Great British Menu 2025 champion looking to inspire future generations

*SPOILER WARNING*

 

Great British Menu 2025 Champion of Champions Amber Francis is hoping her success will highlight to future generations the various paths available in hospitality.

Classically trained chef Amber spent a decade working at a host of fine dining restaurants, including The Ritz, before opting to switch her focus and move into a role cooking and educating in schools.

Having initially competed in Great British Menu in 2023, losing out in the South West regional heats, Amber returned this year and after a tough finals week, booked her spot at the banquet with a stunning dessert on the last day.

Amber then overcame fellow banquet chefs Jean Delport and Sally Abé to win the trophy, after a vote from the diners at Blenheim Palace.

The winning dish was titled ‘Books, The Mind’s Food’, inspired by writer and philanthropist Hannah More.

This year’s main judges for the hit BBC show’s 20th anniversary were Michelin-starred chefs Tom Kerridge and Lorna McNee, alongside comedian Ed Gamble.

Speaking to The Staff Canteen about her victory, Amber said: “I think it's going to take some time before it sinks in properly.

“It's nearly a year from when I was first in contact with them (GBM). It's a long process, but it is very much worth it.

“I absolutely did not see it (winning) coming. My aim going into the whole competition was to highlight that school chefs and public sector chefs are doing amazing things. I wanted to get through to the Friday of the regionals. That was my aim, to get further than last time and just to talk about something that I'm passionate about.

“So each stage that I got further in, I couldn't quite believe it.

“At the banquet, there were no pretty little tears, there was just ugly sobbing when I found out. I received some of the photos today and it ain't a pretty sight!

“But it shows the raw emotion that I was feeling at that time. I'm just unbelievably grateful.”

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Asked how different it felt going back onto the show for a second time, Amber added: “Those nerves are still there. I certainly didn't know who I'd be up against, I didn't know what the competition was like. I'd practiced my dishes, I trusted in my dishes, but you can never really tell how things are going to go on the day.

“I certainly didn't have the confidence and that sort of slightly arrogant aura that I think people almost expect of returning chefs.

“You never know what's going to happen in that kitchen, so you've just got to prepare yourself to pivot for any eventualities. It's about being flexible.”

As for her winning dish, did Amber always see her dessert as her strongest chance of success on the show?

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Amber Francis (@amberlfrancis)

“I certainly didn't have one dish that I felt was definitely going to be a potential banquet dish, or even a finals dish,” she insisted.

“I love pastry, but even then, I wanted to challenge myself. White chocolate tempering was not something that I had done much of. I really was kicking myself, particularly in the regionals and the finals as to why I would even think about doing tempering chocolate in that kitchen.

“But I had no idea how well that dish would be received by the judges and by the public as well. It seems to have really struck a chord with lots of people, which is very, very touching.”

INSPIRING FUTURE GENERATIONS

Amber is head chef and senior food educator and Christ’s College Finchley in north London, with two of her students attending the banquet.

Explaining her decision to move away from restaurants into education, she said: “I really wanted to align my full-time job with my values and morals.

“I always did community work alongside the roles that I was doing and that was something that really fulfilled me and fuelled me during particularly long weeks.

“And so I decided one day just to see whether I could flip it on its head, use the skills that I'd gained over 10 years of being a professional chef in those fine dining settings and see what impact I could have

“I didn't know whether it would be a success or not. Lots of people told me that I was ending my career as a professional chef by doing that and that I wouldn't be employed again in fine dining. So it was a huge risk, but it's one that I'm incredibly proud of.

“I think I probably learned more in the last two years being in education than I have in the last four years being a head chef. It really pushed me out of my comfort zone, challenged me.

“Teenagers are my biggest critics. It's not Lorna and Tom and Ed that I have to worry about, it's 16-year-olds from North Finchley!”

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She added: “It's very similar to a restaurant set up, you come in early in the morning, you pack away the deliveries, you cook food fresh for that day. Except rather than doing 70 portions, we're doing 700 portions.

“You're serving 350 covers in 10 minutes and we have to get them through and serve the same quality throughout that 10 minutes.

“A lot of life as a teenager is just navigating your way through what you do and don't like and who you are as a person in the world. And that goes for food as well. And if a student can tell me that they don't like something because they don't like the colour and that they prefer broccoli when it's steamed as opposed to roasted, well, I mean, blimey, that's all you can ask for.

“There's also more set up projects that I've started, like ‘Try Something New Tuesdays’ where students can try something new at break times for free.

“It would be incredible if I was able to inspire any young people to think about being a chef and working in the food industry as a really viable career, because it's often frowned upon. I certainly was discouraged to go down that route by my academic supporters, when I was growing up.

DISSPELLING THE MYTHS

While still young, 2025 is going to be a hard one to top for Amber, who also revealed ahead of cooking at the banquet that she was pregnant.

“Finals week was brutal,” she said.

“I was placing quite low at the bottom every day, but still receiving some fairly positive feedback. That can be quite hard to come to terms with.

“Adding on to that the fact that I found out a week before the finals that I was pregnant. The nausea, the exhaustion, you can certainly tell by the end of the week how tired I was.

“But in a way, it kind of made the whole process a bit more special. Yes, it was hard, but it was really magical to be doing that, knowing how fortunate I was to be there, knowing how fortunate I was to be pregnant and doing that with my little sidekick, I suppose.

“That's definitely how it felt in the banquet. It felt like they were kind of there with me.

“I wanted to slightly challenge some of the antiquated views that when women become pregnant or start families, they're not as professionally competent in kitchens.

“It's something that I thought about a lot when I was questioning whether I even mentioned the fact that I was pregnant on Great British Menu and that took a lot of deciding. But it was something that was really important to me, to just dispel some of those beliefs that pregnant women aren't as capable in those settings, and they absolutely are, and they can be.”

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She added: “I often joke that I need to lie down after everything that happened with Great British Menu, but I'm not going to get a lie down with the baby on the way.

“Obviously my day-to-day will change with having a baby, but I'm really keen to keep that conversation going and to keep taking any opportunity I can to talk about why food for children and young people is so important.

“I'm really excited to become a mother and to add that to everything else that is amazing in my life. I've done this and I'm excited to see where that leads.”