Category: Daytime TV; Factual & Arts TV; BBC TWO
Date: 24.02.2006
Printable version
BBC Daytime has announced the chefs and judges taking part in new cookery series Great British Menu, a UK nationwide search for the best of British cuisine.
A perfect four course menu will be created through a tense competition between some the nation's finest chefs.
The menu will be served to Her Majesty The Queen and guests at a lunch in honour of her 80th birthday.
Fourteen chefs representing seven nations and regions are scouring the country for the best local ingredients.
Taking their inspiration from the local area, and the traditions of British food, each chef is then creating a unique four-course menu.
These recipes will reflect and interpret the range and diversity of British food in 2006.
Great British Menu, produced by Optomen TV, pits two chefs against each other, region by region, nation by nation.
Each menu will consist of a starter, fish course, main course and dessert.
A panel of experts on British food will judge the menus.
Prue Leith, Matthew Fort and Oliver Peyton will decide which menu from each region or nation will go through to the public vote in the eighth and final week.
The series will be presented by broadcaster and former BBC Royal Correspondent Jennie Bond.
The chefs taking part in the series will be:
South East - Gary Rhodes, Atul Kochhar;
South West - John Burton-Race, Michael Caines;
Midlands and East - Antony Worrall Thompson, Galton Blackiston;
Wales - Angela Hartnett, Bryn Williams;
North - Marcus Wareing, Simon Rimmer;
Scotland - Nick Nairn, Tom Lewis;
Northern Ireland - Paul Rankin, Richard Corrigan.
The final four dishes chosen by the public vote will be served at a special lunch hosted by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, at the Mansion House on 15 June, to mark Her Majesty's 80th Birthday.
Guests of the Lord Mayor include HRH Prince Philip, senior politicians and city figures.
Great British Menu will be 40 30-minute episodes starting on 10 April 2006. It will be broadcast Mondays to Fridays on BBC TWO.
The BBC will also be behind the scenes for the lunch for a special programme.
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