An Interview with Great British Menu Star Stuart Collins #Meet the Chef

Victoria Hayes
12th April 2021

Last week at Taste Cheshire we were thrilled to have the opportunity to have a chat with Great British Menu Central Regional Winner, Stuart Collins from Docket no.33 as part of our inaugural podcast.

If you haven’t yet had a listen you can find it here TC POD – The Taste Cheshire Podcast Episode 1 (buzzsprout.com) or on Spotify as well as a number of other podcast hosting sites.

However, we realise that not everyone likes a podcast so we thought we would also share the interview here for you to read!

First of all Stuart, Congratulations on an amazing achievement, becoming Central region champion on the Great British Menu. We all watched the show, cheered you on but it was clear you were a little bit surprised by the result?

Yeah, you know the show is quite a big production. It’s something I’ve watched for quite a number of years, and obviously there have been some incredible chefs on it so to get to be Central Region Champion was quite unexpected. An Amazing Moment. 

Everyone in the competition is at such a high level, what does it mean to you to join the ranks of those kind of chefs?

It really is amazing. Because the competition is about regions and we are representing where we live, where we cook and where we source all the ingredients from, it really meant a lot. I can’t really put it into words, it’s a really amazing moment.

It is at the end of the day, a competition, would you say you were a competitive person by nature?

I think being a Chef there is always an element of competitiveness inside you and in the competition, it certainly does bring it out of you. I went into it thinking , “ah well you know, we’ll see how I get on and everything will be fine” but as the courses went on, you think there’s less and less chance, something will go wrong now, and it starts to build inside of you. You dig deep and you push hard.

Do you have a little bit of a feeling, when the the other contestants maybe struggle a little bit, of “ooo yes” or do you just stay focused on what you are doing?

It’s really double edged. I think we got really lucky with the group of Chefs, Sabrina, Shannon, and Liam.
While It is a competition and we are all vying to be the champion, and hopefully get through to that amazing banquet, which produces the most amazing food and to celebrate this year the innovators and inventors of some amazing things we use on a day to day basis. Although there is this competitive edge you also genuinely want to make the most amazing food. While you don’t want to hep your fellow chefs do better, everyone has worked hard to be there. We all know the time and the effort and everything that goes into getting to that stage.

How do you handle your own wobbles, you know when you are praying to the blast chiller gods, how do you handle those kind of situations?

It’s funny because, you know, on a normal day to day, you’re in your own kitchen, you know how your equipment works, and you are in your own space so you are comfortable. Going into that Great British Menu kitchen, especially on dessert day,  it’s famous for blast chiller moments, ice cream melting, anything that’s meant to be cold ends up hot, chocolate doesn’t temper…so going into that day, as confident as I was with the dish, you never know what the kitchen is going to throw up, so take a deep breath. You’ve got cameras in your face and you’ve got to accept that.

And obviously, you’ve got to follow your own catchphrase, “No drama Baby Llama”?!

Yes, that’s become quite a coined phrase! it’s good!

I think there’s a hashtag there, I heard maybe your wife Fran is having T-shirts made up!?

Yes, It’s nice it’s got people engaged in the show and brought in some humour, we needed it this year, so wonderful.

I think your sense of humour really came through on the show, it must be very difficult to keep smiling, keep laughing, a you said yourself, be a little bit swan like in these situations.  It’s clear there is a huge amount of thought that goes into every dish.  What does the preparation look like? How long does it take? What kind of time lines do you have?

I was actually on the reserve list this year with Covid and whatnot, I was kind of on a “if somebody doesn’t work out we’ll call you”, so I got quite a short timeline, i had 3-4 weeks to make it happen. You get some help with the innovators and the inventors, the production team steer you towards a long list and you can pick from those. But all the food ideas, what you pick to put onto the plate is down to yourself. For example, I was going to do a dish around the Spitfire, a wonderful invention obviously, in North Staffordshire, but translating that into food, I just couldn’t work out a way of doing it. Things like the traffic light for example, the one I did for the pre dessert, it was actually a traffic signal, I was looking at doing a tomato dish, using the different colours, red yellow and green tomatoes but once I had got the short list of inventors I wanted to use, and then you start working out how to build your menu, as Oliver Peyton, I think noted, I ended up with a bit of a theme, with the traffic light into the road, but that was purely coincidence to be honest. 

I was going to ask, if you were , maybe a little bit of a road geek?

I don’t know, it just sort of seemed to fall in,  but yeah the idea of doing a lolly as like a traffic light, it’s easily recognisable it just seemed to smash the brief, as well as being delicious.

