Michael Caines

Michael Caines was born in Exeter in 1969 and adopted into a large and loving family. He gained his passion for food from his mother who he used to enjoy helping in the kitchen. Michael attended Exeter Catering College where his precocious talent was already evident, earning him the accolade ‘Student of the Year' in 1987.
Michael Caines is one of Britain's most acclaimed chefs. AA Chef's Chef of the Year in 2007, and awarded an MBE in 2006 for services to the hospitality industry, Michael is an Operational Partner and Director of ABode Hotels and Michael Caines Restaurants, in overall charge of all food and beverage operations throughout the fast-growing group.Since February 2009, he is also Executive Chef at The Bath Priory, Bath, Gidleigh Park's sister establishment.

Merrilees Parker

Merrilees Parker (born 11 August 1971) is a British celebrity chef and TV presenter. She is mainly known for presenting television programmes combining food and travel (Planet Food and Full on Food) as well as various more traditional cookery programmes. Parker is also renowned for the menu she presented working for the pub The Lansdowne in Primrose Hill in London.
Parker's distinguishing characteristics are her no-nonsense cooking style and her passionate method of presenting. Many of her recipes are freely available online.
Parker's presenting style is passionate, open and positive. In her travel documentaries she tastes local foods even if they may sometimes look unappealing to western eyes. She does not believe eating from street restaurants is risky: if something is cooked in front of you in a hot wok it's less likely to give you food poisoning than something that has been sitting on a lukewarm buffet.

Martin Blunos

Martin Lauris Blunos (born 1960-04-11) is a British TV chef. Blunos earned two Michelin Guide stars for each of his two restaurants.His cooking style is influenced by his half Russian half Latvian mother. He did a spell at the Strand Palace Hotel in London, a season in Switzerland and went on many a cruise on a Greek tycoon's yacht before settling down in a job at Lampwick's in Battersea, London.
His first restaurant as chef and owner was Lettonie (French for Latvia) in Bristol, which opened 1988 with a Franco-British style of cooking with some Eastern European elements. He earned his first Michelin star there in 1992, and a second in 1994.[1] In 1997 he moved Lettonie to larger premises in Bath where he was assisted by James Tanner. He is Executive Chef at Hurst House on the Marsh, Laugharne, West Wales.

Mary Berry

Mary Berry is one of the best-known and respected cookery writers and broadcasters in the UK. She started her career as cookery editor of Housewife magazine and later moved to Ideal Home magazine. Since then she has presented and appeared as a guest in countless television series and has written more than 40 cookery books, many of which have sold in their hundreds of thousands.
Mary describes her cooking style as 'family' - practical, healthy recipes that use a little less animal fat and incorporate lots of fresh ingredients. In June 2009, Mary was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Guild of Food Writers.When Mary is not busy working as a broadcaster, she works with her daughter Annabel on the Mary Berry & Daughter Salad Dressings and Sauces, which they launched in 1994.

Mark Hix

Mark Hix moved to London aged 18 to work in the Hilton’s staff canteen: four years later he became head chef at the Candlewick Room Restaurant. His next break was becoming head chef at celebrity haunt Le Caprice; he was eventually named chef-director of Caprice Holdings, the restaurant’s parent company. Mark opened his first restaurant, Hix Oyster and Chop House, near London's Smithfield Market, in 2008. Other eponymous restaurants have followed, mostly located in London.
Mark has written several acclaimed books on British food. He won the Glenfiddich Newspaper Cookery Writer of the Year award in 2003 and was voted Best Cookery Writer by the Guild of Food Writers in 2005. His book, British Seasonal Food, won the Guild of Food Writers' Cookery Book of the Year award in 2009.

Maria Elia

Inspired by her experience cooking in her Greek Cypriot father's restaurant, Maria  Elia always had her heart set on becoming a chef. After a rigorous apprenticeship in some of London's leading kitchens, Maria took positions in a wide range of restaurants and cookery schools in the UK and abroad, including Bangkok’s Oriental Cooking School, El Bulli in Spain, and a job as chef on a private yacht. Maria’s travels informed her classes at London’s Authentic Ethnic Cooking School and provided inspiration during her ten-year tenure as head chef at London's Delfina restaurant.
Maria makes regular appearances on Ready Steady Cook, where she showcases her no-fuss cooking style and eclectic take on seasonal ingredients.

