Creating the Randox Grand National Festival Menu

When would you start planning the Randox Grand National Festival 2027 menu?

I usually start scribbling notes, flavours and thoughts during the event itself, while all the produce is in front of me. We then get to work straight away to plan the following year.

How important is seasonality and sustainability when you're creating the menu?

As with all chefs across Levy it is hugely important. For me, seasonality is where the menu starts. I want to use produce when it is at its best but also make sure there is a reason for everything that goes onto the plate, make sure everything compliments the appearance, the flavours and the seasons.

Sustainability isn’t just a box tick exercise either. It’s about using British produce, understanding where it comes from, reducing waste and making the most of what we have. Working at Aintree, we’re serving large numbers of guests, so we have a responsibility to do that properly without compromising on the quality or experience, which I feel has grown from strength to strength every year.

Have you introduced anything new or different this year? If so, what inspired it?

I’d like to think so, I honestly believe year on year personal pride along with customer expectation makes you want to drive and push yourself and the team more, taking familiar British favourites along with seasonal ingredients and giving them a more modern influence.

Inspiration comes from eating out, seeing what other chefs are doing in the industry and quite simply, playing around in the kitchen, experimenting with fermentation, acidity and strong umami flavours have all influenced the way food has been developed in a lot of our dishes.

I think guests are looking for something that feels exciting and different, but it still has to make sense, and they recognise on the plate. The produce has to be the star, the hero, we are just here to give it a little helping hand.

What happens during a menu tasting, from your perspective?

The tasting is where the ideas really start to come alive. You can have something that sounds fantastic on paper, but until you taste it, you don’t really know whether it works.

We’ll look at everything from flavour and texture to balance and presentation, and how the dish actually eats. I’m probably my own worst critic; I’ll taste something and immediately start thinking, could that be sharper, does it need more acidity, is there too much going on?

It’s about taking feedback. A tasting isn’t the time to be precious or pretentious about your dish and being able to separate personal opinion for actual constructive feedback, If something can be better or doesn’t work, we change it. That’s where the final dish normally comes from — a bit of cooking, tasting, tweaking and on some occasions going back to the drawing board and starting again.

How do you decide whether a dish is ready to make the final menu?

I would always take the initial reaction of the kitchen team, then to make sure all dishes on the menu flow with each other and compliment the feel for the menu.

At Aintree as all prestigious events, it also must work at scale. I need to know that we can deliver tasting quality dishes to the masses. It needs to be practical for the kitchen space, sensible but impressive, seasonal, sustainable and consistent.

And probably most importantly, does it give the guest something they’ll remember.

What dish are you most excited about serving at the Randox Grand National Festival in 2027?

I’d say the dessert this year, for the past four years all our desserts are made on site at Aintree and have been plant based and where possible they are allergen free, but this year the flavours and ingredients are a little different and will split opinions maybe.

We also opened a new Pan Asian concept restaurant for the Randox Grand National Festival in 2026, this year intentions are too run a full plant based alternative menu to ensure guests with life choices enjoy the same experience as all guests.

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