Ashleigh: "My dish is called Dig In. And it's inspired by Mary Anning, who was a paleontologist from Lime Regis. She helped discover a Plateosaurus and then found a lot of amnionites as well. So that will visually inspire the dish. The main element of the dish is a cauliflower couscous, which will look like you're finding a fossil yourself. There's cauliflower couscous, mushroom puree, tempura mushrooms with cauliflower mousse. The dish is mainly cold, with the tempura mushrooms being hot, so it's more sort of ambient."

Michael Caines: "Is it all piled up?"

Ashleigh: "Essentially, yeah. But you just dig in, so you've got to "dig in" to discover."

Notes taken during cooking

Ashleigh adds rosemary and thyme to mushrooms for her puree.

Ashley's dish will sit on a base of cauliflower couscous that adds nice texture to the dish and hopefully will lift it with all the acidity in it.

Ashleigh: "It's vacuum packed to pickle and soften. Next, the delicate flour and soy tuille."

Ashleigh: "Got one tuille down and it's how I wanted it. Hope it's not beginners luck. Tell you what, the fact that this is working, it's fantastic."

Michael Caines: "This is the couscous?"

Ashleigh: "Yeah, that's the couscous that will sit underneath the dish."

Michael Caines: "Are you happy with the balance there?"

Ashleigh: "Yeah, it's a bit tangy by itself, but it balances the dish out nicely."

Michael Caines, having exited the kitchen: "So I think I've tasted better cauliflower couscous. It wasn't unpleasant, so let's see how that comes with the whole dish."

 

Finally, Ashley chills cauliflower mousses set in dinosaur molds. 

Plating

Ashleigh starts with a base of zesty couscous. Then mushroom puree, dinosaur shaped cauliflower mousse, sprigs of pickled sea rosemary.

Next comes roasted silver skin onions, and mushroom tempura.

Amber: "Then I just need to get the soy tuilles on the plate without breaking them."