PREVIEW: Great British Menu, BBC Two

Great British Menu returns for another series, starting with the central region heats. Featuring a mix of exciting new talent and one popular returner, the theme for this year's competition is a celebration of British invention and innovation.

The chefs are welcomed to the kitchen, where they prepare canapes, starters and fish courses for the eyes of the week's veteran judge, a former winner who remains a surprise to the chefs until the moment they walk into the kitchen. With one of the four being sent home, the pressure is on to produce something delicious and ingenious.

In the second episode, the three chefs are halfway through their heat, and the pressure is mounting. Once again, they each serve a unique take on the brief celebrating British invention and innovation.

Among the mains are a venison dish in honour of the only British woman to win a Nobel prize in science, a homage to West Midlands manufacturing, and two layered chocolate dishes – one using edible paper as a tribute to Samuel Johnson, the other featuring an ingenious chocolate cross-section of a road inspired by the invention of smooth tarmac. But whose inventions in the kitchen will veteran judge Lisa Goodwin-Allen prefer?

Only two contestants will proceed to Friday’s judging and have a chance to represent the central region at the regional finals.

Guest judge Helen Sharman, Britain’s first astronaut, helps decide the winner from the two remaining chefs. Both have dishes themed around space, but whose will rocket them to success?

Great British Menu returns Wednesday 24th March at 8pm on BBC Two.