James Martin’s career has carried him from kitchens in Yorkshire and France to the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and, later, a regular cookery programme on ITV. A chef and television presenter, he has worked in restaurants, written cookbooks and taken regional British food to the screen. His television work has ranged from practical cookery to hospital catering and programmes exploring the food of different parts of Britain.

Learning the craft in Yorkshire and France

Martin was born in Malton, North Riding of Yorkshire, on 30 June 1972. His family were farmers on the Castle Howard estate, where he helped his mother in the kitchen. He lived in Welburn and attended Amotherby School and Malton School. The estate, its working landscape and the experience of cooking at home formed an early setting for his interest in food.

His professional training took him beyond Yorkshire. Martin trained at Hostellerie de Plaisance in Saint-Émilion, France, before moving to the three-Michelin-starred Maison Troisgros in Roanne. Back in Britain, he spent two years as a pastry chef at Chewton Glen Hotel in the south of England. The sequence gave him experience across distinct kinds of kitchen work, from French restaurants to hotel pastry.

His early restaurant career also included work at The Square in London and Alastair Little’s restaurant. In 1994, aged 22, he became head chef at Hotel and Bistro du Vin in Winchester. The post marked an early step into leadership in a professional kitchen. Later restaurant ventures included The Leeds Kitchen, which he opened inside the Alea Casino in 2011; the casino and restaurant closed in March 2013. In 2012 he opened a restaurant at the Talbot Hotel in Malton, which won a Michelin star at the end of that year. Martin left in February 2015. He opened James Martin Manchester in September 2013, specialising in modern British cuisine, and James Martin Kitchen Bakery & Cafe branches were established at Stansted and Glasgow airports and Manchester Piccadilly railway station.

Building a career on television

Martin first appeared on television in 1996, including in James Martin: Yorkshire’s Finest, Ready Steady Cook and The Big Breakfast. He went on to co-present BBC Food’s Stately Suppers with Alistair Appleton and appear on Channel 4’s Richard & Judy, visiting a member of the public at home to cook a comfort-food meal. These early programmes established a screen career alongside his restaurant work.

From 2006 to 2016, Martin presented BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen. The programme made him a familiar presence in British weekend television, but it was one part of a varied broadcast career. He presented Operation Hospital Food, beginning in 2011, which followed his work to revamp the menu and catering facilities at Scarborough General Hospital. The programme returned for further series in 2013 and 2014. In 2013, he also presented James Martin’s Food Map of Britain, a ten-part BBC Two series in which each episode focused on a different region, its produce and dishes made from it.

His television work has included food competitions and broader community themes. Martin joined the judging panel for The Roux Scholarship in 2013 and was a judge on Junior Bake Off. That year he also presented The Great British Budget Menu, a programme about nutritious, low-cost meals. In 2014, Meet the Street set out to bring communities together and reduce loneliness. He guest-presented episodes of The One Show in 2015 and presented the daytime cookery series The Box.

After leaving the BBC, Martin presented James Martin’s French Adventure for ITV in 2017. Since September that year, he has presented James Martin’s Saturday Morning for the channel. Further travel-led series have included James Martin’s American Adventure in 2018, James Martin’s Great British Adventure in 2019 and James Martin’s Spanish Adventure in 2023. The programmes connect his cooking to places and regional food, while his return to a Saturday-morning format carried a familiar slot into a new channel and a new phase of his career.

Restaurants, books and recognition

Martin’s work has also reached home cooks through books. His titles include Easy British Food, The Saturday Kitchen Cookbook, Home Comforts, James Martin’s French Adventure and James Martin’s Great British Adventure. The range reflects the different strands of his public work: British cooking, the food of his television programmes and recipes for everyday meals. He has also taught at The Kitchen, the cookery school and relaxed dining restaurant at Chewton Glen in New Milton, Hampshire.

Recognition has come from both the food and television industries. In 2010, the University of West London awarded him the title of Honorary Professor. The Craft Guild of Chefs gave him its Special Award in 2013, and he was named TV Personality of the Year at the Fortnum & Mason Awards in 2015 and again in 2021. In 2021, his Great British Adventure cookbook won Best Cookbook at the Great British Food Awards, where he was also named Most Influential Chef, Cook or Food Writer. His television programme James Martin’s Saturday Morning won Best Food Show at the TV Choice Awards that year.

His career has not been without controversy. In 2009, Martin wrote in a newspaper motoring column about scaring cyclists with his car. After criticism, he apologised, saying that a piece intended as humour had been misjudged and that he did not condone reckless driving. In 2023, reports of bullying towards production colleagues prompted a further public response. Martin said that lessons had been learned. He also stated that he had been suffering from facial cancer at the time of an earlier incident in 2018 and had needed regular surgery. These episodes sit alongside, rather than erase, the work that made him a prominent figure in British food television.

Why James Martin deserves a place in British Legacy

James Martin’s place in British Legacy rests on a career that has made food a sustained subject of popular television. His decade presenting Saturday Kitchen gave a cookery programme a regular place in British weekend schedules; his subsequent ITV Saturday-morning show continued that format for a different broadcaster. Between them, his programmes have shown more than recipes: Operation Hospital Food brought attention to catering in a public hospital, while Food Map of Britain travelled through regional produce and cooking. Those projects connect a national television audience with food as part of everyday life and public provision.

His contribution also spans kitchens, teaching and publishing. Martin trained in France and Britain, led a kitchen at a young age, ran restaurants in Yorkshire and Manchester, and taught at Chewton Glen’s cookery school. Books such as Easy British Food and Great British Adventure carry his work into home kitchens, while his regional programmes make the food of different parts of Britain their subject. The significance is not that one presenter defines British cooking, but that Martin has worked across several of its public platforms: restaurant service, cookery education, books and television. His career offers a specific record of how a chef’s practical craft can reach audiences well beyond the restaurant dining room.

Sources

James Martin (chef), revision 1374641798 · James Martin (chef)

Adapted in part from James Martin (chef) by Wikipedia contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text has been edited and combined with the existing article; this adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.