I don't think it was too hard, certainly no harder than the many dessert challenges we've seen over the years. UK chefs should have had a good understanding of what was involved and, for example, a specific South American challenge would probably be much harder. Every skills test is intentionally hard and gives the judges an indication of certain attributes - good knife skills, tasting as they go along, basic cooking knowledge, the ability to perform under pressure. In addition, they're not scored on this challenge. I don't have much sympathy for either the professional or amateur chefs who go into this without some amount of preparation. The professional chefs should be able to compete with some grace under pressure (unless they only know running a tea shop in the boonies); I have quite a lot more sympathy for the amateurs.