This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Romy Gill MBE | |
---|---|
Born | |
Culinary career | |
Cooking style | Indian cuisine |
Current restaurant(s)
| |
Website | www |
Romy Gill MBE is a British/Indian chef, food writer, author and broadcaster. She was the owner and head chef at Romy's Kitchen in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire. In 2016 she was appointed an MBE in the Queen's 90th birthday honours list. Romy has amassed a number of television and radio appearances, including presenting, co-presenting and judging roles. She regularly contributes to national and international publications, including The New York Times , The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph .
Romy has written two cookbooks - Zaika: Vegan recipes from India, which was published in September 2019, and On The Himalayan Trail: Recipes and Stories from Kashmir to Ladakh - which was published in Spring 2022.
Gill grew up in Burnpur, West Bengal, India, where she learned to cook from her mother.
When Gill moved to the UK in 1993, [1] she began hosting dinner parties for friends, later running cookery classes, which led to her launching her own range of sauces, pickles, chutneys and spice mixes.
She gave cookery demonstrations both in England and further afield, and in September 2013 she opened her first restaurant, Romy's Kitchen.
Gill's style of Indian cooking is very different from that found at the majority of Indian restaurants in the UK. She avoids the use of unnatural food colourings, and is a fan of combining Indian and British cuisine.
She combines spices and flavours that she grew up with in India with ingredients that she was only introduced to when she moved to the UK, creating dishes such as gurnard cooked in coconut milk, tomatoes, tomato puree, ginger, garlic and her own spice blend; and monkfish marinated in turmeric and lemon juice, then cooked with onions, ginger, garlic, mustard seeds, 5 spice mix paste and her own spices.
Gill opened her first restaurant, Romy's Kitchen, in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire in September 2013. [2]
In order to open her restaurant, Gill applied to a number of banks for a loan, but was turned down by every one apart from NatWest, [3] providing her with the business loan that she needed to get her restaurant underway, leading her to be featured on the BBC News in a segment about the struggles that entrepreneurs face when trying to raise the necessary funds to start a new, local business.
The restaurant closed in August 2019. [4]
In 2014 Gill was shortlisted for the 15th Asian Women of Achievement Awards (AWA), [5] which celebrate women who make an "outstanding contribution to our culture and economy". In the same year, her restaurant, Romy's Kitchen, was shortlisted as "Best Newcomer" in the British Curry Awards. [6]
Gill was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to the hospitality industry. [7]
Gill demonstrates her cooking at festivals both in the UK and abroad. In the UK, she has given demonstrations at the Foodies Festival, Grand Designs exhibitions and at food and cultural festivals in Abu Dhabi, New York City and other locations.
In addition, she gives talks and cookery demonstrations in schools where she discusses how food is cultivated, the importance of eating with the seasons and the impact of food on the environment.
Gill, along with two other female Indian chefs and Atul Kochhar, gave a demonstration at Kochhar's restaurant, Benares, in November 2012 to raise money for charity, [8] and is an avid fundraiser for charity Frank Water. [9]
Gill has also appeared on BBC Radio Bristol with Laura Rawlings, [10] and has appeared in a video where she taught rugby star Olly Barkley how to cook Indian food. [11]
In May 2014, Romy was heavily involved with the Bristol Food Connections festival: a citywide celebration of local food and drink. Along with other top chefs such as Martin Blunos, Tom Kerridge and Ken Hom, Romy took to the BBC Stars' Kitchen [12] to give live demos of some of her popular recipes. [13] During the Bristol Food Connections festival, Romy was also a guest on Saturday Live, [14] alongside Jay Rayner and others.
In 2016, Romy was a guest chef at Carousel London, [15] and returned for another stint a year later. [16]
In 2017, Romy gave demonstrations at a range of festivals, including the BBC Good Food Show, the Abergavenny Food Festival, the Big Feastival, Dartmouth Food Festival and the Padstow Christmas Festival. [17]
Gill was invited to speak at The MAD Symposium 2018 and, in February 2020, was invited to cook at the prestigious James Beard Foundation in New York.
