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Great British Menu 2025 Champion of Champions crowned
The chefs cooked at a banquet at Blenheim Palace celebrating 20 years of Great British Menu
School chef Amber Francis has been crowned Champion of Champions in the 2025 series of Great British Menu.
Francis, who is head chef and senior food educator at Christ’s College in Finchley, London, impressed invited guests at the banquet at Blenheim Palace with a dessert linked to her childhood and education background.
The dessert, called ‘Books, the mind’s food’, featured hay-infused set cream, fermented strawberries, strawberry gel, white chocolate disc and fermented honeycomb served with a honey parfait and sable biscuit sandwich.
It was designed as a celebration of Hannah More, a founder of schools in the late 18th century, whose silhouette Francis used on a biscuit served with the dessert. It was presented to the judges in a wooden school desk with lifting lid alongside an image of the chef as a child in her Hannah More School uniform.
Judge Tom Kerridge said of the dish: “I absolutely love the flavours. The hay-infused cream is delicious and the fermented strawberries are outstandingly good.”
Francis narrowly beat Interlude restaurant executive chef Jean Delport to the Champion of Champions title at the banquet attended by 90 guests, who ranged from campaigners for justice to recipients of bravery awards.
Delport had cooked both a fish course of barbecued sole Veronique, potatoes en papillote, vermouth tarragon butter and vin jaune sauce, and a meat course of roasted goat rack, goat curry, smoked rice, spiced fondant potato, roasted okra, barbecued broccoli and peanut relish.
Speaking at a celebration of 20 years of Great British Menu, Francis said: “It came as quite a shock. It was amazing, I’m very privileged. What an experience it was cooking for those amazing people.”
Francis was inspired to pursue a career in the kitchen after working with pastry chef Abby Moule at Chez Bruce in London. After staging at two-Michelin-starred restaurants such as the Hand & Flowers in Marlow and Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxfordshire, Francis joined the Ritz London, where she trained in pastry.
She then started collaborating with chef Robin Gill at the Dairy in Clapham before being made head chef at Zebra Riding Club at the now-closed Birch hotel in Hertfordshire.
In 2023, she starred in Great British Menu and launched Maene in London’s Spitalfields with restaurateur Nick Gilkinson. It marked her first opening as head chef and the modern British bistro was listed on the Michelin Guide soon after.
She left Maene before its closure later that year and has since been working as head chef and senior food educator at Christ’s College Finchley in north London, where she is responsible for creating a curriculum for students to learn about food.
Francis’s fellow finalists for Great British Menu 2025 included Sally Abé, Jean Delport and Mark McCabe.
Photography: BBC/Optomen Television Limited/Kate Hollingsworth
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