Marcus Wareing

Born in Lancashire, Marcus Wareing’s restaurant career started at The Savoy in London when he was 18. From there he moved to Le Gavroche to work alongside Albert Roux, then fine-tuned his expertise in classic French cooking in international hotels and resorts. In 1993 Marcus began working alongside Gordon Ramsay at London’s Aubergine – it was the start of a long-running professional relationship between the two chefs.
In 1999 he opened Pétrus in London's Knightsbridge, which won a Michelin star within seven months. In 2008 Marcus re-opened the restaurant as chef patron and owner. ‘Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley’ has retained two Michelin stars and five AA rosettes. Marcus has won a string of awards, including GQ chef of the year 2009, AA chef of the year 2009 and in 2010 Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley was named London’s Best Restaurant by Harden’s.

Lorraine Pascale

After several years in the modelling business, Lorraine Pascale decided to look for a new passion and enrolled to study for the year-long Leith’s Diploma of Food and Wine.
Lorraine then did a two-year foundation degree in International Culinary Arts in Pastry and worked in some of the most renowned kitchens in the world, including Petrus, The Mandarin Oriental, Gilgamesh and The Wolseley, later starting her own business making celebration cakes. Lorraine’s first TV series is BBC Two’s Baking Made Easy.
Viewers will be able to watch Lorrraine discuss her love of good food, while she expertly prepares a wide selection of recipes (baking isn’t just about cakes, there are lots of savoury dishes as well) and talks about her love of baking. The book launched alongside the show and shot straight to the top 3 in Amazon’s Food & Drink bestsellers list.

Manju Malhi

Manju Malhi was raised in North West London where she grew up surrounded by Indian culture, traditions and lifestyles. She comes from a non-conformist Asian family. Her parents moved to England in the late sixties at a time when things were tough, not only for the host community but for people who were coming from the Indian sub-continent in search of a better life. As an Asian girl growing up in West London, she was bullied at school and sought solace in cooking which she learnt from her mother. She spent several years of her childhood in India where she explored and experienced the vast and varied cuisines of the country. In her cooking, she draws up on her past and combines it with the realities of urban Western life and has come up with her own unique Brit-Indi style of food. It’s easy Indian homecooking. She won the BBC’s Food and Drink competition in 1999 and cooked with Antony Worrall Thompson on BBC2, and was invited back a second time.

Madhur Jaffrey

Madhur Jaffrey (born 13 August 1933) is an Indian actress, who has also found fame as a food writer, introducing the Western world to the many cuisines of India.Born in Delhi, Madhur Jaffrey came to London aged 19 to study drama at RADA and pursue her passion for acting. It was here that she learnt to cook, effectively by correspondence: while in London, she desperately missed home-cooked food, so her mother would send her recipes.
Madhur acted in TV, film and radio productions in England, then headed to New York, where she wrote food articles to supplement her income and fund her children’s education. This foray into food writing led to hugely successful books and accompanying TV programmes, made popular due to Madhur’s straight-talking approach.

Lotte Duncan

Lotte Duncan is a skilled and highly experienced broadcaster. Recognised as a leading authority on English cooking, Lotte approaches all television presenting with a light, humorous touch. Lotte started out on television by presenting three of her own series - Simply Puddings, Feast Days and Holidays and Quick Cooks on Carlton. Guest appearances also include Channel 4’s The Richard and Judy Show, Ready Steady Cook, Battle of the Chefs, Channel 5’s Open House with Gloria Hunniford, Quick Cooks, Eastenders Revisited, BBC1’s Value for Money, Animal Park, Club Vegetarian, Ideal Home Cooks with Nanette Newman, and Kate Humble’s Webwise programme, where she told the world a thing or two about Tudor food.
She has recently started her own blog entitled Kitchen Chronicles. Her first book, Lotte’s Country Kitchen will be published by Absolute in Spring 2010.

Levi Roots

Keith Valentine Graham (born 24 June 1958), better known as Levi Roots, is a British-Jamaican reggae musician, television personality, celebrity chef, businessman and multi-millionaire currently residing in Brixton, South London. He has performed with James Brown and Maxi Priest and was nominated for a Best Reggae Act MOBO award in 1998. He was a friend of Bob Marley when he resided in the UK and performed "Happy Birthday Mr. President" for Nelson Mandela in 1992 on his trip to Brixton. He gained widespread fame after appearing on the UK television programme Dragons' Den where he gained £50,000 funding for his "Reggae Reggae Sauce".
Levi had a television cooking show, Caribbean Food Made Easy, on BBC2, with a book of the same name publishing in August 2009. The show follows Levi as he travels the UK and Jamaica demonstrating easy ways to cook Caribbean food at home.

