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For nine weeks, chefs from across the UK have been competing for the honour of representing their region or nation at the Great British Menu finale – the banquet. The day has finally arrived, and four chefs must cook for some of the finest scientific minds and inventors alive today. One of them will be chosen by the assembled guests as Champion of Champions.

Guided by presenter Andi Oliver, the chefs are introduced to their banquet location, Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, a world heritage site and the home of the Lovell Telescope, which has been monitoring space billions of lightyears away for decades.

Due to the government’s pandemic recommendations, this is also Great British Menu’s first outdoor banquet. The guests will be served the winning starter, fish, main course and dessert in a large marquee with full social distancing.

But there’s a disaster immediately when one of the winning chefs is unable to compete – will the other chefs be able to cook their dish for them? And will this affect the final vote for the Champion of Champions?

Guests include Professor Sarah Gilbert from Oxford’s successful Covid vaccination programme and leading scientists and inventors from around the UK. Designers are represented by Thomas Heatherwick, the brains behind London’s 2012 Olympic Cauldron, and Sophie Conran. They’re joined by comedian and trained engineer Phil Wang, podcast stars and comedians James Acaster and Ed Gamble, science communicator Professor Maggie Aderin-Pocock from The Sky at Night, mathematician Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE and You Tube phenomenon and madcap inventor Colin Furze, who arrives on a two metre high, socially distanced bike!