Ed Baines

Ed Baines is one of Britain's most successful young chefs, with several thriving restaurants to his name.

He is the chef and co-owner of Randall & Aubin, the happening champagne and oyster bar in Soho.To reflect his style, his first TV series Lunch With Ed Baines, which aired on Carlton Food Network, had him cooking for and then lunching with his famous friends, at Randall & Aubin. Unsurprisingly, on the show he cooked for a string of glamorous women, including Darcey Bussell,Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Mariella Frostup and Meg Mathews.

In 1999, he completed his own six part series Ed Baines Entertains, filmed at Randall & Aubin, broadcast on the ITV Carlton region. He recorded two further series which were broadcast during 2000 and 2001. He has also appeared as one of the chefs for the BBC daytime lifestyle show Housecall.

Ed Baines fell into catering. After a two-year apprenticeship with Anton Mosimann at The Dorchester, he spent a few years cooking on one of the world's exclusive yachts and at hotels in Juan-les-Pins and Queensland, then back home at Bibendum and the River Café.

At this point he was 'headhunted'. He became the official Armani chef. He entered a happy time of dressing entirely in Armani and 'having a few girlfriends who knew I could get them a discount.' He also dabbled in modelling. At 25 years of age, Ed was contracted by Mogens Tholstrup to open the very successful Daphne's in South Kensington, London, where he remained as Head Chef for three years.

He began to yearn for his own restaurant, and in 1996 as Chef Patron, and with his friend James Poulton, he opened the hugely successful Randall & Aubin; following this with the Ifield in London’s Chelsea. He has also opened another restaurant bearing the Randall and Aubin name in Fulham Road. In November 2002, Ed and James opened the fourth in the chain,The Belsize, a brand new pub/dining room on the site of the old Belsize Tavern.

Ed filmed Cupid's Dinners for broadcast on UK Food and is one of the resident chefs on Good Food Live. He has regularly appeared on programmes for Granada Livetime, Central Television and Carlton Food Network and has featured on Superchefs. In December 2002, he was seen every weekday on Channel 5 from December 2-20 presenting Countdown To Christmas. He has also appeared as a guest chef on the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen.

Ed has worked on long-term projects with Portmerion and Cole & Mason.

His first book Entertain was published by Kyle Cathie in 2001 and he has been profiled by a raft of newspapers and magazines, including The Sunday Times, London Evening Standard and Time Out.