Lesley Waters

Lesley Waters (born 3 April 1961) is an English celebrity chef. She regularly appears on such cookery programmes as Ready Steady Cook, and is currently one of the featured chefs on This Morning. London born, she studied French Cuisine at Ealing College for three years, before cooking in top hotels, and winning awards including a scholarship to the Hotel Intercontinental in Düsseldorf. She then joined Prue Leith's restaurant, where she was promoted to senior chef. She then worked as a freelance corporate chef and caterer for government officials before joining Leith’s School of Food and Wine as an instructor, rising to head teacher.Waters started in television in 1989 on various cable TV shows, before Ready Steady Cook and This Morning.

Kevin Woodford

Kevin Woodford, BA (Hons), MHCIMA, Cert ED (born 4 June 1950) is a Manx celebrity chef, actor, television presenter, businessman, hotelier and former restaurateur.He originally trained as a chef and then moved into education as a lecturer in professional cookery. After gaining a higher degree in the Management of Organisations he returned to education as Head of Hotel and Catering Studies at a Granville College in Sheffield.
He was a Senior Examiner for City and Guilds Professional Cookery Examinations, judge at several International Cookery Competitions and worked as a hotel and restaurant consultant for various national and some International organisations.
Woodford owned a restaurant in Douglas, Isle of Man for several years. In 2009 he developed a small boutique hotel called Birchfield House in Douglas, It has received wide acclaim and has since been awarded 5 stars and a Gold Award from the 'VisitBritain' Organisation.

Kenny Atkinson

Born and bred in Newcastle, Kenny Atkinson left school at 16 and fell into cooking after a stint working with his uncle in the kitchens of a local hotel. Once he’d qualified as a chef, he went to cook in Greece, then worked his way up the ranks in kitchens around the UK. He quickly proved his worth, winning Michelin stars soon after joining restaurants in the Scilly Isles and County Durham. Kenny's heart is firmly rooted in the north-east: his classical British food with a modern twist champions locally sourced produce.

Ken Hom

Ken Hom was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona – his Cantonese parents emigrated to the US in the 1920s. Ken learnt to cook from the age of eleven when he started working in his uncle’s Chinese restaurant in Chicago after school and at weekends. In those days he earned around the equivalent of 30p per hour.In order to help pay his University fees he gave cooking lessons which proved so popular that he was recommended to the Culinary Academy.
When the BBC was looking for a Chinese chef to produce a new series he was recommended by Madhur Jaffrey who had seen him giving lessons in California.Ken is now regarded as the world’s leading authority in Chinese cookery and has cooked for many heads of state.

Keith Floyd

Keith Floyd was born at an early age and educated at Wellington School in Somerset. In a chequered career, he was an army officer, a journalist, a dishwasher, a bartender, a cook, a restaurateur, with restaurants in France, Spain, Britain and currently Thailand. He wrote at least 25 books, presented about 20 television series, which are still being shown in over 40 countries worldwide and had recently toured the country with his award winning one man show ‘Floyd Uncorked’. He lived in Provence near Avignon.
During his career, Keith wrote more than 25 books and presented about 20 television series, where he captivated viewers with his special brand of humour. Keith died at his partner's Dorset home in September 2009 after a lengthy illness.

Phil Vickery

Born in Folkestone, Kent, Phil Vickery trained at restaurants in the Lake District before working at Gravetye Manor in West Sussex and Restaurant 74 in Canterbury. Phil’s TV career starter after filling in once for Keith Floyd on the Breakfast Programme, and over the past 15 years he has appeared on the BBC ‘Holiday Programme’, ‘Ready Steady Cook’, ‘Proof Of The Pudding’, his own series ‘Phil Vickery’s Pudding Club’ and of course ‘This Morning’, presenting live and pre-recorded cookery items.
Between his TV work and writing – Phil’s written 8 books, including his most recent, ‘Seriously Good Gluten-Free Cookery’ and ‘Seriously Good Gluten-Free Baking’ – he finds time to farm and spends many hours working on the land and with his livestock.

