Born and bred in Northumberland, Cal comes from a family of farmers who have been working the land since 1805. Cal enjoys cooking with ingredients he can forage from his own garden, as well as products from local suppliers. After entering the hospitality industry aged sixteen, Cal has worked in some of the North East’s best restaurants including working under Kevin Tickle at Rogan & Co for two years and then as Head Pastry Chef at Forest Side for five years. In May 2021, Cal opened his restaurant Pine with great success, becoming Northumberland’s second Michelin-starred restaurant and also receiving a Michelin green star amongst its accolades. His GBM menu is inspired by North East sporting legends and Olympic winners past and future.

Growing up in Looe surrounded by tourism and restaurants directly inspired Ben to become a
chef. He remembers boats coming in daily with huge fresh hauls and became interested in local provenance and fresh ingredients. He was also directly influenced by his mother who was a talented home cook and his father who was a local gamekeeper. Having worked in Plymouth with the Tanner brothers and done stages with Tom Kerridge and Gordon Ramsay, his skills have been crafted in kitchens of the highest level. Not afraid of a competition, Ben got to the quarterfinals of Masterchef the Professionals in 2011, so he also knows how to work under pressure. Ben opened The Sardine Factory back in Looe in 2018 and received a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2019 (he's retained it ever since). The restaurant used to be an old sardine factory and Ben remembers this building when it was used as fishermen's stores. It was Ben’s dream to open a restaurant in his hometown and when the opportunity arose to have a restaurant in this building, Ben jumped at the chance. His cooking style is heavily influenced by the surrounding area, drawing inspiration from the sea and respecting the local South West produce. His menu reflects his love of local produce and celebrates the olympic flame arriving in Cornwall in 2012 from Olympia, as well as diving legend Tom Daley.

Corrin was born in Hackney, London, and whilst growing up had aspirations to be a footballer. A head chef and friend of the family suggested he get into cooking, and, with memories of his late grandfather’s cooking, he was inspired to start his own culinary career. He started his career at the Rosewood hotel and then moved to Austria to work at a two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Vienna. In 2017 Corrin moved to Wales to work with Gareth Ward at Ynyshir. He became head chef after just four years, helping the restaurant to achieve its second Michelin star in 2022. He now runs the second restaurant of the group, Gwen. His style of cooking is Classic British but has been influenced by the Asian style of Ynyshir. One of his signature dishes at Gwen is a sourdough ice cream with a miso caramel that he makes using the repurposed sourdough from his own bread recipe. Corrin’s GBM menu draws inspiration from Welsh athletic legend Colin Jackson and the successes of Team GB across several disciplines, all whilst highlighting his modern take on classical dishes that are close to his heart. 

Originally from Blackburn, Kirk is the first ever plant-based chef that has taken part in the competition. He first appeared in 2021 and is now back in the competition to showcase his food once more. Kirk is set to open Plates, his plant based fine dining restaurant, in London this spring. Kirk learnt the ropes working as an apprentice at the one-Michelin-starred Northcote alongside his dad Nigel Haworth and won North West Young Chef of the Year aged seventeen. He also trained at some of the most renowned restaurants in the world including The French Laundry, Restaurant Sat Bains, Sydney’s The Quay and The Square. Kirk wasn’t always a plant-based chef, but in 2016 after being diagnosed with Lyme disease, he decided to start exploring and learning about the power of fruits and vegetables on the body and the concept of Plates was born. The concept is centered around serving delicious dishes without meat, gluten, refined sugar or dairy, whilst showing that plant-based cooking can be exciting and full of flavour. His menu in the competition is inspired by the food high-end athletes need to fuel the performance of a lifetime during the Olympics.

Born in Punjab, India, Ajay moved to Scotland in 2009 and opened his own restaurant Swadish by Ajay Kumar in 2019. Ajay was inspired by his father growing up as he was the cook of the family. His food journey began in India in 2003 and he spent many hours in the kitchens of the finest chefs in India, Malaysia and Singapore before settling in Scotland. Swadish has been awarded two AA Rosettes, Best Fine dining Restaurant in the Indian Cuisine Awards, Best in Scotland at the British Curry Awards and Outstanding Indian Restaurant of the Year at the Scottish Curry Awards 2023. Ajay’s menu celebrates Scottish Olympic athletes. 

Born in London, Kate studied sociology at Newcastle university, but struggled to see what the next step
would be. Instead, she followed her passion and, with no training, asked for a job at Michelin-starred Morston Hall, in Norfolk. She credits her trajectory to Galton Blackiston and Greg Anderson who
took a chance on her. After working at Morston Hall, Kate wanted to work in restaurants with the highest accolades and landed a job working for Marcus Wareing at his then two star restaurant. She went on to work at several one and two star restaurants in London before moving to Copenhagen to work at AOC, where she became the youngest female head chef. After leaving AOC she went onto work as Sous chef at Frantzén, Stockholm, which currently holds three Michelin stars, all before she turned thirty. She went on to work in Gordon Ramsay’s development team and is now a private chef in London. Kate loves being experimental in the kitchen and her precision, dedication and attention to detail in everything she does is paramount in the dishes she creates. Her menu celebrates gold medal Olympians.

Camlough-based self-taught chef Melissa only started her food truck venture Feast a year ago, but it has already garnered glowing reviews from food critics and customers alike all over Northern Ireland. Her unique philosophy is centered around sourcing local produce wherever she is parked and giving people the opportunity to taste fine-dining food outside of the traditional restaurant setting. Her passion for cooking started while working in a takeaway kitchen at only fifteen. However, Melissa's ambitions soon led her to travel the world in search of new culinary experiences, working in Australia (Muttis in Melbourne) and New Zealand. Muttis is where Melissa realised that her life was destined to be spent in the kitchen and she fell in love with the industry. Melissa returned to Northern Ireland  to work her way up the ranks after her experiences overseas. Later she set off to the Loch Melfort on the west coast of Scotland, which led her to really appreciate the excellent produce that the UK has to offer. She went on to work at the Michelin-starred The Glasshouse in Kew, where she developed her skills further, as well as at several other top restaurants in London. With her food truck, she has formed strong connections with markets and suppliers, allowing her to showcase the very best of Northern Ireland produce on her menu.

Birmingham-born Adam won the Roux Scholarship in 2012 aged just twenty-four and later staged under Yannick Alleno at Le Meurice in Paris. He began his career working as a pot washer in a small pub and soon fell in love with the atmosphere of the kitchen. After he finished catering college, Adam moved to London to work at the Ritz and ended up being there for ten years, working his way up to executive sous chef under John Williams. In 2016, Adam joined Coworth Park as executive chef and now leads a team across three sites including the Michelin-starred Restaurant Woven by Adam Smith. Adam loves to champion classic French cookery and believes that it’s the base to all great dishes. He also likes to take classical methods and put a modern twist on them to elevate them further.