Series one and two were presented by Jennie Bond, the former BBC Royal correspondent, whereby each week, two chefs from a region of the UK create a menu.

In series three and four, both narrated by Bond but with no presenter, three chefs from a region of the UK create a menu; only the two with the best scores went through to the Friday judging.

The Guardian critic Karina Mantavia in May 2007 criticised the public vote system as incompatible to food that viewers could see onscreen but not taste in-person.

[1] Starting from series five, a fourth judge, usually either a veteran chef or a guest related to a brief, is introduced, replacing public vote.

[4] On 6 September 2021, it was announced that the whole judging panel would be changed with Matthew Fort and Oliver Payton leaving after being on the show since the beginning and Rachel Khoo after one series.

The new judging panel will consist of former GBM champion Tom Kerridge, chef and restaurateur Nisha Katona and comedian and food podcaster Ed Gamble.

This involved the four winning chefs creating a four course Christmas dinner that viewers could prepare at home.

Unlike the original series, only one chef was able to be crowned the winner and there was no special prize at stake (i.e. the meal would not be cooked for the Queen).

The chefs competed for the opportunity to cook a four-course dinner held in June 2008, at the restaurant at the top of the iconic "Gherkin" building in London.

The series began with seven special programmes in which Great British Menu judge Matthew Fort travelled around the UK, selecting the two chefs who would go through to represent their region in the competition.

[8] Series 4 began on 30 March 2009 and revolved around cooking a meal for British service personnel (sailors/marines/soldiers/airmen and women) returning from the War in Afghanistan.

Instead of being ranked from first to eighth place, the top three chefs were all given a possible dish at the banquet, thus allowing the judges to have more choice when choosing the menu at the end of the week.

A one-off, 90 minute documentary-style programme was broadcast in December 2010, Great British Waste Menu was made to highlight and discourage food wastage in Britain.

In addition to showing several examples of such wastage, the programme challenged four chefs (GBM regulars Richard Corrigan and Angela Hartnett, plus Matt Tebbutt and Simon Rimmer) to create a three-course menu plus canapes from food destined to be discarded by producers, supermarkets, restaurants and regular households.

The theme for the series was sharing and communities,[10] with chefs being asked to cook food that encouraged people to come together.

Unlike previous finals weeks, the judges eliminated some dishes based on their performance in the previous round; unless the chefs had made significant changes in response to the feedback received at the regional final, the judges did not wish to taste and score the unsuitable course a second time.

The Olympic banquet was shown in the final show, which was broadcast on 8 June, with all four dishes being prepared and presented for 100 guests.

Daniel Clifford was the first person to win the main course with chicken Series 8 of The Great British Menu, titled Great British Menu Does Comic Relief, commenced on 28 January 2013, with the banquet hosted for people associated with the Comic Relief charity event, held at the Royal Albert Hall.

The final week saw the winning eight chefs battle for their dishes to be part of the final banquet menu, but in the main course, the judges added a ninth "wild card" chef, the defeated Central area finalist, Richard Bainbridge, as they thought that his dish was worthy enough to be included for the banquet.

The Comic Relief banquet was shown in the final show, which was broadcast on 29 March, with all five dishes being prepared and presented for 80 guests.

The D-Day banquet was shown in the final show, which was broadcast on 6 June, with all four dishes being prepared and presented for the veterans and special guest, David Cameron.

On 10 June 2015, it was announced that Series 10 of Great British Menu would be broadcast "later in the summer" with the chefs battling it out to cook a course at the banquet at Drapers' Hall in London to celebrate 100 years of the Women's Institute.

The 2018 Great British Menu was about celebrating 70 years of the National Health Service (NHS), with 24 chefs attempting to win a place on the final banquet menu, to cook "A Feast To Say Thank You" for people of the NHS to be held in the Great Hall of St Bartholomew's Hospital.

In the 2019 Great British Menu, 24 chefs competed to serve a course at Abbey Road Studios for the 50th anniversary of the last time that The Beatles played together.

As in the previous series, all eight chefs cooked all their menus and each course winner was picked at the end of each day.

[18] The theme for the series was children's literature with the banquet due to be held at Exeter College, Oxford, and each region had its own sub-theme towards the brief.

[20] Twelve previous winners of the show competed to cook their dishes for a six-course banquet originally located at York Hospital.

The theme of the competition was innovation, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Sir Tim Berners-Lee creation of the World Wide Web.

[28] In a minor departure from recent series the canapés were served on board the Eurostar taking the guests to Paris and there was no pre-dessert course.

Tom Kerridge and Ed Gamble return as judges, along with new chef Lorna McNee who replaces Nisha Katona.