The 18 chefs, and two reserves, were selected from their written recipes that had to use one short loin of free-range gilt pork, two fresh pork kidneys, crackling and sweet potatoes.
They were submitted anonymously to the judges, who took part in the recipe judging day at The Waterside Inn earlier this month.
This year, 14 of the 18 finalists are new to the competition and come from establishments as far afield as Scotland and Cornwall.
They will compete in two regional finals which will be held simultaneously on Thursday 7 March at University College Birmingham and University of West London, Ealing.
The chefs competing in London:
Yash Dadlani, Kanishka by Atul Kochhar, London
Max Davies ,The Gordon Ramsay Group, London
Oliver Dovey, Claridge’s Hotel, London
Yiannis Mexis, Hide, London
Ben Miller, Alex Dilling at Hotel Cafe Royal, London
Megan Montibert, L’Enclume, Cumbria
Karol Ploch, Kerridge’s Bar and Grill, London
Jordan Randerson, The Elephant, Devon
Jacob Reilly, Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, London
Darryl Shotlander, The Dysart Petersham, Surrey
Caer Timberlake, Restaurant 22, Cambridge
Rebecca Tough, Vacherin, London
The chefs competing in Birmingham:
Harrison Brockington, Gather Restaurant, Devon
Charlie d’Lima, Crocadon Farm, Cornwall
Steven Halligan, Restaurant Metamorphica, Lancashire
Adam Jones, Horto Restaurant, North Yorkshire
Evelina Stripeikyte, The Glenturret Lalique Restaurant, Scotland
Liam Smith, Restaurant Pine, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
The two chefs in reserve should any finalists not be able to compete are James Plowright from The Bugle in Hampshire, and Kian Puerto-Terron from Bulrush Restaurant in Bristol.
The awards are now in their 40th year, and this year will be judged by a panel that includes Alain Roux, Brian Turner, André Garrett, Rachel Humphrey, Clare Smyth, Adam Smith, Michel Roux Jr, Angela Hartnett, Sat Bains, and Simon Hulstone.