Leyla Kazim | |
|---|---|
| Leyla Kazim hosting Pub in the Park Festival in 2022 | |
| Born | |
| Alma mater | University College London |
| Occupation(s) | Television Presenter, Broadcaster, Food Critic, Journalist |
| Known for | The Food Programme, MasterChef, MasterChef: The Professionals |
Leyla Kazim is a British television presenter, broadcaster, food critic and journalist. She is best known as a broadcaster on BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme [1] and as a food critic on BBC One's MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals. [2]
Kazim was born in Sidcup, Greater London to a Turkish-Cypriot father and Mauritian mother. She attended Townley Grammar School in Bexleyheath and studied astrophysics at University College London. [3]
In 2014 she became a freelance food and travel journalist, contributing to Your Local Guardian, [4] The Caterer, [5] Evening Standard [6] and The Guardian . [7]
In 2018 she co-authored the Lonely Planet's 'Ultimate Eatlist' guidebook. [8]
Kazim is part of the presenting team on BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme since 2019. In October 2019 she featured on a live episode [9] of The Food Programme at the BBC Radio Theatre alongside Grace Dent, Rick Stein, Yotam Ottolenghi and Sheila Dillon to celebrate the shows 40th birthday. She is a judge on the BBC's Food & Farming Awards. [10] [11]
Kazim is a food critic on the BBC's Masterchef [12] and Masterchef: The Professionals . [13] She has also appeared as a judge on Channel 4's Beat the Chef. [14]
In 2023, Kazim appeared as a presenter on the BBC's Food Fest England [15] and Coast to Coast Food Festival. [16]

Christopher Richard Stein, is an English celebrity chef, restaurateur, writer and television presenter. Along with business partner Jill Stein, he has run the Stein hotel and restaurant business in the UK. The business has a number of renowned restaurants, shops and hotels in Padstow along with other restaurants in Marlborough, Winchester and Barnes. He is also the head chef and a co-owner of the "Rick Stein at Bannisters" restaurants in Mollymook and Port Stephens in Australia, with his second wife, Sarah. He has written cookery books and presented television programmes.
Jayne Middlemiss is an English television and radio presenter. She began presenting music television shows such as The O Zone and Top of the Pops in the mid-1990s, before presenting a variety of other television and radio shows, including on BBC Radio 6 Music. She has won both Celebrity MasterChef and reality show Celebrity Love Island.
Marco Pierre White is a British chef, restaurateur, and television personality. He has been dubbed "the first celebrity chef" and the enfant terrible of the UK restaurant scene. In January 1995, aged 33, White became the first British chef to be awarded three Michelin stars. He has trained notable chefs such as Mario Batali, Heston Blumenthal, Shannon Bennett, Gordon Ramsay and Curtis Stone.
The Food Programme is a BBC Radio 4 programme investigating and celebrating good food, founded by Derek Cooper and currently presented by Sheila Dillon, Dan Saladino, Leyla Kazim and Jaega Wise. The series is produced by BBC Audio in Bristol.
John Douglas Torode is an Australian-British celebrity chef and TV presenter. He moved to the UK in the 1990s and began working at Conran Group's restaurants. After first appearing on television on ITV's This Morning, he started presenting a revamped MasterChef on BBC One in 2005. He is a restaurateur; former owner of the Luxe and a second restaurant, Smiths of Smithfield. He has also written a number of cookbooks, including writing some with fellow MasterChef presenter and judge, Gregg Wallace.
MasterChef is a competitive cooking reality show produced by Endemol Shine UK and Banijay and broadcast in 60 countries around the world. In the UK, it is produced by the BBC. The show initially ran from 1990 to 2001 and was revived in 2005 as MasterChef Goes Large. The revival featured a new format devised by Franc Roddam and John Silver, with Karen Ross producing. In 2008, the name was changed back to MasterChef but the format remained unchanged.
Jason Matthew Rayner is an English journalist and food critic. He was raised in Harrow, London, and studied politics at the University of Leeds, where he edited the Leeds Student newspaper. After graduating, he worked as a freelance journalist for newspapers including The Observer and The Independent on Sunday. He became the Observer restaurant critic in 1999. Rayner has also written several books.
Gregg Allan Wallace is an English broadcaster, entrepreneur, media personality, writer and former greengrocer. He is known for co-presenting MasterChef, Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals, alongside celebrity chef John Torode, on BBC One and BBC Two. He has jokingly referred to himself as "just the fat, bald bloke on MasterChef who likes pudding". He has written regularly for Good Food, Now and Olive magazines.
