Mark Aisthorpe: The Bull’s Head chef who worked at Sheffield University to compete on Great British Menu

Rotherham-born chef, Mark Aisthorpe, who owns The Bull’s Head in Derbyshire is appearing in the 17th series of Great British Menu alongside Yorkshire chefs, Bobby Geetha, Liz Cottam and Luke French.

His culinary career began at the University of Sheffield as part of its catering team before he went on to work at Cliveden House and Petrus under Marcus Waering.

Mark managed to finance his very own pub restaurant, where he uses locally sourced produce.

When he cooks, his goal is ‘to give traditional British food the elegance of a contemporary fine dining experience’.

Despite having worked alongside Gordon Ramsay, this will be his first TV appearance and for Mark’s menu honouring 100 years of British broadcasting, his dishes will be inspired by Yorkshire TV shows Heartbeat and Chucklevision.

Mark told the Derbyshire Times that the production team were supportive when it came to his partial deafness and enhanced his experience. He was also born with lung condition, cystic fibrosis.

He practised his menu at The Bull’s Head pub in Chesterfield before filming started, although on TV, chefs have only two hours to cook their meals.

Mark told the Derbyshire Times: “I don’t even like having my photo taken or anything, so the stress levels were like off the scale.

“Our kitchen is all gas and all there’s are induction, so it’s learning to cook in a totally different kitchen, different equipment and I’m like half deaf as well because we filmed through Covid everyone was wearing masks and I lip-read so that was daunting as well.”

The Great British Menu episode will air on BBC Two from Tuesday, March 8 to Thursday, March 10, at 8pm.