Saturday Kitchen Chefs

Did you Know?

Every weekend, the Saturday Kitchen chefs cook fantastic recipes created especially for Saturday Kitchen, live on the programme with entertaining and often humorous step-by-step demonstrations, But did you know these interesting facts about some of these Saturday Kitchen chefs and others who have appeared on Saturday Kitchen Best Bites?

The real reason why James Martin quit Saturday Kitchen was because a man died right in front of him.
Dominic De Sousa was hosting the BBC Good Food Awards in 2015, when he collapsed on stage of a suspected heart attack. James has admitted that the shocking experience forced him to reflect on his own life and how he was spending his time. He said, “I looked back on all the work I’d done, I’d had like four days off that year, and five days off the year before, and I thought, something’s got to change.” The chef admitted that it made him realise just how short life is.

Michel Roux Jr briefly served with the French Army before becoming a sous chef in London in 1983.
He’s also run 13 London marathons and other marathons all over the world. Some bizarre places such as Tromso up in the arctic circle and Monaco, which was rather glamorous. “For me it’s a way of life. My best time is 3h 13min here in London, a few years back”

The Hairy Bikers Si King and Dave Myers met on the set of a Catherine Cookson TV drama, The Gambling Man.
Si was the second assistant director and Dave was head of prosthetics, hair and make-up. At lunch, most of the crew were ordering salads and mineral water at the local pub, while SI was having a curry and two pints of lager. When Dave came in he took one look at Si’s lunch and went, “I’ll have what he’s having!” Pretty quickly they discovered that they both loved eating, drinking and motorcycling.

John Torode absolutely loves The Cure and thinks Paul Weller is almost God!
But his favourite song, particularly for summer, is Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses. “It’s a lighthearted, uplifting kind of tune that makes you want to run away to the beach.”

Although Gordon Ramsay has not been one of the Saturday Kitchen chefs he deserves a mention for he was once held at gunpoint for attempting to expose an illegal shark-fin black market.
Also while filming a puffin hunting segment in Westman Islands, Iceland, he reportedly fell off an 85 feet (26 m) cliff and landed in the icy water. He had to get rid of his waterproof clothing and the heavy boots, in order to reach the surface of the water. He was rescued by his filming crew, who threw him a rope. It is said that he was submerged for at least 45 seconds

During his childhood years Tom Kerridge one of the favourite Saturday Kitchen chefs  played guest star roles on several television series, including the BBC One’s Miss Marple.

After graduating from Oxford University with an English degree Rick Stein converted a mobile disco in Padstow, which he had run as a student, into a quayside nightclub with his friend, Johnny. It became known for its freeze-dried curries. However, the nightclub lost its licence and was closed down by the police, mainly due to frequent brawls with local fishermen.

Keith Floyd, the chain smoking, hard drinking television chef, died in 2009 from a heart attack only hours after a lunch to celebrate being given the all clear from bowel cancer. He was an inspiration for many of the regular Saturday Kitchen chefs.