Angela Maria Hartnett is an English Michelin-starred chef. A protégée of Gordon Ramsay who became well known by her appearances on British television. She was Chef-Patron at Angela Hartnett at The Connaught in London. Currently, she is Chef-Patron for Murano in Mayfair, Café Murano in St James's & Covent Garden and Cucina Angelina in Courchevel (France).
Jason Atherton is an English chef and restaurateur. His flagship restaurant Pollen Street Social gained a Michelin Star in 2011, its opening year. He was the Executive Chef at Gordon Ramsay's Michelin starred Maze in London until 30 April 2010. In 2014 he co-hosted the Sky Living TV series My Kitchen Rules.
Grace Dent is an English columnist, broadcaster and author. She is a restaurant critic for The Guardian and from 2011 to 2017 wrote a restaurant column for the Evening Standard. She is a regular critic on the BBC's MasterChef UK and has appeared on Channel 4's television series Very British Problems.
MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking reality show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Endemol Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's main judges until 2019, when they were replaced by Series 4 winner and chef Andy Allen, food critic Melissa Leong, and restaurateur and chef Jock Zonfrillo.
Alexis Pascal Gauthier is a French chef. He is the chef patron of the Gauthier Soho restaurant in Soho, London and was awarded a Michelin star in 2011. He previously held a Michelin star as head chef of the restaurant Roussillon in Pimlico, London, until 2010. He trained under Alain Ducasse at Le Louis XV in Monaco, and has appeared as a judge on two versions of the BBC One television show MasterChef. He became a vegan in 2016 and changed Gauthier Soho to a vegan menu in 2021 and opened 123 Vegan, a vegan cafeteria.
MasterChef: The Professionals is a BBC television competitive cooking show which aired on BBC Two from 2008 to 2019, and on BBC One since 2020. It is a spin-off from the main MasterChef series, for professional working chefs. Introduced in 2008, Gregg Wallace and India Fisher reprised their roles as co-judge and voiceover respectively. Michel Roux Jr., a two-Michelin-star chef, assisted, from 2009, by his sous-chef Monica Galetti. Since 2011, Sean Pertwee has taken over Fisher's role as voiceover.
Monica Galetti is a Samoan-born New Zealand chef. She is a judge on the BBC competitive cooking programme MasterChef: The Professionals and chef proprietor of Mere in London. She was senior sous-chef at Le Gavroche in London. As well as appearing as a judge on MasterChef: The Professionals from 2009 to 2021, she has presented Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby with Giles Coren since 2017.
Bake Off: The Professionals is a British television baking competition featuring teams of professional pastry chefs pit against one another through two different challenges. It is a spin-off from The Great British Bake Off, and its first episode was screened on BBC Two on 29 March 2016. The eight-episode first series of the programme was presented by Tom Kerridge, with Benoit Blin, Cherish Finden and Claire Clark serving as judges. The second series was presented by Angus Deayton, but Claire Clark did not return as a judge. The third series moved to Channel 4 to join The Great British Bake Off after the BBC declined to renew the series. The Channel 4 series has been renamed Bake Off: The Professionals, and is presented by comedian Tom Allen and former contestant on the main series, Liam Charles.
Matilda Elizabeth "Tilly" Ramsay is an English television presenter, chef and social media influencer best known for presenting the BBC cooking show Matilda and the Ramsay Bunch on CBBC alongside her family. Ramsay has made numerous television appearances including This Morning, Gordon Ramsay's Home Cooking, Blue Peter, MasterChef Junior, Friday Night Jazz, and The Late Late Show with James Corden. Her parents are Tana Ramsay, a cook book author, and Gordon Ramsay, a celebrity chef. She resides in both the United Kingdom and the United States with her family and was a contestant on the nineteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing. Ramsay was also a contestant on Celebrity MasterChef Australia where she reached the final.
James "Jocky" Petrie is a Scottish professional chef, best known for his work alongside chef Heston Blumenthal as head of development of the Experimental Kitchen at The Fat Duck, and as Group Executive Development Chef for Gordon Ramsay. He has regularly appeared as mentor and judge on a number of television shows including MasterChef, Heston's Fantastical Food, In Search of Perfection, and Top Chef Suomi.
Beat the Chef is a British television cooking game show broadcast by Channel 4 and hosted by Andi Oliver. The series features contestants preparing a home-cooked family recipe, while professional chefs Mark Sargeant, Frederick Forster and Clodagh McKenna make the same recipe in an upscale restaurant version. The two dishes are then judged by a panel of food critics including BBC Food Programme presenter Leyla Kazim. The series premiered on 27 May 2019. In 2022, the series was embroiled in controversy by continuing to employ Mark Sargeant after a jury in the U.S. ruled that he sexually assaulted an American woman in Germany.
Anna Haugh is an Irish chef, restaurateur and TV personality.