GREAT British Menu viewers were up in arms last night after the show subtitled partially deaf chef Mark Aisthorpe.
The Derbyshire chef is battling it out to represent the North East and Yorkshire at a banquet meal celebrating 100 years of the BBC.
Viewers questioned the use of subtitles, insisting they were patronising and unnecessary given they could understand Mark without them.
One wrote on Twitter: “Providing subtitles for a partially deaf chef who speaks clear English is shameful. There are much worse speakers on TV who done get subtitles. #GreatBritishMenu.”
Another posted: “Just a bit of #CasualAbelism from greatbritishmenu only subtitling the partially deaf chef. 
Super patronising too as it’s totally unnecessary.”
A third said: “It’s great to have a deaf chef on #GreatBritishMenu – he may need to lipread but I can understand Mark perfectly well without the subtitles, no need to patronise either him or us.”
Mark, who has worked with heavyweight chefs Gordon Ramsay and Marcus Wareing, brought plenty of fun to the kitchen.
His Chucklevision inspired fish dish brought a smile to viewers’ faces, especially when he pulled a “to you, to me” prank on veteran chef Michael O’Hare.
While Mark rated the dish a nine, his fellow competitors Luke French, Liz Cottam and Bobby Geetha weren’t as impressed, giving it a six.
However, he did enough to make it to tonight’s show, with Bobby being eliminated.
Revealing why he decided to take part in the competition, Mark told the Derbyshire Telegraph: “I got an email from the production team asking if I’d be interested in taking part in the Great British Menu and we half thought they were joking because we had been talking about it in the kitchen before.
“You can’t say no when you’re in this industry so I was really interested but didn’t hear anything for months then I got down to the last two, did a few zoom calls and then got the email saying I’d been chosen to represent the North East.”
