Four pub chefs competing in BBC's Great British Menu
James Durrant, owner of the Plough Inn, in Longparish, Hampshire, is competing in the north-west heat, which is airing at 7.30pm on BBC2 every day this week until Friday (April 18).
With 18 years’ experience as a chef, Durrant has worked with Gordon Ramsay at Claridges, in Mayfair, London, and is a former head chef at Maze – also in Mayfair – where he won a Michelin star in his first year. He took on the Plough in 2012.
The other three pub chefs all feature in the south-west heat, with one guaranteed to make the grand final.
Emily Watkins, co-owner of the Kingham Plough in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire; Dominic Chapman, executive chef of the Royal Oak at Paley Street, in Berkshire; and Josh Eggleton, at the Pony and Trap, in Chew Magna, Bristol, face-off in the south-west heat.
The heat will air on BBC2 at 7.30pm each night from Monday to Friday next week (April 21-25).
Tom Kerridge has returned as a judge for the fourth consecutive year. Kerridge, who owns the two-Michelin-starred Hand & Flowers in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, appeared on the show in 2009 and 2010, supplying main courses to the final banquet on both occasions.
On the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the brief for this year’s series is to create dishes that evoke the spirit of the wartime generation. The winning dishes will be served at a banquet to be held at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
The chefs will cook their best dish from the show at a series of £100-a-head Great British Menu dinners, hosted at their respective pubs.