Romy contributes regularly to food publications such as Crumbs, Olive, [18] Delicious, [19] Saveur [20] and Food52, [21] and has featured in The Guardian, [22] where she had a residency in April 2016.
She has a number of recipes on the BBC Food website, [23] as well as having published recipes and articles in The Times, [24] The Telegraph, [25] The New York Times, [26] Today, [27] You Magazine, [28] Ocado, [29] The Independent [30] and The Observer.
In 2017, Romy travelled to India with Suitcase Magazine, where she explored and wrote articles on Ladakh [31] and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. [32]
Her first cookbook, Zaika: Vegan recipes from India, was published in 2019. Her second cookbook, On The Himalayan Trail: Recipes and Stories from Kashmir to Ladakh, was published in spring 2022.
In March 2020, she began to appear on Ready Steady Cook. [33] , where she was one of the chefs until 2022. She has also previously appeared on Sunday Brunch , The One Show , Countryfile (including a regular slot interviewing and cooking with children who love food, Celebrity MasterChef 2016, [34] Hairy Bikers Comfort Food, [35] Saturday Morning with James Martin , Morning Live , Front Row (radio programme) and many more. She is also a regular on The Food Programme on BBC Radio 4 , where she has appeared as a judge, a presenter and a co-presenter, and in 2021 and 2022, has appeared on Steph's Packed Lunch hosted by Steph McGovern on Channel 4 .
She has also appeared on the celebrity versions of Pointless and The Weakest Link.
She has featured as the subject of a film short on "Family Dinners" on Food Network UK, [36] with more BBC and ITV appearances in the pipeline.
Romy has appeared frequently on the radio - as a presenter, a co-presenter and a judge. She has taught Woman's Hour listeners to make vegetarian samosas, [37] and has shared her recipe for spicy chickpeas on BBC Radio 4. [38] Other radio interview topics include Madhur Jaffrey, [39] issues with the restaurant trade, [40] food during the COVID-19 outbreak [41] and lockdowns, [42] pumpkins and winter squash, [43] food and mental health [44] and mangoes. [45]
Gill lives in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire with her husband and two daughters. She is an active runner.
Gordon James Ramsay is a British celebrity chef, restaurateur, television presenter, and writer. His restaurant group, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has been awarded 17 Michelin stars overall and currently holds seven. His signature restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea, London, has held three Michelin stars since 2001. After rising to fame on the British television miniseries Boiling Point in 1999, Ramsay became one of the best-known and most influential chefs in the world.
Raymond Blanc OBE is a French chef. Blanc is the chef patron at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, a hotel-restaurant in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, England. The restaurant has two Michelin stars and scored 9/10 in the Good Food Guide. He is entirely self-taught, but has himself taught or employed other chefs including Heston Blumenthal, John Burton-Race, Michael Caines, Paul Liebrandt, and Marco Pierre White.
A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in printed publications. While television is ultimately the primary way for a chef to become a celebrity, some have achieved this through success in the kitchen, cook book publications, and achieving awards such as Michelin stars, while others are home cooks who won competitions.
Hilda Elsie Marguerite Patten,, was a British home economist, food writer and broadcaster. She was one of the earliest celebrity chefs who became known during World War II thanks to her programme on BBC Radio, where she shared recipes that could work within the limits imposed by war rationing. After the war, she was responsible for popularising the use of pressure cookers and her 170 published books have sold over 17 million copies.
Heston Marc Blumenthal is a British celebrity chef, TV personality and food writer. Blumenthal is regarded as a pioneer of multi-sensory cooking, food pairing and flavour encapsulation. He came to public attention with unusual recipes, such as bacon-and-egg ice cream and snail porridge. His recipes for triple-cooked chips and soft-centred Scotch eggs have been widely imitated. He has advocated a scientific approach to cooking, for which he has been awarded honorary degrees from Reading, Bristol and London universities and made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Food reality television is a genre of reality television programming that considers the production, consumption and/or sociocultural impact of food.
