Chef patron of Derbyshire village pub competes in telly's Great British Menu

Mark Aisthorpe, chef patron of the Bulls Head at Holymoorside, is among the region’s best chefs competing in the Great British Menu on March 8, 2022.

His rivals are Sheffield based Luke French who runs his own restaurant Jöro and has a Michelin plate and 3 AA rosettes, Yorkshire-born Liz Cottam whose restaurant Home received a Michelin plate shortly after opening in 2017 and Bobby Geetha, chef patron of Fleur Café in Leeds.

Mark cut his teeth as part of the University of Sheffield catering team, before going on to complete spells at Cliveden House and Pétrus (2*) under Marcus Wareing.

In 2016, he managed to scrape together enough funding to fulfil his lifelong ambition of opening his very own pub restaurant in Derbyshire, using locally sourced produce wherever possible. When cooking, Mark’s aim is “to give traditional British food the elegance of a contemporary fine dining experience”.

The 2022 Great British Menu series is celebrating 100 years of British Broadcasting with contestants tasked to reflect the theme in their cooking. Mark’s starter and fish dishes will be inspired by Heartbeat and Chucklevision.

One of the four contenders will leave the competition after the fish course. This will be decided by a surprise judge, who is a previous Great British Menu winner and whose identity will only be revealed when they walk into the kitchen to taste the first course – the canapes.

The three remaining chefs will go through to the following week’s programme where presenter Andi Oliver will ask them to cook a main course, palate cleanser and dessert.

Two contenders will go through to the next round where they have to cook their six-course menu again and impress chef Tom Kerridge, holder of three Michelin stars, chef and restaurateur Nisha Katona, and comedian and host of a popular food podcast, Ed Gamble. In addition, they’ll have to win over guest judge, Si King of the Hairy Bikers.

Only one of the chefs will triumph and go through to the national finals to represent North East and Yorkshire.

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