Top Liverpool chef takes historic Pancake Race crown

Held in the gardens of Liverpool Parish Church, the annual race is designed to see how the city's top chefs stack up, as they have to complete three laps of the lovely green space whilst flipping a pancake. Our video journalist, Emily Bonner, headed to the gardens to see who would be crowned Liverpool’s pancake race champion.

This year, twelve chefs took part in the four-decade-old contest, in a bid to win the traditional engraved pancake pan, presented by the Rector of Liverpool.

 Lunya's Alex Hopkins has a record in the race, securing a hat trick in 2024. A welcome relief for this year’s contestants, he didn’t take part this Pancake Day, but the rules did change slightly - as well as doing laps around the garden, each chef had to make a pancake in advance and add three toppings at a topping station.

The pancakes had to be thick enough to withstand the outdoors, light enough to be flipped cleanly while running, and could not fall from the pan. Once the chefs reached the flip zones, they had to stop and flip their pancakes no more than three times before continuing.

After some hectic heats and a really tough final round, Seb from Ma Boyle’s was crowned champion. He told LiverpoolWorld: “You know what, after phase one, I knew what my tactic was going to be. So push for the first two laps and then just pick up all the ingredients on the last.”