Great British Menu returns this summer to crown first-ever champion of champions

Great British Menu will be back this summer with some familiar faces to crown its champion of champions.

The cookery challenge series will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the National Health Service by tasking its returning finalists and new challengers to create dishes that salute the staff of the NHS.

Veteran judges Andi Oliver, Oliver Peyton and Matthew Fort will be joined a variety of esteemed chefs, including Paul Ainsworth, to narrow the heat each week to two competitors making each regional final on Fridays.

Also judging will be heroes of the NHS including Aneira Thomas (the first baby born on the NHS), Dan Smith (a paramedic on the scene at the Manchester bombing), Jenny Turner (Britain’s longest-serving nurse) and Dr Rangan Chatterjee (from Doctor in the House).

[Judge Andi Oliver]

The top competitors will have the shot to prepare a glorious four-course meal to be served at a celebratory banquet at Britain’s oldest operational medical center, the Great Hall of St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London.

“I am so absolutely thrilled to be returning to GBM and when I heard that this year we would be celebrating the extraordinary people who work in our beloved NHS I jumped for joy,” Andi Oliver said today (June 19).

“The combination of culinary excellence from our incredible chefs and the hugely emotional and personal connection that we all have to the NHS means that this will be an exceptional year for the competition.”

Below, Digital Spy presents a full rundown of contestants and guests judges by region:

North East

Judge: Dr Anne Weaver (lead clinician with the London Air Ambulance)

Chefs:

Dan Fletcher, Fenchurch at The Sky Garden, London

Danny Parker, House Of Tides, Newcastle

Dave Coulson, Peace and Loaf, Newcastle

London and South East

Judge: Jenny Turner (Britain’s longest-serving nurse)

Chefs:

James Cochran, formally James Cochran EC3, London, now 1251, London

Scott Goss, The Twenty Six, Tunbridge Wells

Selin Kiazim, Oklava, London

Scotland

Judge: Dr Sara Kayat (GP & TV expert)

Chefs:

Benedict Reade, Edinburgh Food Studio, Edinburgh

Lorna McNee, Andrew Fairlie, Perthshire

Ross Bryans, formally Corrigan’s Mayfair, London

Central

Judge: Dan Smith (Paramedic on site at Manchester bombing)

Chefs:

Marianne Lumb, Marianne, London

Ryan Simpson-Trotman, Orwells, Oxfordshire

Sabrina Gidda, Bernardi’s, London

Wales

Judge: Aneira Thomas (first baby born on NHS and retired mental health nurse)

Chefs:

Andrew Sheridan, Sosban, Carmarthenshire

Chris Harrod, The Whitebrook, Monmouthshire

Jason Hughes, Chateau Rhianfa, Anglesey

South West

Judge: Barbara Childs (Matron in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital)

Chefs:

Jude Kereama, Kota, Cornwall

Olivia Barry, Adelina Yard, Bristol

Tom Brown, formally Outlaw’s at the Capital, London now Cornerstone, London

North West

Judge: Dr Jake Dunning MBE (Infectious disease specialist who worked on West Africa Ebola epidemic)

Chefs:

Craig Sherrington, Virginia House, Cumbria

Ellis Barrie, The Marram Grass, Anglesey

Liam Simpson-Trotman, Orwells, Oxfordshire

Northern Ireland

Judge: Shehan Hettiaratchy (Lead trauma surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital, who helped treat Grenfell Tower fire victims)

Chefs:

James Devine – formally Noble, Belfast now Ardtara Country House, Londonderry

Shauna Froydenlund, Marcus at The Berkeley, London

Tommy Heaney, The Great House, Bridgend

Finals judges

Starter: Dr Rangan Chatterjee – BBC’s Doctor In The House

Fish: Chris Ogden, pioneer of robotic surgery for prostate cancer

Main: Tom Lynch MBE – paramedic and founder of the Ambulance Cycle Response Unit

Dessert: Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent OBE, Head of Maternity, Children & Young People for NHS England

Veteran judges

Tom Aikens – The Pawn, Hong Kong and Tom’s Kitchen, various locations

Daniel Clifford – Midsummer House, Cambridge

Angela Hartnett – Murano and Merchants Tavern, both London

Michael O’Hare – The Man Behind the Curtain, Leeds

Jeremy Lee – Quo Vadis, London

Paul Ainsworth – No 6 and Rojano’s, both Padstow

Phil Howard – Elystan Street, London

Richard Corrigan – Corrigan’s Mayfair and Bentley’s, both London

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