Two of Cambridge’s top chefs are set to appear on the brand new series of Channel 4’s Snackmasters.
Parker’s Tavern’s Tristan Welch and Midsummer House’s Daniel Clifford will both appear on the culinary challenge series when it returns to our screens in April.
The two chefs will be joined by other top-class cooks from across the country, tasked with the extraordinary request of replicating some of Britain’s best-loved snacks in their own inventive ways.
The snacks will then be judged by a panel of ‘snack experts’ (a job we’d love!) to find out who will take the title of Snackmaster.
Hosted by one of Britain’s favourite Frenchmen Maître D’ Fred Sirieix, the icon who shot to fame through his role at the First Dates restaurant also on Channel 4, Tristan and Daniel will appear in consecutive episodes.
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Of course, having two Cambridge contestants means Fred will, of course, be seen visiting our glorious city – cows and all.
During his walk through the green spaces of Cambridge, Fred encounters one of the famous Midsummer Common cows, however, things apparently don’t quite go according to plan – with Fred remarking: “They don’t like French people!”
Tristan Welch, head chef of the iconic Parker’s Tavern, will return to the show for episode two, which will air on April 13.
In the previous series, he came just short after being tasked with the tricky request of recreating the crunchy, pickled onion classic, Monster Munch.
(Image: Channel 4)
This time, his mission is on the sweeter side of things – as he has been asked to replicate a legendary British snack, a staple of lunchboxes and parties, the Wagon Wheel.
Biscuit sandwiched together with marshmallow and surrounded by chocolate to provide an oversized sweet treat sounds like a simple request that even a home cook could manage.
However, the secret techniques behind how they make these classic treats prove tricky to crack.
Tristan lives up to his ingenious reputation, using a variety of madcap inventions to master the precise texture of the marshmallow, the crumbly biscuit and the chocolate – which somehow doesn’t melt in your hands.
During the show, he will be up against Cyrus Todiwala, who is the proprietor of Café Spice Namasté in London, which is to move to the Royal Docks after 25 years in Prescot Street, London.
The restaurant was awarded a BIB Gourmand (good food, good value) in the 2021 Michelin Guide, and are the longest-running Michelin BIB Gourmand Restaurant in the world – having held the title for 23 consecutive years. So tough competition for Cambridge’s Tristan.
Later on in the series, the iconic Midsummer House’s Daniel Clifford will then appear on our screens in episode three, on April 20.
To really test his culinary expertise, Daniel has been tasked with replicating something quintessentially British – a bowl of Shreddies.
(Image: David Johnson/Cambridge Newspapers)
Daniel will face off against an old adversary, a fellow two Michelin star winner Claude Bosi who took over operations of Bibendum within the Michelin building in London’s Chelsea.
He is also the only chef in history to have Michelin stars awarded to the restaurant located within the original UK Michelin HQ at Michelin House.
Both chefs have just three weeks to not only create a Shreddies recipe but replicate the secret process which gives Shreddies their famous lattice pattern and layered structure – to look as though they were ‘knitted by nanas’ as the advert used to say.
In the end, Fred hosts a cook-off where the factory judges will pick a winner, with an apparently shocking result.
Snackmasters will return to our screens on April 6 on Channel 4.