"Learn from your mistakes and do not let that put you down. Mistakes are what make you better."
Lorna McNee
Great British Menu (GBM) returned to our screens on 20th March 2019 for series 14. The BBC Two show puts the nation’s most talented chefs to the test. Women in the Food Industry are interviewing the strong female line-up of chefs from across Britain competing to serve their dish at the final banquet. Their co-founder, Mecca Ibrahim, interviewed Lorna McNee, who returns to the show to represent Scotland.
Lorna McNee, Sous Chef at Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagle’s (Scotland’s only two Michelin-starred restaurant) is hoping to reach the Great British Menu banquet to represent Scotland when GBM starts on BBC2 at 8pm on 17th April. It's the second time she has been on the hit TV show narrowly missing out on getting to the banquet for Scotland.
She worked with Ben Reade on the show last year, and Gordon Jones is new to the show, and was asked what it was like to be in the kitchen again. She said "Ben’s taken a slightly different approach to the show this year, and I have as well. Ben’s a nice guy and it was good to walk into the kitchen to see a familiar face. Gordon is very different and his personality is a bit off the wall. It’s nice having three chefs that have totally different personalities and cuisines too. It’s good to learn things from each other."
Although she found this year's music theme fun it was also a challenge too: "This year was a really exciting theme, but I still found it difficult. With my starter I based my dish on Elton John’s famous cheese on toast – which actually caused me some heartache as you will see on the show. It’s not my finest moment, but I did have a lot of fun preparing for it."
Having worked with the late Andrew Fairlie for 11 years she was asked who else gave her inspiration and said "Obviously Chef Andrew had a massive influence on me. But other than that, there are so many chefs I look up to. I think that any chef who is out there making a difference to our industry or making a difference to food and creating what they love is an inspiration to me. Doing what makes us happy and chasing our dreams are inspirational."
The one piece of advice she would offer young chefs was as folllows: "Learn from your mistakes and don’t let that put you down. Mistakes are what make you better. You start to understand things and learn from your cooking when you make mistakes. Don’t let anyone put you down. Just have in your head what you want to achieve and push for that".
Lorna will be appearing on Great British Menu from Wednesday 17th April 2019 representing Scotland You can read the full interview with Lorna McNee on Women In the Food Industry
