Great British Menu 2025: Winner, Cast, Host & Episodes

The Great British Menu has always attracted serious kitchen talent, but 2025 delivered something the show hadn’t seen before: a school chef beating Michelin-starred rivals to become Champion of Champions. That win, announced on BBC Two in late April, was the headline — but the season had plenty of subplots worth unpacking, from the Northern Ireland heat that went down to the wire to early signals about 2026. Here’s what the official recaps confirm, what’s still fuzzy, and what to watch as the next series takes shape.

Series: 20 · Banquet Location: Blenheim Palace · Host Hint: Howard Middleton featured · Chefs Competed: Multiple regions including Northern Ireland · Next Series: 2026 in planning

The key facts table below consolidates the most important details from the official recaps.

Who won the Great British Menu 2025 tonight?

Champion of Champions

Amber Francis took the Champion of Champions title in 2025 after banquet guests voted her course the standout. Her winning dessert, “Books, the mind’s food”, was served inside a wooden school desk — a nod to her day job as a school chef that stood out in a field of restaurant professionals. The win marked one of the more unconventional paths to the title the show has seen. The Caterer described her as “the only school chef on Great British Menu”, a detail that amplified the surprise factor. The banquet where she was crowned took place at Blenheim Palace, one of the show’s most prestigious venues to date.

Regional winners

The road to the banquet ran through regional heats across the UK. Stevie McCarry won the Northern Ireland heat after beating Jonny Taylor, Lawrence Barrow, and Marty McAdam — a stacked field that made the result especially competitive. Other regional winners included Daniel ap Geraint from Wales, Sally Abé representing Central and Eastern England, and Jean Delport who advanced after defeating Jason Howard, Eran Tibi, and Eve Seemann. The London and South East heat featured Jason Howard alongside Jean Delport and Eran Tibi. All eight regional winners made the trip to Blenheim for the final. The Staff Canteen has the full list of finalists confirmed across the regional broadcasts.

Who are the finalists in Great British Menu?

2025 chef line-up

The 2025 season featured eight finalists who earned their place by winning regional heats across Wales, Central and Eastern England, Northern Ireland, and London. The Central and Eastern England heat saw Sally Abé advance, while Jean Delport made it through the London and South East competition. Stevie McCarry’s Northern Ireland win was among the tighter results of the season. The Staff Canteen confirmed the complete line-up published after the final episode aired on Friday, April 28 at 7pm on BBC Two. The Caterer covered the full chef list as part of its banquet recap.

All chefs who took part

Beyond the finalists, the regional heats featured a broader field. Lawrence Barrow competed in the Northern Ireland heat but lost to Stevie McCarry. Orry Shand beat Calum Munro, Hannah Rose, and David Millar in the Scotland heat — though that result was from the 2025 calendar. South West coverage from Great British Chefs included Howard Middleton’s recap of that regional round. The 2025 theme, “Great Britons”, guided all chefs to build dishes around figures from British history — giving the regional rounds a through-line that connected individual plates to a larger narrative.

Will there be a Great British Menu in 2026?

2026 preview

Yes. The next series is already in planning, with the 2026 banquet slated for St George’s Hall in Liverpool — a shift in venue from the 2025 Blenheim setting. The theme is confirmed as British movies, a departure from the historical focus of 2025’s “Great Britons”. A wildcard chef was expected to join the finalist field but had not been officially announced at the time of reporting. The Staff Canteen confirmed the venue and theme details.

Banquet finale expectations

The 2026 finals week ran Monday through Thursday, with the banquet on Friday. Nikita Pathakji was crowned Champion of Champions after she was called up when Corrin Harrison pulled out. Runners-up were Orry Shand from Scotland, Cal Byerley from North East, and Ciaran Brennan from South West. The Staff Canteen reported the dramatic sequence. The 2026 season, themed around British movies, was staged at St George’s Hall in Liverpool — a change of scenery that signals the show keeps experimenting with venue choices.

Who is hosting the Great British Menu 2026?

Host details

Phil Wang has replaced Ed Gamble as host for Great British Menu 2026, bringing a different energy to the presenting role. Andi Oliver returns as judge for the new series. SquareMeal confirmed the host swap. The 2025 pairing of Ed Gamble and Tom Kerridge, with new judge Lorna McNee, gave the show a particular chemistry that audiences had settled into — so the change in hosting is a noticeable shift for regular viewers.

2025 host recap

Ed Gamble co-hosted the 2025 series alongside Tom Kerridge, who is also a restaurateur with multiple UK venues. Lorna McNee joined as a new judge that season, adding a fresh voice to the panel. The Caterer covered the 2025 host and judge line-up as part of its season preview. The banquet recap from Great British Chefs included Howard Middleton’s coverage of the South West heat — a former contestant brought in for that regional recap.

What nationality is Spencer Metzger?

Spencer Metzger background

Spencer Metzger won Great British Menu in 2022 and has since worked as chef at The Ritz in London. Before that, he cooked alongside Jason Atherton — a chef with multiple Michelin-starred restaurants across Asia and Europe. Country and Town House and The Caterer both confirm his career path through those institutions. His background is British — born and trained in the UK — and his career reflects a trajectory common among modern British chefs: early kitchen work, Michelin-starred environments, then the GBM platform launching him toward a higher public profile.

Career highlights

The list of GBM winners who went on to open their own restaurants is substantial. Kirk Haworth won in 2024 with Plates, a vegan Michelin-starred venue. Adam Handling took the 2023 title and has since built a small restaurant group. Nikita Pathakji, the 2026 Champion of Champions, has announced plans to open her first restaurant after the win, according to The Times. Country and Town House tracks the winner-to-restaurant path across multiple seasons. Spencer Metzger’s position as chef at The Ritz is one of the most visible post-GBM roles in recent memory — a signal that the competition’s winners are landing at the top of the UK hospitality ladder.

The Great British Menu has long served as the clearest launchpad in UK hospitality — a single series win can reframe a chef’s public profile overnight. For 2025, that story belonged to Amber Francis, whose unconventional path into the final made the “Great Britons” theme feel less like a constraint and more like a starting point for a conversation about who gets to compete at this level. With 2026 already signaling a new host, a Liverpool venue, and a British movies theme, the show is clearly willing to move the furniture around between seasons. Whether those changes land as refreshing or disruptive depends on how the broadcast schedule shapes up — and whether the chefs who enter the 2026 regional heats can match the drama the last two years have delivered.

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Fans captivated by Amber Francis’s Champion of Champions win in Great British Menu 2025 may savor the baking drama unfolding in Great British Bake Off S16, a parallel BBC hit.

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