Fourteen of the country’s top chefs, including Gary Rhodes, Antony Worrall Thompson and Marcus Wareing, are competing to be selected for the BBC’s latest major project: The Great British Menu. The prize – to cook a meal for the Queen of Britain on the occasion of her 80th birthday.

These people are all desperate to be mentioned in the birthday honours list. This is the best shot they have at it.

Their efforts will be judged by cookery experts Matthew Fort, a leading authority on food, Prue Leith, author of the Cookery Bible, and Oliver Peyton, former owner of Atlantic Bar and Grill. The four winners will present an 80th birthday lunch for the Queen and Prince Philip at London’s Mansion House on 15 June.

‘In the past 10 years, there has been a massive shift in Britain in terms of appreciating good food, but there’s a long way left to go when it comes to valuing the history of our cuisine,’ Fort said. ‘But if our food culture is to evolve, it is vital we educate ourselves about our history.’

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Over eight weeks, two chefs from each British region will go head-to-head, scouring their area for the best local produce and crafting what they believe to be the perfect four-course menu from traditional recipes. The judges will narrow the dishes down to a select few and the final menu will be voted for by the public.

‘I have to admit that I knew shamefully little about regional produce until relatively recently,’ said Gary Rhodes, who is fighting the corner for the south east of England against Atul Kochhar, chef-proprietor at London’s Benares restaurant. ‘My education on what the regions have to offer began while I was filming Rhodes Around Britain.’ Rhodes, whose menu will feature turbot, oysters, duck and Kentish apple mousse, added: ‘Now I’m obsessed. I believe that we have the finest produce in the world in this region. We need to stop looking abroad for our food and start concentrating on what we have at home.’

Galton Blackiston, award-winning chef of Morston Hall in Norfolk, who will represent eastern England in the series, has always been passionate about local produce and works with his local council to spread the word among schoolchildren and their parents.

‘Our nation has a massive problem with food. Adults with no idea at all about healthy eating are bringing up their young children to be equally ignorant,’ said Blackiston, who will court the Queen with asparagus, North Sea bass, roast lamb and quince tart. ‘Urban food knowledge is disappearing, which means people could stop buying it. If that happens, it will eventually cease to be grown and that would be a national tragedy.’

John Burton Race, chef at the New Angel restaurant in Dartmouth, Devon, will represent the south west of England in the BBC2 series, alongside Michael Caines, the two-Michelin-starred chef from Gidleigh Park, Devon. Race would happily construct his restaurant menus entirely around local produce if, he said, customers did not demand certain dishes that require him to shop elsewhere. ‘I have to offer dishes that use ingredients that can’t be produced in this region, but as a chef I don’t like doing it,’ said Race, who hopes to offer the Queen a menu of crab salad, warmed asparagus, a fillet of local lamb and Dittisham plum tart.

Customer expectations frequently create problems for restaurants that strive to showcase local produce, says Simon Rimmer, chef-proprietor of Greens restaurant in Manchester and best-selling cookery author. He will defend the north’s culinary reputation with a menu featuring potted shrimps from Southport, Lyth Valley damson bread-and-butter pudding, and local cheeses, to see off competition from fellow northerner Marcus Wareing, chef at London’s Savoy Grill.

‘When southerners think of the north, they imagine a people who barely know how to use a knife and fork, much less have any appreciation of the restaurant culture,’ he said . ‘We have compounded the assumption that our food revolves entirely around pie and peas by sticking up for regional dishes such as Lancaster hotpot and Eccles cakes. But I have eaten hotpot that beats any beef bourguignon recipe or lasagna hands down.’

When it comes to convincing the rest of the country that their cuisine is worth eating, other competitors admit their regions suffer a similar inferiority complex combined with a large serving of good old British reticence.

Bryn Williams, of Terence Conran’s Orrery restaurant, interviewed his grandmother about dishes she used to eat as a child before settling on a menu featuring a soup of locally caught mussels, cockles and whelks, Welsh black beef with a sauce made from regional red wine, and a pudding of rhubarb from his own garden and a jelly of buttermilk. ‘Wales doesn’t make anything like enough noise about its fantastic produce,’ said Williams, who will be competing against Angela Hartnett, chef at Petrus Banquette at London’s Connaught Hotel, who shot to national attention as the tough but fair chef in Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen. ‘We know we produce some of the best ingredients in the country on our very doorsteps but we don’t promote that fact. Our meat and vegetables have a fantastic purity and flavour that come from growing in high altitudes where the air, water and ground are fresher than anywhere else in the country. We also have secret ingredients, like the herbs that are unique to us because they only grow in forests over 1,000 years old.’

Nick Nairn and Tom Lewis will represent Scotland in the series, which will start on 10 April, with Paul Rankin and Richard Corrigan appearing for Northern Ireland. Fort hopes the programme will not only inspire the regions to shout louder about their produce but inspire all cooks to brush up on their local knowledge: ‘The joy that can be gained from learning the culinary secrets of our isle could open a whole new chapter of excitement for any cook worth their salt.’