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.
As with any large town or city, food and drink has played an important role in the commerce and culture of Birmingham, England.
Atul Kochhar is an Indian-born, British-based chef and television personality. Kochhar was one of the first two Indian chefs to receive a Michelin star, awarded in London in 2001 whilst at Tamarind. He opened his own restaurant Benares, which won him a second Michelin star in 2007. Since then he has opened several other restaurants: Sindhu and Hawkyns in Buckinghamshire and Indian Essence in Petts Wood, Kent.
Bryn Dwyfor Williams is a chef originally from Denbigh, Wales. He is the head chef and sole proprietor of Odette's Restaurant, Primrose Hill, London. He shot to fame as merely a sous chef in 2006 by beating established and well-known chefs to cook the fish course for the Queen's 80th birthday celebrations on the television programme Great British Menu. He is now widely regarded as one of Wales' best chefs and one of Britain's new crop of "celebrity" chefs. In June 2015 he opened his new bistro, Bryn@Porth Eirias, on the sea shore in the north Wales town of Colwyn Bay. In 2018 he married Sharleen Spiteri, the frontwoman of Scottish band Texas (band), and the pair have become something of a celebrity couple in their own right. In 2021, they appeared on motoring podcast Fuelling Around to discuss their love of cars as well as their successful careers.
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.
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.
Stephen Terry is a professional chef from Wales, who was taught by Marco Pierre White in his kitchen "Harveys" and currently owns, and is Head Chef at, the Hardwick Restaurant in Abergavenny, Wales. He has a wife and three kids. The Hardwick was awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand rating in 2011, which was lost in the same year.
James Sommerin is a former Michelin-starred Welsh chef.
Club Gascon is a French restaurant located in London, England. As of 2012, the restaurant holds one star in the Michelin Guide. The French restaurant was opened by Pascal Aussignac and Vincent Labeyrie in October 1998, and serves French cuisine. In addition to its Michelin star, it has also won two Catey Awards.
The Curry Awards is an award given to curry restaurants in the United Kingdom, which have achieved "total excellence" in all departments by The Curry Club in association with its publication, The Good Curry Guide.
Wales on the Menu is a BBC Radio Wales series where restaurateur, writer and food critic Simon Wright challenges home cooks of Wales to get their dishes on the menu of top restaurants across the UK. They must survive the criticism of leading chefs before a panel of diners decides whether they have succeeded in putting Wales on the Menu.
Glynn Purnell is an English chef, restaurateur and television personality. Described by the Birmingham Post as "undoubtably the finest chef to hail from Chelmsley Wood", he is the proprietor and Head Chef at Purnell's restaurant in Birmingham, England, which was awarded a Michelin star in January 2009.
The Whitebrook, formerly known as The Crown at Whitebrook, is a restaurant with rooms in Whitebrook, 6 miles (9.7 km) south-south-east of Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales, near the River Wye and the border with England. The building is thought to date from the 17th century and by the 19th century it was used as a roadside inn. Its restaurant was run by Chef Patron James Sommerin until 2013; it gained a Michelin star in 2007. It contains eight double rooms and a 2-acre (0.81 ha) garden. On 7 March 2013, it closed because of financial difficulties; at the time it had the longest held Michelin star in Wales. Critics praised the food under Sommerin, but have criticised the difficulty in finding the restaurant. It re-opened in October 2013 under new chef and owner Chris Harrod, and regained the Michelin star in 2014. Harrod serves a menu using locally produced meat and vegetables along with foraged ingredients such as charlock, hedge bedstraw and pennywort.
Kunal Kapur is an Indian chef and restaurateur known for hosting and judging MasterChef India.
Vivek Singh is an Indian British celebrity chef, restaurateur, and media personality known for his Indian cuisine. He is the CEO and Executive Chef of four London bas-based modern an restaurants and one Oxford bas-based modern an restaurant. Singh is a regular face on BBC's Saturday Kitchen, and has been featured on television shows including Madhur Jaffrey's Curry Nation, At Home with Rachel Allen, NDTV Good Times – Will Travel for Food and My Kitchen Rules UK.
Aktar Islam is a multiple award-winning British Michelin starred chef, restaurateur and entrepreneur. He left the Lasan Group in 2016 to work on his new, flagship project, Opheem and launched his new Italian restaurant, Legna in winter 2018. His new group of restaurants concentrate on celebration of ingredients and are dedicated to gastronomy. Both Opheem and Legna have opened to critical acclaim and Opheem has received its first Michelin star in October 2019 and is the first and only Michelin starred Indian restaurant in the UK outside of London. Pulperia; an Argentine restaurant built around the celebration of beef opened its doors in March 2020 and has gone on to become the only Michelin listed Steak restaurant in Birmingham.
The Walnut Tree is a restaurant in Llanddewi Skirrid, Monmouthshire, Wales, run by chef Shaun Hill and holds a Michelin star. It was previously owned by Franco Taruschio for more than 30 years, and had previously held a star when Stephen Terry was head chef there. It closed briefly in 2007, which the owners blamed on an appearance on Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares three years earlier. It regained its Michelin star in 2010 and continues to hold it.
Vineet Bhatia is a British chef, restaurateur, author, and media personality. He was the first chef of Indian origin to be awarded a Michelin star. He opened two Rasoi restaurants, the first in Chelsea, London in 2004, and the second in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2008. Both restaurants received Michelin stars in 2006 and 2009 respectively, making Bhatia the first and only chef of Indian origin to receive two Michelin stars. Currently, he has eleven restaurants, including his signature restaurant "KAMA by Vineet" in the dining hall in Harrods in London, and appears as a judge on Netflix show The Final Table and judge-host on MasterChef India. He has written two cookbooks, Rasoi: New Indian Kitchen and My Sweet Kitchen.
Philip Howard is a British chef, chef patron, and restaurateur. He gained cooking skills while working under Marco Pierre White at Harveys and Simon Hopkinson at Bibendum. Howard and White's then-business partner Nigel Platts-Martin opened London restaurant The Square in December 1991, despite both of their inexperience in operating a restaurant at the time.