Peter Gordon

New Zealand-born Peter Gordon is renowned as a leading light of the Antipodean East-West 'fusion' style of cookery. He began his career at the age of 17 as an apprentice in Melbourne; with this grounding he spent a year travelling around South-east Asia, India and Nepal, during which time he developed his signature cooking style.
Peter rode into London on the success of his stint as head chef at New Zealand’s original Sugar Club. When the restaurant branched out to Notting Hill, Peter was appointed head chef and the restaurant picked up a Time Out award only a year later.
In 1999, Peter set up London’s Providores and Tapa Room to critical and public acclaim, as well as launching the charity event Who's Cooking Dinner? in aid of leukaemia research. He is involved in restaurants in Auckland, London, Istanbul and New York, either as a consultant chef or co-owner, and leads various cooking demonstrations.

Sophie Michell

Sophie Michell has been passionate about cooking since she was a child and started working in professional kitchens at the tender age of 14. After qualifying as a chef, Sophie worked in London's The Greenhouse, The Lanesborough, and The Embassy. She was nominated for the Young Chef of the Year Award by The Craft Guild of Chefs when she was just 19. Sophie worked as family chef for supermodel Claudia Schiffer for two years; she then went on to appear in various cookery programmes and wrote her first cookbook, Irresistible. Later, she went back to the kitchen as executive chef for London catering company, Salt and Pepper Food Design. She also does consultancy work.

John Torode

John Torode (born 23 July 1965) is an Australian-born British celebrity chef specialising in Australasian food. He runs Smiths of Smithfield and several other restaurants scattered throughout London's Smithfield market. John began his career in London, where he worked at several restaurants in the Conran Group, eventually becoming head chef. John has been credited with introducing Australasian food to the UK in the mid-1990s and is an enthusiast of rare-breed meat and organic food and farming. His restaurants in London are dedicated to serving top-quality meat and poultry; as such, he has built relationships with many small farmers across the UK who supply the very best produce to his restaurants. John is also a well-known food writer and TV presenter.

Paul Rankin

Paul Rankin (born 1 October 1959) is a Scottish born, Northern Irish celebrity chef from Ballywalter, County Down, Northern Ireland. Born in Glasgow, Scotland his parents moved back to Ballywater, where he grew up. This was stated when he was the subject of an episode of a short programme named Proud Parents on Channel 4, made in 2006. On the episode of Ready Steady Cook first broadcast on Tuesday 26 February 2008, he himself stated he was born in Scotland.In 2006, Paul appeared on The X Factor: Battle Of The Stars, along with fellow chefs Jean-Christophe Novelli, Aldo Zilli and Ross Burden.He has also appeared on the TV programme Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is(TV Series)

Paul Merrett

Paul Merrett is a chef and TV personality based in Godalming who is known for being a frequent guest chef on Saturday Kitchen, a resident chef on Sunday Feast, and starred in The Best (UK TV series) along with Silvana Franco and Ben O'Donoghue. Paul Merrett owns and runs the Victoria Pub and Dining Rooms in Sheen. He has been awarded a Michelin star twice, and is the author of Using the Plot: Tales of an Allotment Chef (2008).
Paul Merrett spent the first three years of his career as an apprentice chef at the Ritz in London’s Piccadilly. Over the following ten years Paul worked for many top chefs including Peter Kromberg and Gary Rhodes.In 2005 Paul was involved in the set up and launch of The Fulham gastro pub The Farm. Having taken a break in early 2008 to write his first book, Paul acquired, refurbished and relaunched The Victoria Public House, Dining Room and Hotel near Richmond Park in West London.

Paul Hollywood

Paul Hollywood has succeeded in building a reputation as one of the best known Artisan bakers in the UK – having worked during his career as Head Baker in some of the most exclusive hotels, Cliveden, the Chester Grosvenor, The Dorchester and also abroad for six years at the Annabelle and Anassa Resorts in Cyprus.
In 1999 Paul returned to England to begin a successful career a a ‘Celebrity Chef’, co-hosting his own programmes with James Martin for the Carlton food network and CFN Taste. He has also made personal appearances on popular TV programmes ‘Richard and Judy’, ‘The Heaven and Earth Show’, ‘This Morning’ and ‘Ready Steady Cook’, educating viewers on how to bake traditional breads.

Paul Gayler

Paul Gayler is one of the finest of the new generation of British chefs and is known for is 'Eurasian' cuisine...As Executive Chef at London's prestigious Lanesborough Hotel on Hyde Park, Paul leads a brigade of thirty-five chefs. He calls his style 'Eurasian', combining European techniques with flavours of the Orient. He is well known as one of the first chefs in London to create specifically catered dishes for vegetarians. He's had his own TV series and contributed to many others.

