'Great British Menu' (2024) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cal Byerly

The judge for this heat was Aktar Islam, who was selected to present the fish course in the 2011 banquet.

Cal Byerly, whose Northumberland restaurant Pine opened in 2021, and had received a Michelin green star, was the winner. His canape was actually judged to be the worst of the four, but his starter, Winners Medal, received a score of 7, with his fish course, To Past & Future Winners, received a 9. The upward trend continued, with Big Bren's Runner Duck (his main course) receiving a 9, and Game, Set, Match (a dessert presented in a tennis ball) a 10.

In the regional final, the guest judge was Shauna Coxsey, who represented Great Britain in international rock-climbing events, including at the 2020 Olympics.

Answer: Adam Smith

This heat's judge was Tommy Banks, who had twice previously presented the fish course at the banquet, in 2016 and 2017.

Adam Smith, whose restaurant Woven by Adam smith gained a Michelin star within six months of opening, was judged to have produced the best canape. This turned out not to be important, as his starter (Olympic Oath) and fish dish (Road to Paris) scored 8 and 9 points respectively, giving him the highest score after the first two rounds. His main (Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together) received an even better score (10), while his horseshoe-shaped dessert (Good Luck) got an 8.

The guest judge for the regional final was Johnny Peacock, a Paralympian sprinter.

Answer: Kate Austen

The judge for these heats was Simon Rogan, a leader of the farm-to-fork movement whose restaurant L'Enclume has received three Michelin stars and five AA rosettes, as well as being named the top restaurant in Great Britain by the 'Good Food Guide' four years in a row (dropping to second the following year).

Kate Austen had extensive experience in Scandinavian restaurants before becoming a development chef for Gordon Ramsey. Either the cooks in this group had some bad cooking days, or their judge held them to a higher standard than most others, because her winning scores were quite a bit lower than is usual. Her starter (Valero) and fish dish (Made with Pride) both scored 7, her main (Symposium) scored 9, and her dessert (Olympic Spirit) scored 8. She was judged to have produced the best canape and pre-dessert, neither of which tie-breakers were required to come into play.

The guest judge at the regional final was Lutalo Muhammad, a taekwondo athlete who won bronze in the 2012 Olympics, and silver in 2016.

Answer: Ajay Kumar

The judging for these heats was split between Angela Hartnett OBE (an award made for her work in supporting hospitality workers and the National Health Service during the COVID pandemic) and Adam Handling, who was the Champion of Champions at the 2023 banquet.

Ajay Kumar is the Indian-born Chef patron (meaning he owns it as well as running the kitchen) of the multi-award-winning Glasgow restaurant Swadish which combines Scottish ingredients with traditional and contemporary Indian cooking techniques. Although the regional judges are supposed to be tasting the dishes without knowing who cooked what, it was pretty obvious which of them came from the same cook! His started was Row Hard or Row Home (8), his fish dish was Game. Set. Catch. (8), the main was a lamb dish called Olympia (6), and his dessert, honoring paralympic archer Nathan McQueen, was called McQueen (7).

The guest judge at the regional final was Dame Katherine Grainger, the Chair of UK Sport, and a former Olympic medalist, winning silver in Sydney (2000), Athens (2004), Beijing (2008) and Rio de Janeiro (2016), and gold in London (2012).

Answer: Corrin Harrison

The judge for these heats was Lisa Goodwin-Allen, who produced the winning dish at the 2010 banquet. In 'The Christmas Great British Menu' (a special COVID-affected version of the competition in 2020) she won three of the six courses that made it to the final banquet. Due to her shellfish allergy, the fish round was judged by Tom Shepherd, whose main dish was selected for the banquet in 2023.

Corrin Harrison, who was raised in London, spent several years working in Vienna before moving to Wales, where he joined the staff of the two-star Asian-influenced restaurant Ynyshir. His starter (Eat Your Veg, Grow Strong) scored 7, while the fish dish titled An Ode to Colin Jackson scored 8, as did his main (a dish of French pigeon and beet titled The Shoot, recalling the year when live pigeons were used in an Olympic shooting event). Gold or Go Home, his dessert, got a score of 7.

Little did he know that the guest judge at the regional final was going to be Colin Jackson, a sprinter and hurdler who held the record for the 110m hurdles for nearly 13 years, while his 60m hurdles record stood for twice that long.

Answer: Kirk Haworth

Michael O'Hare, this week's heat judge, presented the fish course at the 2010 banquet.

