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What’s next for My Kitchen Rules “BBQ Buddies” Ben & Dan.
Recently we saw Ben & Dan cooking for the BBQ community in the new Channel 4 series My Kitchen Rules after reaching the semi-finals of the national competition.
My Kitchen Rules UK is presented by two-time Michelin Star restaurateur and chef Michael Caines, and food writer and restaurateur Prue Leith, who have joined forces to judge 16 pairs of amateur cooks. The series involves contestants opening their own restaurant at home for one ambitious night, in a bid to scoop a £10,000 prize and the right to say, ‘My Kitchen Rules'.
“Our Restaurant for the night got off to a good start when we smashed the starters, making 8 Perfect Scotch Eggs with runny yolks on the BBQ and getting them out in good time. But one negative from the guests was due to a last minute switch of ingredients to accommodate the Halal dietary requirements of some of our guests. We swapped in Beef Mince & Bresaola for Pork Mince & Bacon which unfortunately gave the Scotch Eggs a tougher drier finish.
Storm Katie, one of the biggest storms of the year just happened to hit the South West on our night. At one point our gazebo blew away knocking 2 of the Barbecues over which made it a touch night. Being British we are used to the occasional storm and we do not consider ourselves fair weather barbecuers; you can quite often find us outside in the rain or even snow at times, but as you can imagine this was not ideal conditions to be outside barbecuing a three course meal for 8 guests in. We fell behind for our main course and dessert but still got them out to receive amazing comments on the perfectly cooks beef and the best Chimichurri Michael Caines had ever tasted. Through the evening we showcased our passion for Alfresco cooking and proved to the nation that anything can be done on a barbecue. We wanted to encourage people to spend more time outside and get back in touch with our roots cooking over fire - we hope that we have succeeded.”
“When we arrived at MKR Kitchen HQ for the first time we were met with the news that we were being thrown straight into a sudden death cook off to establish the runner up position of our region. We cooked off against Bev and Sarah from Burnham on Sea who were real tough competition. The first round was a surprise Regional Ingredient of which we had to make the Hero of a Starter dish. The Regional Ingredient was the award winning Bath Blue Cheese and we quickly came up with the idea to make a Bath Blue Cheese Filo Pastry Tart with a Pickled Beetroot and Fresh Radish Salad.This went down a hit with the judges - guest judge Alegra McEvedy was convinced the dish was too beautiful to be our dish & told everyone she would eat her hat if it wasn’t the ladies plate.”
Ben & Dan are known around the UK & World for their passion for Alfresco cooking and host iTunes number one BBQ podcast, UnitedQ.
You can still catch up on previous episodes using on demand services to watch the “BBQ Buddies” Cook their three course American Smokehouse themed restaurant meals serving up Scotch Eggs, Dirty Steak and Pineapple Upside Down Cake. All ingredients were locally sourced from Countrymans Choice at Endsleigh Garden Centre.
“To get the best quality meat you should always go and see your local butcher!”
“We were gutted to leave the competition but we had great fun and it was an honour to cook for one of our food heroes Michael Caines & of course the legendary Prue Leith!”
So what’s next for the “BBQ Buddies”?
“We have been recipe writing for a book, doing cooking demos and been compères at various food festivals oh yeah and we are launching our own alfresco catering company The Jazzy Chefs.”