Silvena Rowe

Silvena Rowe was born and raised in Bulgaria, but has lived in London since 1986. She is the executive chef for the Baltic Restaurant Group, which includes the London restaurants Baltic, Wodka and Chez Kristoff. A regular guest on the BBC's Saturday Kitchen, Silvena is also known for her cookery demonstrations, having worked as a cookery teacher at Mosimann’s Academy of Culinary Excellence, Baker and Spice, and Books for Cooks, all in London. Silvena also works as food consultant and recipe developer for a major British food retailer and was food consultant and designer for David Cronenberg's London-based film, Eastern Promises.

Gregg Wallace

Gregg Allan Wallace (born 17 October 1964 is an English writer, media personality and former greengrocer, costermonger and farmer. He is probably best known for co-presenting MasterChef, Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals on BBC Two and BBC One along with John Torode, where he is referred to as an "ingredients expert". He has referred to himself jokingly as just: "the fat, bald bloke on Masterchef who likes pudding".
Wallace was born in Peckham and began his career selling vegetables at a stand in Covent Garden. He started George Allan’s Greengrocers in 1989, a company that built up to an eventual turnover of £7.5 million. Due to his success he was invited to co-present Veg Talk on BBC Radio 4 with Charlie Hicks for seven years. He was the original presenter of Saturday Kitchen from 2002 until he was replaced by Antony Worrall Thompson in 2003.

Patrick Williams

Patrick Williams is a chef with a mission – to introduce the British public to the tantalising smells and tastes of the Caribbean and change the misapprehension that Caribbean food is searingly hot and too stodgy. In his kitchen he creates delectable lightly spiced twists on British classics. A rising star of the London restaurant scene, Patrick has written The Caribbean Cook and has appeared on many popular TV shows.
Before opening his own restaurant, The Terrace In The Fields, Patrick worked his way up in the kitchens of some of the most prestigious and demanding names in British cooking. His baptism of fire came at The Canteen under Marco Pierre White; he would return later to work with White again as Senior Sous Chef at The Criterion and Titanic, after stints at The Ivy and Green’s Oyster Bar and Restaurant.

Shaun Rankin

Shaun Rankin (born 1972, County Durham) is the Michelin-starred chef of the Bohemia restaurant in St Helier, Jersey. Rankin has said that he always wanted to be a chef, and set out to become one at the age of 14. He learned the trade at The Mayfair hotel in London as an apprentice, as well as attending the Thames Valley University at Slough as a day release student.
He returned to Yorkshire in 1992, after three years in London, and took a position as chef de partie at the Black Bull Inn in Moulton, North Yorkshire. Since then he has worked in restaurants as close to home as Darlington and as far afield as Chicago and Australia. 2010 saw the launch of the 'SR' brand across major retailers. Rankin's first book, Seasoned Islands, was released by The Refinery on 14th November 2010; concurrently, a television series, Seasoned Islands, was produced by Channel TV and released on DVD.

Rachel Allen

Rachel Allen (born 21 March 1972, in Dublin) is an Irish celebrity chef, known most widely for her work on television and as a writer. Rachel Allen was brought up in Dublin and left home at eighteen to study at the world-famous Ballymaloe Cookery School. Rachel is now a busy TV chef, author, journalist and mother, and still teaches at Ballymaloe.
Rachel is the author of four bestselling cookery books, which include Rachel's Favourite Food at Home and Rachel's Food for Living. Her extremely popular television series for RTE and the BBC have been broadcast internationally and she frequently appears on BBC's Saturday Kitchen. The BBC describe her as an "Irish cooking queen" and Good Food magazine believe she "has put Irish cooking on the map in recent years". Rachel has a devoted fan base both in the UK and Ireland, and the popularity of her television programmes continues to rise.

Noel McMeel

Noel McMeel is an Irish chef who is executive head chef at Lough Erne Golf Resort and Hotel in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh. He describes his cooking as "modern Irish cuisine". He studied at the Northern Ireland Hotel and Catering College before training in a number of restaurants, including working for the well known Irish Chef Paul Rankin. He then earned a scholarship to attend Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. Following this he worked in a number of establishments, including the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. and Chez Panisse in San Francisco. He opened his own restaurant Trompets in the late 1990s.

