Who is Samira Effa? Yorkshire-born EightyEight chef returns to BBC Two's Great British Menu

Two chefs from Yorkshire – Samira Effa and Adam Degg - will feature in the line-up kicking off the new series of BBC Two’s The Great British Menu, heading to TV screens on Tuesday (Jan 23).

The first episode of the show will be the North East and Yorkshire heat with two chefs from Yorkshire and two Geordie chefs battling out with their culinary skills.

They say “third time lucky”, well it might just be as Huddersfield-born Samira Effa is returning to the BBC Two show to compete for the third time, after losing out to Tom Anglesea in Series 14, in 2019, and leaving prematurely in Series 15, in 2020.

Samira started her career in Yorkshire, at Bradley’s restaurant in Huddersfield, and has a wealth of experience having worked at Bohemia (1*) in Jersey, 21212 (1*) in Edinburgh, and Alimentum (1*) in Cambridge.

Samira is currently working at EightyEight, an Asian fusion restaurant at Grantley Hall in North Yorkshire. After being in the industry for over 17 years, Samira says she is still learning and evolving her food style.

With an Iranian mother and Nigerian father, Samira enjoyed a remarkably diverse culinary upbringing, drawing inspiration from her heritage and the various kitchens she has worked in to craft her menus.

In a blog for EightyEight, at Grantley Hall, Samira explained her biggest inspiration came from Paul Kitching when she worked for him at 21212 in Edinburgh when she was just 21 years old.

She explained he was a “very disciplined chef and it was the cleanest kitchen I've ever worked in” which set the bar for her.

This year, as part of the competition, Great British Menu chefs have to devise dishes for a good luck banquet for the British athletes competing later this year in both the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris 2024.

Samira’s menu celebrates the great Olympic athletes from Yorkshire. In the first heat Samira will face off against newcomer, Adam Degg, Cal Byerley from Northumberland, and Newcastle’s Scott John-Hodgson - the head chef at the one Michelin-starred Solstice by Kenny Atkinson.