Britain's Best Dish is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 daytime cookery show on ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 hosted by Mary Nightingale

Mary Nightingale

Mary Nightingale is an English newsreader and television presenter. She is a newsreader for ITN on ITV News, and presents the cookery series Britain's Best Dish on ITV1.-Education:...

. Amateur cooks from around the UK compete to cook "Britain's Best Dish" and a prize of £10,000. The judges are Ed Baines

Ed Baines

Edward "Ed" Baines is an English chef best known for being a judge on Britain's Best Dish and for being an alternate chef on Sunday Feast with Paul Merrett...

, John Burton Race

John Burton Race

John Burton Race is a British michelin starred chef, television personality and celebrity chef, made famous by the Channel 4 series French Leave and its sequel Return of the Chef and I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.-Biography:John Burton Race, successful Michelin Star chef, television...

 and Jilly Goolden

Jilly Goolden

Jilly Goolden is a British wine critic, journalist and television personality.-Education:Goolden was educated at an independent convent school ,-Career:...

. From October 2011, the competition was rebranded as simply Best Dish with new graphics and a new look studio.

The programme airs weekdays at 5pm. A book containing recipes from the series was published in 2009.

Format

In the regional heats, Monday to Thursday, three pairs of amateur cooks compete every day to produce the best starter, main and pudding with three winners from each course going through to a regional final on Friday. The judges choose the winners each day and also select the finalists to enter the regional final. In later rounds, heats select the best of the regional winners with a guest panel of critics taking on the task of choosing the winning dishes. The contestants are refined down to compete for Britain's best starter, main course and pudding. Of these, viewers then vote to decide the overall winner of the title "Britain's Best Dish" in the series final.

Judging

The judges watch the contestants at work via a videolink and offer their comments on the preparations. The judges now taste the dishes in the presence of the cooks and offer them their comments whereas in earlier series, they tasted the dishes and conferred without the contestants in the studio.

Host

The original host was ex-cricketer and sports presenter Mark Nicholas

Mark Nicholas

Mark Charles Jefford Nicholas is a cricket commentator and former player. He played for Hampshire from 1978 to 1995, captaining them from 1985 to his retirement....

 for series 1 - 4. Mary Nightingale took over as presenter of series 5 in 2011 with the show getting a makeover with shortened opening credits and a refreshed theme tune but staying true to the main format.

Best Dish

In October 2011, the series returned as Best Dish: The Chefs with a new logo (probably due to a male who stated on their Facebook

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

 page that Northern Ireland, although in the logo is not part of Britain geographically) and slicker look with professional chefs competing instead of amateurs. It still concentrates on recipes from around the regions of the UK with short clips showing the restaurants where the competitors work as professional chefs.

Sponsors

The show has been sponsored by the New Covent Garden Soup Company, Uncle Ben's

Uncle Ben's

Uncle Ben's is a brand name for parboiled rice and related food products. The brand was introduced by Converted Rice Inc., which was later bought by Mars, Inc....

 sauces and Red Tractor mark meats. Best Dish is now sponsored by Tesco

Tesco

Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...

 Finest Range.

Former features

The original series was broadcast in the autumn but from series 5, the programme was scheduled to run in the spring.

Auditions

From series 1 to 4, the show contained elements of "reality TV" with clips from regional auditions held around the UK making up a major element of the programme. The judges would taste dishes offered by members of the public attending the regional auditions. They would accept or reject the contestants at these food "auditions". The auditions were filmed in locations from around the UK with regional identities colouring the flavour of these early heats. This "reality show" feature was reduced in series 4 and by series 5 the early rounds of regional "auditions" were dropped from the series altogether and conducted off-air. There was also little mention of regional identities and the clips from the auditions were no longer shown on the programme. By series 6, the main action was concentrated in the kitchen in the studio with the relaunch as Best Dish.

Original series (from series 6 as Best Dish)

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	17 September 2007	26 October 2007	30
2	1 September 2008	24 October 2008	40
3	7 September 2009	30 October 2009	40
4	2 August 2010	24 September 2010	40
5	4 April 2011	27 May 2011	39
6	31 October 2011	23 December 2011	40

Celebrity series

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	23 February 2009	13 March 2009	15
2	30 May 2011	3 June 2011	5

International Broadcasts

In Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, Britain's Best Dish began airing as 'Best Dish' on the Seven Network

Seven Network

The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...

's free-to-air

Free-to-air

Free-to-air describes television and radio services broadcast in clear form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription or one-off fee...

 digital channel 7Two

7Two

7TWO is an Australian free-to-air standard definition digital television channel which was launched by the Seven Network on Sunday 1 November 2009 at 12pm....

at 8.30pm Friday nights in 2009 but as of 12 September 2010 is airing at 5pm weekdays under its full title.