good word. That's what the egg yolk is doing. - So I'll go in with the clear butter and try and leave off the
white scummy looking bit. - [Ebbers] You've had half your time. - We're gonna give you a pretty much complete Eggs Benedict. All you're gonna have to do is nappe the sauce over the top. Nappe, that means pour, doesn't it? Thank you, chef. - Are there any tricks to stop
the pan from moving around? Like you do with chopping board? and put a bit of tea towel underneath it 'cause it keeps twisting. - Four minutes remaining. - You have to take off the heat because now I've had heat. The whole point of doing this in the bowl over the pan is you don't want the eggs to scramble. - He's spot on. Two and a half minutes left. - Consistency wise, I wanna be able to draw a ribbon of eight. And Oh, look at that. And it should last for
a couple of seconds. - This, what is this? This is chipotle Tabasco. I am just gonna flavour the sauce. A couple of drops, squeeze of lemon, in my own eye. - 30 seconds remaining - Fuddlesticks! - Quite happy with the consistency. It's quite thick. - Salt, pepper, - And we get that over the top. I've got plenty because
I'm in kitchen service. So obviously we're making
multiple Eggs Benedicts, Ben. - 15 seconds. Five, four, three, two, one. Service please. Thank you very much. You may leave the kitchen. - Bit more love than that. - They love a bit of praise, don't they? (upbeat music) - A lot quieter this time around. (laughing) - Okay. Well, within the time you all got hollandaise onto the plate just... now let's look at them one at a time. Mike, show the boys what you did. - [Jamie] Oh yes, mate. - Oh, nice. - Ended with a pretty good
consistency of hollandaise. If I was to pick holes, didn't cook the egg yolks
before you added in the butter. Neither did you season it. - God, it really feels like you're being
told off, in it? - [Ebbers] Okay, J,
show the boys what you did. - Oh, that's hollandaise. - In the grand scheme of things
in your last few seconds, you tasted it. And then chose to season it
in your last few seconds, rather than chive 'cause
you ran out of time. And given it's the
hollandaise with judging, it was well seasoned. - Say nothing more and rotate. Leave on a high. (Barry laughs loudly) - Three for three Barry. Lift the cloche , show the boys. - That's what I'd expect from you. - Barry, strong on method. You cooked out your egg yolks best. Got really light and fluffy before adding in your butter. Which you mentioned about clarifying and leaving the white behind. You seasoned it. The lemon, the reduction and the salt and pepper were in there. And you plated it and you garnished it. - Leave the kitchen quick. Get out of here. - If I was being super picky, I'd say, and you asked yourself, "How do you stop the pan spinning around?" At the point you're adding the butter, you should have the
ribbons in your egg yolks. You can take it off the heat and you can do it on a
tea towel on the board just as Jamie did. Jamie was also keen to put tarragon into his vinegar reduction, which would have been wrong 'cause that's a Bearnaise. (laughing loudly) All three look and
behave like hollandaise, but when we're talking about
understanding the process and application of method plus seasoning, today, two badges. One for Barry and one for Jamie. (upbeat music) Smile, Mike - I hate the look of this already. There's a piping bag. - Challenge number three, let's Imagine a scenario. If you're doing classic French cooking, you often need egg yolks, creme anglaise, mayonnaise, curds, to glaze pastries or bread, and, in the hollandaise you just made you've got leftover egg whites. So to use those and put them
somewhere valuable on the menu, how about a dessert? We would like three
identical Meringue nests. We're gonna give you the Chantilly cream and fruit to garnish. Off you go. - Oh no. - French Meringue!?! - Okay. Egg whites going into my bowl. Right, that wasn't me. - But did you check it? - Oh, come on. - Lemon juice to clean your bowls and beat some pieces there 'cause any fats in here could stop it from aerating. - So we've given you the
weights and measures. You will require the egg
whites and the sugars. And the key is for it
to be white and crisp. - Why is there a bicarb in here. - You bake these, don't you? I'll panic whilst doing something. Is that baking powder? - Is this the stuff...? Oh, this is the stuff
to stabilise the eggs. - Oh, I think I put this in now. I think that... I know what this is. I want to say, tartare sauce. I think it's a stabiliser. - I want soft peaks now, so that I don't over whip it later on. And that, any less, it might start to deflate. There's enough air in that now for me to start adding sugar. A spoonful at a time. I think you have to add it gradually, otherwise it deflates. - I'm going on the slowest setting 'cause I want all the sugar
to be properly absorbed. - [Ebbers] What's that you've just added? - Some bicarb or baking powder. - So I think this is where
I'm gonna add my lemon for flavouring. This could be where it's all gone wrong. Will that hold? - I'm less confident. They are not stiff peaks. Oh, it'll work. Right. In that case, we are going to have to do something
different aren't we? - Piping bag. In that goes, am I expected