Kirk Haworth is a plant-based chef, who took on that calling in 2016, following a medical diagnosis that led him to explore how a healthier style of food (no meat, gluten, refined sugar or dairy) could be turned into fine dining. He competed in the 2021 edition of 'Great British Menu', making it to the regional final, but not to the banquet. This year he amazed the judges with his ability to use his highly restricted list of ingredients to produce full-flavoured fine-dining dishes. His lowest score came with his starter, Ability not Disability, which received 8 points. The other three all received 10, including a fish course that managed to produce a taste sensation of fish all-vegetable ingredients. All three of them (A Celebration of Table Tennis, Feast of Farrah and A Taste of Unity) emphasized the type of nutrients that would be suitable for competitors in the relevant sport.

The guest judge in the regional final was Stuart Robinson, who lost both legs while serving in Afghanistan, before taking up wheelchair rugby as part of his rehabilitation and becoming part of Great Britain's gold medal-winning team in the 2020 Paralympics.

Answer: Melissa McCabe

Judges for this heat were Richard Corrigan (who presented the starter in Series 1, won the 2006 Christmas edition, and took his fish dish to the 2007 banquet) and Spencer Metzger (the 2022 champion of Champions, after taking both fish and main dishes to the banquet).

Melissa struggled with time in the heat, with only her dessert (Punching for Gold, which scored 7) being sent on time. Her main (Hole in One, a beef dish served on a platter resembling a golf hole) was more than five minutes late, so she lost a point and her score of 8 turned into a 7. Her fish dish (I Needed That) only received 6 points, while her starter (Goodwill) was her highest-scoring dish, with an 8. In the final, she managed to deliver most of her dishes on time, or at least not late enough for any penalty. The judges in the final were not particularly impressed with any of the dishes, but Melissa edged Lottie Noren to go on to Finals Week.

The guest judge for the regional final was Michael McKillop, a four-time gold medalist in Paralympic T37 sprinting: 800 in 2008 and 2012, 1500 in 2012 and 2016.

Answer: Ben Palmer

This heat's judge, Tom Aikens, previously presented the starter at a banquet (in 2013), and has been a regular heat judge for the show.

Ben recovered from producing the least successful canape in this heat, scoring 8 or 9 on each of his subsequent dishes. My personal favourite was Dessert Team GB 2024, an amazing ice cream concoction. The ice cream was presented both in a (homemade) sugar cone and in small bowls, and each person was able to select their favourite toppings from a vast array of sweet and crunchy toppings. While everyone agreed that it was delicious and fun, the judges at the regional final felt it didn't quite link to the Olympic Games theme as well as it could, and it only scored 31 on judging day. Despite this, he won by 6 points (out of 160) and proceeded to Finals Week.

The guest judge for the regional final was Joe Choong, who won the pentathlon in the 2020 Olympic Games.

Answer: Kate Austen

The success of her Dish titled Symposium (stuffed quail served with truffle French toast and a scotch egg) made Kate the first female chef to present the main course at a banquet. The judges scored her dish 39 out of 40, edging out Ben's Temple of Hera on 38.

Ben, however, had already won the starter competition, with his golden beetroot tart (Firefly) scoring 39, beating out Kirk on 36. Kirk's totally plant-based cooking on the fish course did not excite the judges this time around as much as it had previously (they rather worried that banquet guests would expect fish in a fish course), and Adam won that course with Road to Paris, a poached fish dish served with truffle trout mousse. Kirk triumphed in the dessert round, getting the first 40 of the week with his treacle tart (A Taste of Unity) which integrated ingredients from all continents. It just barely beat Corrin, who scored 39 with his Gold or Go Home.

As a bit of a consolation prize, Corrin was selected to produce the canapes for the banquet, because he was the chef with the highest score in Finals Week who had not qualified a dish for the banquet.

Answer: Kirk Haworth

The 2024 banquet was held at the official residence of the UK Ambassador to France. Corrin's canape was served onboard the train carrying guests from London to Paris, not at the actual banquet. This was part of the streamlining involved in keeping the banquet short enough to allow Olympic and Paralympic athletes who were the guests to travel there and back in a single day. The other four chefs prepared their dishes in Paris (despite the farmers' strike that caused some disruption in obtaining their local supplies).

The Champion of Champions was decided by vote of the 80 diners. Kirk's father Nigel cooked a Lancashire hotpot for the main course of the 2009 banquet, making them the first father and son banquet chefs. The 2009 competition did not have any one chef proclaimed as a winner, so the newer format gave Kirk a chance to one-up his father.