Next Episode of Great British Menu is
Season 19 / Episode 26 and airs on 19 March 2024 21:00
Top chefs from across the nation compete for the chance to cook a four-course banquet for a high-profile figure.
Four chefs compete for south west England with canapes, starters and fish dishes inspired by the Olympics and Paralympics, all hoping to cook at a banquet to wish Team GB athletes luck as they head for Paris 2024.
The dishes include three beetroot dishes and one complex butternut squash dish, as well as some stunning scallop, brill and sea bass dishes. But who will be leaving the competition?
The three talented chefs from south west England are halfway through their heat, and the pressure is mounting. Once again, they each serve a unique take on the brief celebrating the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The dishes include sticky pork, pork belly and burnt pineapple jam, Italian meringue ping pong balls and a wildly ambitious ice cream cart featuring a seemingly limitless amount of homemade toppings. But who will be leaving the competition?
The two highest scoring chefs from south west England must go head-to-head and cook their six-course menus again.
They need to impress a panel of exacting judges: Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge, chef and top restaurateur Nisha Katona, and comedian and food podcaster Ed Gamble. The guest judge is Olympic gold medallist Joe Choong - a Team GB competitor for modern pentathlon. How will he judge dishes celebrating the Olympic and Paralympic Games?
Only one of the chefs will triumph and go through to represent south west England at the national finals.
It's national finals week on Great British Menu, where the winners from the regional heats compete to cook a course at a spectacular Parisian banquet to celebrate the Olympics and Paralympics and wish Team GB good luck on their journey to the Paris games this summer.
Each episode will see the eight rivals compete over a different course, from starter through to dessert, where they will be marked out of ten by an expert judging panel which, each episode, will feature a different Olympian or Paralympian guest judge.
In the first episode, Ellie Simmonds OBE, Team GB's second-youngest Paralympian ever and holder of gold, silver and bronze medals, joins Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge, restaurateur Nisha Katona and food podcaster and comedian Ed Gamble on the judging panel. They're tasked with picking a winner from eight vegan starter courses, which are all inspired by the Olympics and Paralympics. The rivals pull out all the stops, with dishes that are as varied in their choice of inspiration as they are in their style of cooking.
The eight finalists cook their fish courses to win a place on the menu of a banquet celebrating the Olympics and Paralympics. Champion weightlifter Emily Campbell, who won a silver in the Tokyo Olympics, joins Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge, restaurateur Nisha Katona and food podcaster and comedian Ed Gamble on the judging panel.
With their first day nerves behind them, the chefs have settled into the kitchen and are able to produce some truly world-class cooking. The judges are blown away by their talent, and picking a winner is tough, but only one of the chefs will earn the right to cook their fish course at the banquet.
The chefs battle it out over who will cook the main course at the banquet. The guest judge is cyclist Dame Laura Kenny, the first British woman to win six Olympic titles. She joins Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge, restaurateur Nisha Katona and food podcaster and comedian Ed Gamble on the judging panel as they select the menu's main course.
This is the centrepiece of the banquet that all of the chefs desperately wants to cook – so competition in the kitchen is fierce! Each chef produces a dish that celebrates the Olympics or Paralympics, and with the most complex dishes of the week to prepare, the chefs are pushed to their limits. The judges have a tough task on their hands choosing just one chef to cook the main course at the banquet.
The competition intensifies as the eight rivals compete to cook the final course, dessert, at the banquet. The guest judge is Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, a heptathlete who became one of the most celebrated British competitors when she won gold at London 2012. She's joining Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge, restaurateur Nisha Katona and food podcaster and comedian Ed Gamble on the judging panel to select the menu's grand finale.
Desserts are famously tricky to pull off in the heat of the Great British Menu kitchen, so they have their work cut out. This is the last chance the chefs have of cooking a course at the banquet, so tensions are running high as the rivals battle it out for the final time.
Once a winner has been decided, one chef will be surprised by being asked to cook the banquet's canape. Will this be additional work for an existing winner or a chance at cooking at the banquet for a chef who hasn't won a course?
It's the final banquet, where the ultimate winner will be voted for by Olympians and Paralympians past and present and esteemed sporting guests at the British ambassador's residence in Paris.
The judges, chef Tom Kerridge, restaurateur Nisha Katona and food podcaster and comedian Ed Gamble, have chosen chefs, each from a different region of the country, to create a banquet celebrating the Olympics and Paralympics and to wish Team GB the very best of luck on their road to the Olympics in Paris 2024.
The chefs will need to overcome obstacles to wow the guests with a perfect mix of taste and fabulous presentation. Who will triumph and end the day as champion of champions?
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