Don't miss new property show, Phil Spencer Secret Agent, only on LifeStyle this month.
A graduate from Jamie Oliver's 'Fifteen', Aaron Craze proves that reality television can produce raw talent.
Aaron learnt to cook on the 2002 televised series devised to train disadvantaged young adults with kitchen skills. After graduating with flying colours he moved on to The Ivy and Claridges before landing himself his very own gastro pub - The Cock Inn.
Unfortunately after a few years, The Cock was forced to close. Craze bounced back though and has returned to work at Fifteen as chef tournant, which allows him to supervise every area of the kitchen. He has also written a cookery book called Aaron Cooks Italian.
Read Aaron Craze's Bio
Amanda Lamb is one of the presenters on Market Kitchen. She was also a presenter on the hugely popular, A Place In The Sun on Channel 4. It was while presenting this show that she found her beautiful house in Italy. She moved there to enjoy the sunny weather as well as the amazing local produce.
Born in Portsmouth, Amanda started her career as an estate agent before turning her talented hand to television presenting
If you think you recognise her from somewhere, you probably do. She was also the Scottish Widow for several years.
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Born in the US to Japanese parents, Jun Tanaka has headed up the kitchen at Pearl since its opening in June 2004. During this time, the restaurant has gained an excellent reputation for its modern French cuisine, served in the beautiful surroundings of the historic Pearl Assurance building.
Jun started his career at Le Gavroche at the age of 19 and spent the next ten years working with some of London’s best chefs in seven top Michelin star restaurants where he perfected the art of fine French cuisine.
Prior to Pearl, Jun worked and trained at Chez Nico, The Capital, The Square, Les Saveurs and Marco Pierre White’s restaurant, Harvey’s. He also worked under Marco Pierre White at both The Restaurant Marco Pierre White and The Oak room. This refinement and high standard of cooking is now evident in the dishes at Pearl, where the menus are changed regularly to incorporate the best seasonal produce and ingredients.
Jun is a firm believer in using the best ingredients in season and ensuring that any ingredients used should not be masked and over complicated, but enhanced to bring out their natural flavours, producing a clean and distinct taste.
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Matt Tebbutt was born in High Wycombe but moved to Newport when he was 6 months old, and classifies himself as ‘an honorary Welshman’.
After 8 years away he returned to home to Wales in 2001 to take over the former Foxhunter pub at Nantyderry. With his wife Lisa he has transformed it into a top restaurant which is winning wide acclaim. The Foxhunter has been AA Restaurant of the Year for Wales 2004; Best Newcomer in Wales - Good Food Guide 2003 ;and won Taste of Wales Dining Out Gold Award in 2004 and 2005.
Matt is a passionate exponent of modern British cooking, using only the best locally sourced ingredients in simple, honest recipes. In a quest to use only the most seasonal and fresh The Foxhunter menu changes daily, sometimes twice a day. He believes in ‘rustic, informal cookery - not towers of spun sugar’.
Foraging is one of Matt’s hobbies, something he started on long country walks with his children. He has recently started foraging classes at the Foxhunter – groups go out and collect all sorts of weird and wonderful produce such as pig nuts and then cook what they have collected in the Foxhunter kitchen. Matt often creates dishes for the Foxhunter menu that contain recently foraged produce.
Matt’s career began with a diploma course in London with Leith’s School of Food & Wine. Matt then completed a traineeship with Marco Pierre White, working at The Oak Room and then The Criterion. Matt later moved to the kitchens of Chez Bruce before finding his greatest inspiration at Alistair Little at Lancaster Road and Alistair Little Frith Street where he was strongly inspired by Alistair’s rustic cooking and honest approach to seasonal ingredients. Working at ‘Clarke’s’, Sally Clarke’s Kensington restaurant, Matt was exposed to the art of bread making at one of the most skilled bakeries in the UK.
Matt is married to Lisa, another Monmouthshire local. A lover of fine wine and good restaurants with a background in accountancy, she manages the running of the business. They have 2 children: Jessie aged 4 and Henry, 3.
