Nathan Davies has secured first place on the menu at the Great British Menu 2022 banquet. The Welsh chef won the starter course during finals week after blowing away the judges and viewers at home with his dish.
If you're not familiar, the finals week of Great British Menu sees the winners from the regional heats compete to earn a place on the menu of a spectacular banquet, this year that banquet is celebrating 100 years of brilliant British broadcasting. Each episode will see the eight rivals compete over a different course, including a starter, a fish course, a main, and a dessert.
And now Nathan, who is co-owner of Aberystwyth's SY23, which was recently awarded a Michelin star and named the best new restaurant in the UK by the prestigious Michelin Guide, has bagged the starter round. The chef impressed judges Tom Kerridge, Nisha Katona, Ed Gamble and Steve Pemberton with his lamb dish, securing a perfect score of 40 out of 40.
Read more: Great British Menu's Nathan Davies: Who is the Welsh contestant and where is his restaurant?
Nathan, whose signature style is cooking over fire, said of his starter: "My dish was inspired by Merlin, the television show. I wanted it to be a mediaeval broth, and with us being in Wales, we've got fantastic lamb and all these wonderful ingredients that lend themselves quite naturally to the dish."
He also explained what it felt like to get to the end having missed out on the banquet last year, despite being the second-highest scoring chef ever in the competition. "To see it through right to the end, and to get a dish at the banquet is an amazing achievement, and just a lovely way to finish the whole process," Nathan explained.
Adding: "The whole thing's been hard to perfect. The last couple years have been quite tough so it's been a nice escape to do something a bit different. It's a tough competition, with a lot of really good chefs, and in particular I found my heat week to be really strong. All I wanted to do was to do better than I did last year, so my goal was to get through to finals week. Luckily for me, I got the first dish so it eased the pressure for me for the rest of the week. I could just really enjoy it."
The dish was labelled "fantastic" and "magical" by panellist Tom Kerridge as BBC One viewers also took to social media to share their thoughts on the food. "Well done @nathandavies820, putting SY23 Aberystwyth & Wales on the map," wrote one fan.
While another added: "Great choice - looked the best of the dishes and great for Wales," and a third commented: "Four 10s. Wow, well deserved Nathan."
Nathan also reacted on social media. He told his Instagram followers: "Not a bad Monday that... 40/40 using welsh lamb representing Wales."
Great British Menu: The Finals continues Tuesday, March 29 on BBC Two at 8pm and you can catch the Banquet Special on Friday at 7:30pm on BBCiPlayer. For more showbiz and television stories, get our newsletter here.