to ask you for a nice nozzle? Oh, yes I was. Okay. In that case, I'm gonna put that there. I really hope the others don't notice. - Do I need a nozzle? I don't think I need a nozzle. Why would I need the nozzle? Let's not use-
- I can provide you with one if you want it? - No! See how lovely and
smooth that is, Ebbers. - Very smooth. - Stick this down. Little technique trick, we'll salvage something back here. - Good. So that's gonna
stick your paper down. - Interesting. (playful fast music) Pouring it in. There's not enough for one. - We're doing one. - I've just realised- - So you're doing one Meringue pellet. You've had 12 minutes. I'm probably gonna have to stop you at 20 if it takes you that long 'cause some of us have got homes to go to. - I'm basically going
round creating a layer on the bottom and then building up round there. And I'm not really getting any definition from the nozzle because it's not whisked up enough. - Or was the nozzle stuck in the back? - Yeah, that would be why. (playful fast music) - I don't know what that is. Sorry, you want three identical ones. Excellent. So what do these badges
look like anyway? (laughs) - I'm gonna have to just put
something on the plate here. - Oh, no.(laughs) - Normal or chef? You decide. - Let's see what we get. It's exciting, in it? - Should I stop the clock? - Sure. Cool. - I'm just gonna get that in the oven. Thank you very much... on your way We'll bake these off. They'll need a hundred degrees
Celsius until they are crisp and then we'll come back. We've baked them. We've let them cool. And we now have them in front of you, with Chantilly cream and a little berry compote. For context, that kind of thing. So up pipe with a stone nozzle, plenty of height and leaving yourself a well in the middle to fill with that cream and the berries. Mike? - Oh, was it baking powder? - Reveal. - Do you know what? - They actually look pretty good. - I'll be quite happy with them. (laughing) - That is amazing. Cause I was dreading
showing you guys these so that.. Oh right, okay. - They're all three of them. You mentioned the tartar
sauce that you wanted to put into yours. - What's it actually called? Cream of tartar? - Cream of tartar. Yeah. You also chose to squeeze your lemon in. - Flavour. - Not really.
- Oh, dear. - It's not as shambolic
as I thought it was. - I think what I would
continue to do is turn this into an Eton Mess. - Yeah. I did think that. Oh, dear, Ebbers. Come on. Don't you lift, bro? - [Jamie] I thought it was muscles you were hiding underneath
that chef jacket. - Let's find some positives... You made three and they were all roughly identical. They held some structure but not really enough to give
you the height of a nest. Not bad though. (laughing) - They're like massive macarons, mate. - Not quite stiff enough. And then, rather than
adding the sugar gradually, you dumped both bowls, icing sugar and castor sugar in together, lost a lot of volume and it was never really
going to rise again. - But I didn't put the lemon in there. - And I love your perseverance 'cause it was never gonna work. But you went with it and we cooked them off. - It's tasty. - I don't think the method
or the technique was there, not really a nest, in the slightest. Not even a bit. - What do you got Baz? - I'm excited for this. 'Cause I don't know. (Mike laughs) - What is that? - Do you wanna know the
annoying thing, Baz? You had the best method and approach. You started by using the lemon to wipe out your bowl, to make sure there was
no excess grease in there. Nice little tip. You then whipped up your egg whites. And then you very, very gradually, slowly but surely added your castor sugar and then icing sugar. Unfortunately, you did that before your egg whites
were really stiffened up. Start off slow, so you can get a real structure of small bubbles into it, and then build up the speed. I think you were all a bit
shy about going full speed to get really stiff egg whites. - Please, Ben. Try something completely new. - That is ridiculous. (Barry laughs loudly) - Fluffy? No. - It's not what you want from a meringue nest, Is it Baz? - Very well. I feel like I've invented something new. Creativity challenge another week, this was technique. - I think it's a clean
sweep, Isn't it Ebbers? - And I think it is a clean sweep. Not a single one of you got
a French Meringue badge. However,
- Shock. - The point of this year is improvement. So, we're not gonna do
this kind of video again with French Meringue. However, it's up to you if you want the badge to
incorporate French Meringue into a dish that you create, for a battle or similar to prove that you can do
it later on in the year. I'll leave it with you. - I might just focus on my knife skills badge first. (laughing) - And there we go. Those of you questioning
whether they're still normal. Is that still the case? And because this is just the start of our ultimate chef skills challenge, comment down below what
else would you like to see? What other badges should they compete for? And how should we test them? - Oh, so. First outing Baz, how many badges did you get? - Okay. Cool.
- Two. - So we're gonna do this. - I got one. Mike, what about you? - Yeah, wow. We're so cool We got our badges. - Book in a dental appointment. - What was that? (laughing loudly)