Silvana Franco

Silvana Franco was born into a large Italian family and raised in Derby. She trained as a chef at High Peak College in Buxton and then did a degree in home economy. After a college work placement writing for BBC Vegetarian Good Food magazine, Silvana worked her way up to become a senior writer at Good Food. She later worked as Food Editor for M&S Magazine before moving into TV. Silvana started as a food stylist on Ainsley Harriot's shows, but her engaging personality soon attracted television producers and she eventually became a presenter. Silvana also runs food media company Fork with two former work colleagues and is the author of several cookery books.

Delia Smith

Delia Smith CBE (born 18 June 1941) is a British cook and television presenter, known for her interest in teaching basic cookery skills. She is the UK's best-selling cookery author, with more than 21 million copies sold.Born to a Welsh mother in Woking, Surrey, Smith attended Bexleyheath School, leaving at the age of 16 without a single O-level. Her first job was as a hairdresser, and she also worked as a shop assistant and in a travel agency before starting her career in cookery.When Delia was 16, her boyfriend often complimented her, saying how good her food was.
This was the nudge forward that made Delia take that step into cookery. At 21, she started work in a tiny restaurant in Paddington called The Singing Chef. She started as a washer-upper, then moved on to waitressing, and then was allowed to help with the cooking. She started reading English cookery books in the Reading Room at the British Museum, trying out the recipes on a Harley Street family with whom she was living at the time.

Oliver Rowe

Oliver Rowe, 'The Urban Chef', is chef-proprietor of Konstam Caf and Konstam at the Price Albert in King's Cross. Here he sources ingredients only from within access of the London Underground. It wasn't until after he left university that London-born Ollie turned his passion for cooking into a career. He worked in restaurants in Italy and Greece, before coming back to London to train under Sam and Sam Clarke at Moro.
In 2004 he set up a cafe serving European food. When a former pub came up for sale across the road he set himself a new challenge by setting up a restaurant, sourcing all of his ingredients direct from local producers in the city itself. The BBC 2 programme 'The Urban Chef' charts his mission.

Ross Burden

Ross Burden (born 13 December 1966) is a celebrity chef from New Zealand. Ross Burden's early career was as a model but became a chef later in life. His inspiration for being a chef was his mother's extremely bad cooking skills, which meant that he spent a lot of time cooking with his grandmother.
Ross was brought up in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand and is a self-taught cook. He has hosted and been a guest on programmes across the world and was recently voted one of the UK's most eligible bachelors.
Ross’ television career began after reaching the final of BBC MasterChef 1993. He has been a regular on Ready Steady Cook for the past eight years, filmed a healthy-eating video with Joan Collins, and has made five series for Taste. He has published two books and continues to write columns for two magazines. In May 2006, Ross appeared on The X Factor: Battle of the Stars (UK) along with fellow chefs Jean-Christophe Novelli, Aldo Zilli and Paul Rankin.

Raymond Blanc

Raymond Blanc OBE (born 19 November 1949) is a French chef, born in Besançon, France. He is a self-taught chef. Today he is one of the country's most respected chefs. Blanc is the owner and chef at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, a hotel-restaurant in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, England. The restaurant has two Michelin stars and scored 9/10 in the Good Food Guide. Born in Besançon, the capital of the Franche-Comté region in eastern France, between Burgundy and the Jura mountains, Raymond was inspired by the local terroir, and most of all by his mother, the formidable Maman Blanc who used fresh, local and seasonal produce to produce meals for her family.
In the ‘90s, Raymond opened his eponymous cookery school and the first of a series of Le Petit Blanc brasseries, which earned a Michelin star within a year. The chain, which has since been renamed Brasserie Blanc, now has branches all over the UK. Raymond’s remarkable contribution to the UK's culinary scene earned him an OBE from Her Majesty the Queen in 2007.

Nigel Haworth

Nigel Haworth is head chef and co-proprietor of Northcote Manor hotel, in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire. Nigel trained at Accrington and Rossendale Catering College in Lancashire. On leaving college, he worked at the Royal Berkshire in Ascot and the Grosvenor Hotel and The Ritz in London. In 1978 he began working in hotels in Switzerland, where he perfected his patisserie skills. On his return to the UK, he began lecturing at the college where he had trained, in order to pass on the skills he learned in Switzerland and to help improve the standards of restaurants in the region.
Nigel is a member of the Masterchefs of Great Britain and a full member of the Academy of Culinary Arts. In 2004 he received the Prince Philip Medal, the City and Guilds' highest accolade, in recognition of his lifelong commitment to catering, and in 2006 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Northern Hospitality Awards.