Country captain is a curried chicken and rice dish, which is popular in the Southern United States. It was introduced to the United States through Charleston, Savannah, New York City, and Philadelphia, but has origins in the Indian subcontinent. The dish was also included in the U.S. military's Meal, Ready-to-Eat packs from 2000 to 2004, in honor of it being a favorite dish of George S. Patton.
Ching-He Huang (Chinese: 黃瀞億; pinyin: Huáng Jìngyì; Wade–Giles: Huang2 Ching4-i4;, often known in English-language merely as Ching, is a Taiwanese-born British food writer and TV chef. She has appeared in a variety of television cooking programmes, and is the author of nine best-selling cookbooks. Ching is recognized as a foodie entrepreneur, having created her own food businesses. She has become known for Chinese cookery internationally through her TV programmes, books, noodle range, tableware range, and involvement in many campaigns and causes.
Merrilees Claire Parker is a British celebrity chef and television presenter. She is mainly known for presenting television programmes combining food and travel as well as various more traditional cookery programmes. Parker is also renowned for the menu she presented working for the pub The Lansdowne in Primrose Hill in London. Many of her recipes are freely available online.
Rachel Allen is an Irish celebrity chef, known for her work on television and as a writer. She has often appeared on Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ).
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).
Allegra Sarah Bazzett McEvedy MBE is an English chef, broadcaster and writer.
Rajinder Tony Singh Kusbia is a Scottish celebrity chef and restaurateur. He is best known for combining Scottish produce with an arty, eclectic and accessible style of cooking.
Cyrus Rustom Todiwala OBE, DL,, is an Indian chef proprietor of Café Spice Namasté and a celebrity television chef. He trained at the Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces chain in India, and rose to become executive chef for eleven restaurants within those hotels. He moved to the UK in 1991 with his family, and following some initial financial difficulties after taking over a restaurant, Michael Gottlieb provided investment funding, allowing Todiwala to open Café Spice Namasté in 1995, the restaurant for which he is best known.
Rachel Khoo is a British cook, author, and broadcaster who has hosted and co-hosted television cooking shows on the BBC, Food Network, and Netflix.
Vikram Vij is an Indian-born Canadian chef, cookbook author, and television personality. He is co-owner, with his ex-wife Meeru Dhalwala, of the Indian cuisine restaurants Vij's Restaurant and Rangoli Restaurant in Vancouver, British Columbia. He also owns My Shanti, a restaurant in South Surrey, BC. In 2014, Vij was announced as a new "dragon" investor on the Canadian reality show Dragons' Den for its ninth season and departed at the end of the season.
Dan Lepard is an Australian baker, food writer, photographer, television presenter and celebrity chef. He was previously a fashion photographer working for Italian Vogue before changing careers age 27, and is today known for reconciling historical methods with innovation in baking.
Nadiya Jamir Hussain is a British television chef, author and television presenter. She rose to fame after winning the sixth series of BBC's The Great British Bake Off in 2015. Since winning, she has signed contracts with the BBC to host the documentary The Chronicles of Nadiya and TV cookery series Nadiya's British Food Adventure and Nadiya's Family Favourites; co-presented The Big Family Cooking Showdown; and has become a regular contributor on The One Show.
Nisha Katona, MBE is a British chef and TV presenter. She is the founder of Mowgli Street Food restaurants and the Mowgli Trust charity, a food writer and television presenter. She was a child protection barrister for 20 years.
Curry, a spicy Asian-derived dish, is a popular meal in the United Kingdom. Curry recipes have been printed in Britain since 1747, when Hannah Glasse gave a recipe for a chicken curry. In the 19th century, many more recipes appeared in the popular cookery books of the time. Curries in Britain are widely described using Indian terms, such as korma for a mild sauce with almond and coconut, Madras for a hot, slightly sour sauce, and pasanda for a mild sauce with cream and coconut milk. One type of curry, chicken tikka masala, was created in Britain, and has become widespread enough to be described as the national dish.