Luton-born chef hopes to inspire ‘next generation’ as she stars in BBC’s Great British Menu

A chef born and raised in Luton is hoping her cooking skills will inspire the next generation of budding culinary artists as she appears in this week’s episode of Great British Menu.

Fighting for the central region crown, 29-year-old Louisa now lives in Nottingham, but started her culinary career at Barnfield College after completing her studies at the former Ashcroft High School. One of her first jobs was at Menzies Strathmore Hotel where she first began to understand the inner workings of a kitchen.

After years of working in fine dining restaurants, Louisa relocated to Nottingham and made the career-defining decision to apply for MasterChef The Professionals in 2017. She reached the final three and then won MasterChef – The Rematch three years later.

After turning her hand to private dining experiences during the pandemic, Louisa says she is ready for this next challenge as she battles it out to win 2024’s Great British Menu title.

She said: “The brief this year is based on celebrating athletes from past and present and both new and old sports in honour of the Paralympics and Olympics which are being held in Paris.”

The episode, which will air on BBC 2 at 8pm tomorrow, will follow four chefs as they compete with canapes, starters and fish dishes inspired by the Olympics and Paralympics.

Louisa explained: “Being a chef you've got to think out of the box to try and create something that fits the brief - because your food could be amazing but if you don't fit the brief, you're just not going to go far in the competition. It is something really different to what I'm used to, but it challenges you for the best, it's super creative.”

After each episode, a contestant is eliminated from the competition, until one finalist from each region remains. While she would like to reach the final, Louisa said that “it’s not all about winning”.

She explained: “I didn't win the first time and it gave me the motivation to go back and do it again. When you take more risks in life, it makes you more successful, you have to fail to succeed, which is a motto that I live by.”

Meeting and working with chefs like Lisa Allen and Angela Hartnett who inspired Louisa growing up, has been a full circle moment for her, as she hopes to do the same with aspiring cooks. She said: “These chefs are people that I really look up to so to be able to now be in their position and trying to inspire the next generation is just such an amazing thing to be able to do.”

Her advice for anyone trying to get into a culinary career is “take a leap out of your comfort zone and go and do a trial shift somewhere and get some work experience in the kitchen wherever you can”

Louisa added: “Sometimes the first kitchen that you go into isn't the kitchen for you because there's so many different styles of cooking, and there's different styles of kitchens. Take as many opportunities as you can to learn different things to figure out what it is that you're most passionate about.”