Who is chef Dan Andrée on Great British Menu 2026?

As we approach the halfway mark of Great British Menu 2026 on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer, we find out more about chef Dan Andrée, who is competing in the Wales heat.

Dan Andrée is head chef at Afon, the restaurant at Penmaenuchaf Hotel in north Wales.

He took over the role in late 2024, bringing with him a cooking style shaped by seasonality, local produce and a strong sense of place. Before joining Penmaenuchaf, Dan worked at Beach House in Oxwich, where he was a key part of the team under Hywel Griffith.

Early career and move to Penmaenuchaf

Before arriving in north Wales, Dan built his reputation at Beach House, part of the Seren collection, where he worked closely with chef director Hywel Griffith. Dan had been Hywel’s “right-hand man” and had a significant influence on the restaurant’s tasting menus over the previous couple of years.

After joining Beach House in 2020, Dan helped the restaurant retain the Michelin star it first won in 2019. In September 2024, he was announced as the new head chef at Penmaenuchaf, replacing Thomas Hine and relocating to north Wales to oversee the hotel’s kitchens and join its leadership team.

Cooking at Afon

At Penmaenuchaf, Dan leads Afon and the wider kitchen operation, drawing on the dramatic landscape around the hotel for inspiration. His approach centres on high-quality ingredients and locally sourced Welsh produce, with menus shaped by the seasons and the surrounding land and coastline.

That emphasis was clear in his own comments when he joined the hotel, where he said he wanted to create dishes that showcase the finest Welsh ingredients.

His cooking reflects a modern Welsh fine-dining style, with a focus on provenance, regional identity and refined presentation. The move to Penmaenuchaf marked a major step in his career, giving him the chance to lead a kitchen under his own name within the Seren group.

Competition pedigree

Dan is no stranger to competitive cooking. In 2024, he was a semi-finalist in the UK National Chef of the Year awards. The previous year, he was also a finalist in the Wales Chef of the Year competition and won the best dish award.

That competition experience gives him a strong platform heading into Great British Menu, where technical precision, creativity and consistency are all under pressure from the first round.