Read Matt Tebbutt's Bio
Matthew Fort has been the Food and Drink Editor at the Guardian since 1989. He has also written for Esquire, The Observer, Country Living, Decanter and Waitrose Food Illustrated. In 1992 he won the title of Glenfiddich Food Writer of the Year and, in 1993, Glenfiddich Restaurant Writer of the Year, as well as The Restaurateurs' Association Food Writer of the Year. He was Glenfiddich Cookery Writer of the Year in 2005.
He has written three books on food, the third of which, Eating Up Italy, was the Guild of Food Writers Book of the Year in 2005, and his fifth, Lunching with Leopoldo, about Sicily is due for release in 2008. One of his greatest passions is Italy, which he visits every year.
Read Matthew Fort's Bio
A graduate of and now teacher at Ireland’s renowned Ballymaloe Cooking School, Rachel’s charming manner, effortless style and love for regional Irish cooking have seen her dubbed the Irish cooking queen in the UK. In her best-selling cookbooks and on TV, she’s all about food of memory and emotion, cooking infused with a sense of family and familiarity and dishes that celebrate simple honest flavours above all else.
Read Rachel Allen's Bio
Born and raised in Derby to a large Italian family, Silvana Franco enjoyed home-cooked food throughout her childhood. She trained as a chef at High Peak College in Buxton and then went on to finish her studies with a degree in Home Economy at Southbank University.
Silvana got a college work placement at BBC Worldwide writing for BBC Vegetarian Good Food magazine. She soon progressed to senior writer on its sister paper, BBC Good Food, and later moved on to work as Food Editor for M&S Magazine before moving into the world of TV.
She began behind the scenes, working as a food stylist and writer on Can't Cook, Won't Cook, Ainsley's Meals in Minutes, Ainsley's Big Cook Out, Gourmet Express and Friends for Dinner. Her association with Ainsley Harriott continued in New York, where she whipped the Manhattan food team into shape for his NBC series.
However, Silvana's engaging personality soon attracted producers and she started to appear on screen, working alongside Ainsley as his sidekick in Gourmet Express 2, and featuring on BBC Two's Saturday Kitchen and Ready Steady Cook. In 2002 she moved into primetime in her own right as a presenter of The Best on BBC Two.
As well as her TV appearances, Silvana continues to write. In 1998 she worked on Can't Cook, Won't Cook Leaves Home for BBC Books, and in 2001 and 2002 she published two books - Pizza and Pasta, for Ryland Peters & Small.
She also runs a food media company called Fork with two former work colleagues. The girls wrote a weekly column for The Sun called Grill Power that gave cookery advice and recipes to an audience of three and a half million.
After a recent break following the birth of her baby son, Fabio, Silvana now appears weekly on ITV's This Morning. She also has regular spots as the guest chef on Good Food Live and continues to write and food style for various publications. Her new television series, The Hi Lo Club, and accompanying book, both launched in January 2005.
Read Silvana Franco's Bio
Tom is fast becoming one of the UK’s most respected food writers. He has a food column in The Mail on Sunday and in Tatler, and his first book “E is for Eating: An Alphabet of Greed” showcased his witty, modern take on food and eating. He is a passionate advocate of ethically grown and reared food and a champion of local British produce.
His second book, “The Year of Eating Dangerously” was published by Ebury in October 2006. In it he goes to Laos to sample water beetles and to Korea to taste for himself why dog is still found on the menu. He climbs Spanish cliffs in search of goose-neck barnacles, and surreptitiously seeks out elvers (baby eels) at the witching hour in Gloucestershire. He takes part in a chilli-eating contest in New Mexico and savours sauces with names like Butt Twister, Colon Cleanser and Ditch the Bitch. He discovers that bee pupae are delicious, 'as addictive as Pringles but 100 times as nice' whereas silkworm pupae make him think of 'freshly dug graves'. The book teaches us, if nothing else, that Tom Parker Bowles is seriously dedicated to eating.
Tom is the son of the Duchess of Cornwall (formerly Camilla Parker Bowles) and Andrew Parker Bowles. He is married to Sara Buys, a fashion features editor at Harpers & Queen. Tom and Sarah are expecting their first child in autumn 2007.
Tom admits that he wakes up every morning thinking about food - whether to have a big breakfast or to conserve his appetite for lunch, or what to cook for Sara's supper - and he eats so fast you'd think he'd been starving for a week.
Read Tom Parker Bowles's Bio
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