A celebration of life and key workers is the aim on Great British Menu
Andi Oliver tells Georgia Humphreys about her role on the show’s Christmas series
After four series as a Great British Menu judge, Andi Oliver has a new role.
The broadcaster and chef, 56, is hosting the upcoming Christmas special of the BBC2 cooking competition, which will take place over seven episodes. She will also present the 16th series, which will air in 2021.
Replacing Oliver on the panel for Great British Christmas Menu – alongside Matthew Fort and Oliver Peyton – is comedian Kerry Godliman. Meanwhile, a different guest, related to the series’ theme of supporting key workers, will join each week to complete the judging line-up.
Together, the four will decide which culinary titans get to serve up their creative dishes as part of a six-course festive feast – and it’s over to Oliver in the event of a tie.
Here, we chat to Oliver (who also used to be in a band with Eighties pop icon Neneh Cherry) about the joy of presenting, and how cooking has helped her through a difficult year.
What can we expect from The Great British Christmas Menu?
The Christmas special is a hoot! The brief is to say thank you to our key workers, who have literally been the backbone of this country throughout the last year. People have lost their lives, people are risking their lives on a daily basis, just to keep us safe, and being able to do something that, in some small way, shows the gratitude we all feel for them is huge for us. And the chefs really rose to the occasion.
What was it like to film?
It’s so joyful, the whole thing. We’ve got veterans back in the kitchen as well; we’ve got Tommy Banks, Tom Aikens, amongst some others as well – some surprise ones who I’ll keep up my sleeves.
Tell us a bit more about the new role?
Getting to know the chefs, watching them go through the emotional journey throughout the week, has been a complete revelation. I knew it would be interesting, getting to work with the chefs more closely and see how the dishes evolve and develop. It’s just a joy to watch their imagination spark. One of the chefs last week impressed me so much. The changes they made to a dish from the Monday, to the time they got to the judging table on Friday… I was absolutely gobsmacked.
Have you been cooking a lot in lockdown?
All the time! It’s a really lovely thing for my mental health. It’s a really important form of creativity for me, my cooking. [In April] my daughter [TV and radio presenter, Miquita Oliver] and I started an Instagram series called, ‘What’s for dinner mummy?’; us cooking and dancing and playing music. It was like a little window into our family life. And then we decided to do a popup restaurant; my friend’s got a pub at the top of my road, so we did a Caribbean barbecue takeaway, and a little takeaway bar in his pub garden. We had the time of our lives! And everybody in our local neighbourhood absolutely loved it.
● The Great British Christmas Menu starts on BBC2 on Tuesday, 1 December