Jamie Keeble: Yorkshire’s Myse head chef says he would ‘definitely go on Great British Menu again’
Myse head chef Jamie Keeble reached the final week of the Great British Menu this year and says he would ‘definitely go on it again in the future’.
Jamie Keeble, 31, who lives in Malton, has worked as the head chef at Myse in Hovingham since it first opened in June 2023 by Josh and Victoria Overington.
Within seven months, the restaurant gained its first Michelin star and it has maintained this accolade ever since.
In 2025, Jamie was encouraged by a former co-worker to apply for the latest series of the Great British Menu and was selected among 32 contestants.
He reached the final week.
“The regional was the most stressful part because you could get sent home in the regionals and nobody wants that.,” Mr Keeble said.
“I was up against Cal who has been on it three times and he was a massive help. He was really good at giving me tips and tricks on how to approach the courses.
“The finals were basically the same thing but without the stress of being sent home.
“I definitely will go back on it, I’m not sure if I’ll go back on it immediately. It’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of your own personal time.”
His favourite dish he cooked up was one inspired by the Yorkshire moorlands and the film Kes.
“It tied first place and they chose Cal’s The Wild Card because it was more fitted for the banquet but I think that dish was exceptional, I was really proud of it,” Mr Keeble said.
“The way I linked it to the film was to celebrate the habitat of the kestrel and the moorlands. I was trying to pick a brighter side of the film because Kes is quite sad.
“I was celebrating everything about the moorlands; I used nice local ducks, roasted them and layered them with wild mushrooms and fresh preserved figs.
“They were covered in a powder of seven or eight different dried preserved leaves, mushrooms, fruits from the moors, wild garlic, fig leaves, cherries and elderberries that had been picked from the moorlands, pickled in juniper vinegar and utilising the whole duck. I’m still slightly gutted that it didn't win the main course.”
A flood of people messaged Jamie when it was clear he didn’t win the main course.
“I knew when it aired I wouldn’t win the main course,” he said.
“But there was just a flood of people I’ve never met telling me that I should have won and that they think the duck is amazing.
“The food that you put out in a competition and the food you serve as part of a 16-course tasting menu are very different.
“I’m not 100 per cent sure there’s a place for my Great British Menu dessert on my menu.
“The duck would comfortably fit nicely on the menu in some variation and I’m sure plenty of people would like to try it as well. I’ve had so many messages from people asking if they could try the duck.”
Mr Keeble says that there was a good group of contestants and judges this year.
“There was no one that was out to ruin anyone’s day or stitch each other up,” he said.
“I know in previous years there have been people trying to tamper with other people’s stuff but [this year we had] quite a nice group of people.
“At the end of the week we all sat and had a beer together. We all still talk now, we’ve got a group chat.
“It was pretty cool meeting the guest judges like Will Poulter.
“People like Tom Kerridge or Lorna, you bump into them at the Michelin awards or restaurant awards anyway, they’re like a friendly face. So there’s that comfort of knowing people and they are fair at judging.”
The process of preparing for each episode as well as running a Michelin-starred restaurant is a lot of work, Mr Keeble said.
“It’s quite easy to overlook the fact that I run a Michelin-starred restaurant Wednesday to Saturday, I have Sunday off and then practise every Monday and Tuesday,” he said.
“I was doing that for four or five months.
“Then you’re driving down to cook the dishes for a week, you start at six in the morning, getting home at around 7pm or 8pm. Every little bit was me and my work.”
Mr Keeble reflected on his time on the show and how he would approach it next time, though he has no regrets.
“I worked and executed everything that I wanted to in the way I wanted to,” he said.
“There are definitely things I would do differently next time.
“There’s things I recognised that didn’t go down well with the judges or certain methods or techniques I would change.
“But a lot of it is just being conscious that you’re being filmed constantly and it’s a different type of cooking.
“You’ve not got the safety net of your own kitchen, I’ve got guys here [at Myse] that if something is not working, I can say ‘can you grab that’ or ‘let’s fix this’, but [on the show] you’re on your own.”
Before being asked to be the head chef at Myse, Jamie’s dream was to work in Hovingham.
“I’d previously driven through Hovingham a few times, years back,” Mr Keeble said.
“I remember the little river running through it and said to my partner at the time ‘I really want to exist somewhere like this one day’.
“When Josh invited me over to have a look at Myse, it sort of clicked that it was this village that I had been through years before.
“When we won the star we were a really small team, two out at the front, me and Josh cooking, an apprentice, it was pretty intense.
“Back when I was at Lord of the Manor, my first head chef told me ‘don’t worry about money, you need to be head chef Michelin star before you’re 30’ and I was 29.”