Richard Phillips

Richard Phillips started his career working under the Roux brothers as the youngest Commis Chef at Le Gavroche in London. He worked his way up the ranks, with an 8 month stint in France. He then moved on to work for the Marco Pierre White empire of restaurants, then as Executive Chef of the Schrager hotel group chains in London.
Richard is now the chef/patron of 'Thackeray's' in Tunbridge Wells, one of the best restaurants in Kent which gained a Michelin star in its first year. He is also a partner in the fine dining restaurant 'Hengist' in Aylesford and The Plough Gastro Pub in Amersham.

Rick Stein

Christopher Richard "Rick" Stein OBE (born 4 January 1947) is an English chef, restaurateur and television presenter. He is currently the head chef and co-owner of "Rick Stein at Bannisters" at Mollymook, New South Wales, Australia,owns four restaurants in Padstow, a fish and chip shop in Falmouth, Cornwall and has written 11 cookery books and presented a number of television programmes.
Rick has been received many awards for his work as a chef, teacher, presenter and author. He cooked twice for Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street, as well as for the former French president Jacques Chirac and for Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip. In January 2003, Rick was awarded an OBE for services to West Country tourism.

Nick Nairn

Nick Nairn (born 12 January 1959, Stirling) is a Scottish celebrity chef. Nairn has been a regular chef on BBC's popular Ready Steady Cook since the first series in 1994 and in 1990, he became the youngest chef to win a Michelin star in Scotland. A self-taught chef, his attempts to master the culinary arts resulted in the creation of two restaurants – Braeval near Aberfoyle is still in business, however, the other in Glasgow, called Nairn's is no more.
He has presented three BBC cookery series, all with accompanying books. In 2003, he sold his restaurant in Glasgow to concentrate on Nairn's Cookery School and a catering business and to spend more time with his family. He defeated Tom Lewis in the Scottish heat of the BBC television series Great British Menu.

Richard Corrigan

Richard Corrigan was born in Dublin and brought up on a 25-acre farm in the Irish midlands. At age 17 Richard left Ireland and spent four years cooking in the Netherlands before becoming head chef of Mulligan's in Mayfair. He won his first Michelin star at Stephen Bull's Fulham Road restaurant in 1994, before launching the acclaimed Michelin-starred Lindsay House in London's Soho in 1997. In 2006, Richard took over the reins at the well-established London fish restaurant, Bentley's, opening a second Bentley's in Dublin in 2008. Richard has catered for numerous prestigious events, including lunch at 10 Downing Street for Tony Blair and the King and Queen of Jordan. He has appeared in several UK television cookery programmes and hosts the Irish TV series Corrigan Knows Food.

James Martin

James Martin (born 30 June 1972 in Malton, North Yorkshire), is an English cook who first appeared on television in 1996. James Martin was born into the chef's life: his father ran the catering side of Castle Howard stately home in Yorkshire and, when he was only 12, James could boast that he'd cooked for the Queen Mother on her visit there. At 16, he went to Scarborough Technical College to begin his formal training. While there, he was student of the year for three years running. His work was noticed by Antony Worrall Thompson, who brought James to London to work. James then travelled throughout France working in the kitchens of French châteaux.
At 21, James opened the new Hotel and Bistro du Vin in Winchester where, as head chef, he changed the menu every day. His TV career started in 1996 when he became a regular team member on Ready Steady Cook; he went on to present Saturday Kitchen and has appeared in dozens of TV shows since.

Neil Perry

Neil Arthur Perry (born 29 June 1957) is a prominent Australian chef, restaurateur, author and television presenter. He also is the co-ordinator for Qantas Flight Catering under his company Rockpool Consulting and has a food brand sold under his name, available at Woolworths Supermarkets.
Perry co-owns and is executive chef of a number of critically acclaimed restaurants in Australia. In Sydney his current stable consists of three restaurants located in the city's CBD: his flagship fine-diner Rockpool, modern Chinese restaurant Spice Temple, and factory-job steakhouse Rockpool Bar & Grill. The original incarnation of Rockpool Bar & Grill meanwhile is located in Melbourne. Former restaurants operated by Perry include Wockpool and XO, both which have since closed.

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.