Theo Randall

Theo Randall's passion for food developed from childhood holidays spent driving through rural Italy, and his cooking remains inspired predominantly by Italian regional cuisine. Theo started his career in 1986 with a four-year stint at Chez Max in Surbiton, where he was classically trained by chef and owner Max Magarian. He then spent ten years at the River Café, earning the restaurant a Michelin star along the way, and was eventually invited to become a partner in the company. In 2006, Theo opened Theo Randall at the Intercontinental in London.

Ben O'Donoghue

Ben O’Donoghue started off his career working in a number of restaurants in his native Australia. Upon arriving in the UK, he hit the ground running by working at The River Café in London. Since then, Ben has worked as a consultant and food stylist to Jamie Oliver, and has assisted Jamie at various catering functions, including cooking for Tony Blair and the Italian Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street in 2001. Ben lived in the UK for 13 years before returning to Australia.
When not in the kitchen Ben is frequently working at his laptop writing a regular column for Delicious Magazine in Australia as well as writing cookbooks with Hardie Grant Books, 'Outdoor: Grill Your Way Round the World' was released in October 2008, with the second edition Ben's Barbeque released in August 2009.

Nathan Outlaw

Nathan Outlaw, who grew up in Kent, always wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, also a chef, with whom he started cooking at the age of 14. Far from being a soft touch, his dad piled on the pressure to introduce his son to the reality of restaurant life.
After training, Nathan worked under mentors including Gary Rhodes, John Campbell and Rick Stein, whose restaurant brought him to Cornwall. Here, he would open his own venture, the Black Pig. Within eight months, his restaurant had earned Nathan, aged just 25, his first Michelin star; another swiftly followed.
Nathan has remained in Cornwall, as head chef at a luxury B&B and various hotel restaurants. He describes his cooking style as clean and simple British cuisine that uses the best local produce.

Jo' Pratt

Jo Pratt is a food stylist, writer, presenter and home economist. As former food writer for ELLE magazine, writing and featuring in her own food pages, Jo is now Food Editor for GLAMOUR magazine. Named as one of Waterstone’s “Authors for the Future”, her first book – The Nation’s Favourite Food was published by BBC Books in 2003, and her second book In The Mood For Food hit the shelves in February 2007 to rave reviews. Jo’s third book, In The Mood For Entertaining was published also by Penguin, summer 2009. Book number four is currently in the process of being written.
Jo’s experience has resulted in her recipes being featured in numerous places including Saturday Mail Weekend Magazine, Sainsbury’s magazine, Olive magazine, BBC Good Food magazine and on the BBC Food, Good Food Channel and Good To Know websites. As well as being in print and online, Jo and her recipes have featured on many TV shows such as Saturday Kitchen, Great Food Live, Taste, Soapstar Superchef and Market Kitchen. She has become a regular guest chef on ITV’s Daily Cooks Challenge.

Nigel Slater

Born in Wolverhampton, Nigel Slater began cooking at an early age. He worked in restaurants around the country from the age of 16, then moved to London and became a recipe tester and a cook for food photography.
Nigel Slater is one of Britain's best-loved cookery writers. Despite having written for food magazines since 1988, first at Marie Claire Magazine, then for the Observer, then in his own recipe books, it took a long time before he could be persuaded to transfer his skills to TV.
Nigel has published several recipe books, the first of which was Real Fast Food, published in 1993. His food writing has won him numerous awards, and his autobiography, Toast: A Story of a Boy's Hunger, earned him a Glenfiddich Award.

Sophie Dahl

Sophie Dahl grew up in the midst of a greedy extended family, whose members all loved to cook and eat. Despite building a successful modelling career, Sophie eventually left the catwalk and instead followed in her grandfather Roald’s footsteps and dedicated herself to writing.
After the success of both a novella and a full-length novel, Sophie published her first cookery book, Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights, in 2009. The recipes were inspired by Sophie’s childhood memories and the travelling she did as a model. Some of the book’s recipes were brought to the screen for BBC2’s The Delicious Miss Dahl, broadcast the following year. Sophie lives in London and is a regular contributor to both fashion and food magazines.

Heston Blumenthal

Heston Marc Blumenthal OBE (born 27 May 1966 in London, raised in Buckinghamshire) is an English chef and owner of The Fat Duck, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Bray, Berkshire voted Best Restaurant in the UK by The Good Food Guide 2007 and 2009, and voted best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine in 2005.
Heston Blumenthal is chef-patron of The Fat Duck in Bray, a three Michelin-starred restaurant known for its whimsical, scientific and creative style of cookery and famed for being named World’s Best Restaurant more than once.
Heston opened The Fat Duck in 1995 with no financial backing. On the second day of opening the oven exploded, and Heston spent the rest of service with a bag of frozen peas on his head. Gradually, the restaurant eventually moved from serving simple French bistro food to the innovative, rule-breaking, multi-sensory tasting menu it serves today. Perhaps what is most extraordinary about the success of The Fat Duck is that Heston is entirely self-taught, save for three weeks spent in a few professional kitchens.