It did look amazing, I’m sure Fran will tell us that she’s eaten about fifty of them by now!

Yeah we tried a few!

You have your fabulous restaurant Docket no. 33 together,  how much of the menus recently have also been a little bit of testing out things that might work for the Great British Menu?

There’s certainly been a little bit. The dessert, we sort of ran a variation of it.

I personally have tried your tartare before…

Yes, well there you go, certain elements appeared on the menu and then you know the main course, is very, very similar to what we would serve in the restaurant. That was a perfect opportunity to really shout about the local producers that we work with on a daily basis. To really celebrate all of these incredible ingredients, and it just fit the bill in terms of using that jigsaw, it matched the original maps that John Spilsbury did and for me it was real. It might not have been the best dish for the competition, we do on a daily basis. It’s all very well going in and playing the game,  and smashing the competition  aspect of it, but you’ve got to represent yourself as a chef, we’ve got a business to represent and I think being true to yourself is really important. but it seemed the perfect opportunity to hit the brief and shout about what we do. 

I couldn’t agree more.  You’ve worked with a lot of big names in the industry over the years, Gordon Ramsey, Michael Caines,  did that help with nerves when facing the judges? I think for example, the other Chefs looked a little thrown when Simon Rogan walked in!, whereas you seemed very calm!

I think it’s just because I’m getting old! I think maybe. It’s amazing because I was pleasantly surprised how calm I did come across, inside you are “aargh”. But there’s nothing you can change, I think that’s the one thing I kind of realised  is that you are in it, you’ve committed to it, and whoever walks through the door, you’ve got to deal with it. But after all , I believed in my dishes,  I practiced them, I felt confident they hit the brief and whoever had walked through that door, there was nothing I could do at that point to change the dishes, so I believed in them and stood behind them and have an air of confidence.

We know that you’ll be back cooking in the national final in May, what do you think is the biggest challenge facing you once you reach that next level? and can we expect any surprises?

The final is obviously, the best of the best, and where, for example in the regional heats you get a couple of  low scores perhaps, some of the chefs get 6s or 7s. When you get to the national finals everyone’s getting 9s or 10s. It’s a whole different level of finesse and refinement and it’s the best of the best. The 8 best chefs from across the country. That’s no slight on those who take part in the regionals, it’s huge, it’s a massive production. It’s quite intimidating in a way. It’s an environment that you are out of your comfort zone, some amazing chefs do struggle in that environment because it’s not what we are used to. Certainly going into the final, it’s the best of the best, so the pressure is on.

I’m sure it is. Andi Oliver is the new host this year, she seemed very supportive, had you met her before?

I hadn’t met her. but yes she was very calming. She was lovely. There’s a lot of things about the programme, that are not staged, that’s not the word,  but when the Chefs walk into the kitchen at the beginning of the day, that’s real. I had no idea who would be in the kitchen. You literally walk in and that’s the first time you see who is there. So there are all these nerves and emotions running around,  and then Andi walks in, she’s very  calming, very welcoming, she’s very helpful. She helps you not worry about the cameras and the production. She really helps you just focus on the food and what you’re there to do.  and of course, her feedback is really well received. She has obviously sat on both sides in terms of the judging Chamber and now the kitchen so she is that lovely, in the middle…

Yeah, so she’s got knowledge to help support you in every aspect?

Indeed.

So now you’ve popped your Great British Menu cherry, can we expect to see more of you on TV?

Well, yes if opportunities knock!
Who knows? I really enjoyed doing Great British Menu, it’s one of those things I never thought I would do. Now that I’ve done it, I did really enjoy it.

How does it feel watching yourself?

Watching yourself is very strange.  Fran and I sat down and we watched it, and then our little one came in and we watched it the next morning. He was running around loving it. But you just have to accept, it’s funny, its like looking at a picture. Everyone else sees you,  on a daily basis, but you don’t kind of  look at yourself. Without getting too deep and meaningful, you just have to accept that what you  see is just what everyone else sees on a daily basis.  You can’t change it.

Well. we thought you were fabulous and we are rooting for you  in the National Final. We love the idea that you were only on the wait list and then you lead them from the get go, showed them the way so we are really proud of you and wish you all the best of luck in the National Finals. 

Thank you very very much, really appreciate that.

<End of interview>

 

For more information about the Great British Menu, Stuart and the other Chefs head to Great British Menu 2021 – Tv Series – Great British Chefs and to book in with Stuart and Fran at fabulous Docket no.33 head to

Docket Restaurant | Modern British cuisine with local and international influence!