BBC Two has announced the new judging panel for the next series of Great British Menu.
Chefs Tom Kerridge and Nisha Katona, and comedian Ed Gamble will join host Andi Oliver in the 17th series.
Celebrated chef Kerridge is no stranger to the series, having participated as a chef in 2010 and 2011 and winning the main course round both years, and returning in 2012 as a mentor and guide.
Kerridge said: “I’ve been involved with the show in some respect now for 12/13 years and I know how much it means, not just to the chefs that compete, but also the British food scene in general.
“It has been hugely influential, in terms of letting everybody know how great chefs and cooking is up and down the country, in all the nations and regions.”
Joining Kerridge on the panel is Katona, one of the UK’s most successful food entrepreneurs, and Ed Gamble, award-winning comic and co-host of the chart topping food podcast Off Menu.
Gamble said: “Doing my food podcast for so long means that I am very qualified for this job and I know way more than Tom and Nisha who both kept complaining that nobody served chicken nuggets. (They might have edited that out).
“I can’t wait for people to see what the chefs have made this series - the brief is incredible and they really rose to the challenge. And I rose to my difficult challenge of stuffing my greedy face.”
32 chefs representing eight different nations and regions will battle it out in the kitchen under the scrutiny of the presiding judges, joined each week by a different fourth guest judge related to the theme.
This year’s theme will be 100 Years of Great British Broadcasting, to mark the 100th anniversary of the BBC since it took to the radio airwaves in 1922.
The dishes will have to both taste great and celebrate UK broadcasting across the decades, paying homage to entertainment old and new, be it Fawlty Towers or Desert Island Discs, and landmark moments like the 1969 Moon Landing.
Great British Menu starts 1 February at 8pm on BBC Two.
