A celebrity chef who has cooked for the Queen has revealed his secret battle with kidney cancer.
Richard Corrigan, 61, runs multiple high-end eateries in London and most recently opened The Portrait Restaurant atop The National Portrait Gallery.
The three-time winner of the BBC‘s hit show Great British Menu told The Times about the train of events that led to his diagnosis.
Corrigan said his wife forced him to go for a check-up after noticing changes in his physical and mental state and that sleep patterns were out-of-whack.
A private scan subsequently revealed a giant cancerous tumour on one of his kidneys.
Fearing that he did not having long left, the larger than-than-life Irish chef responded in characteristically outlandish fashion – by treating himself to several crates of the finest bubbly.
He said: ‘I decided I’m not going to drink s*** if this is my last six f***ing months, so I phoned up David Motion in the Winery in Little Venice and said, “David, I’m only going to drink Grand Cru for the next few months”, so he sent round five grand’s worth.
‘I said to Maria, “If it’s my final countdown, I’m doing it with f***ing great champagne.”
Celebrity chef Richard Corrigan (pictured), who has cooked for the Queen, revealed that he was diagnosed with kidney cancer
Corrigan shucks oysters at Bentley’s in London’s swanky Mayfair district back in 2005, the year he purchased the restaurant
Corrigan (right) poses with his co-hosts James Martin (left) and Angela Hartnett (centre) on the BBC show Great British Budget Menu
Corrigan endured a seven-hour operation at the Royal Free Hospital in London, where surgeons discovered that the tumour had spread into the main vein for the kidney.
Doctors were also concerned after seeing black spots on his lungs, fearing the cancer may have metastasized – but they turned out to be small clots related to his kidney issues.
For four months the superstar chef required a daily visit from an NHS nurse and he is now receiving state-of-the-art gene therapy from cancer specialists at St Barts.
The chef is full of nothing but praise for the NHS, which he describes as ‘one of the greatest healthcare services in the world’ – and says he does not begrudge paying tax to fund it.
Corrigan, whose own mother died age 66 of cancer, even invited his entire surgical team to his upmarket resturant in Mayfair, lavishing them with magnums of champagne and spoonfuls of caviar.
He said: ‘We had the lot of them — Ravi, the head theatre nurse, the whole lot of them — and Ravi wrote me a lovely letter saying how everything was amazing and the best part was watching me in the kitchen doing what I’m supposed to do, as he said, “to see you back at work”.’
Passionate in his beliefs and never one to shy away from controversy, Corrigan – a farmer’s son from Co Meath in Ireland, who was raised Catholic – recently attended the protest in support of singer Liam O’Hanna from the Irish punk band Kneecap.
O’Hanna, who performs under the name Mo Chara, was charged with terror offences in May for waving a Hezbollah flag at a UK concert in November 2024.
An interior shot of Corrigan’s Mayfair, of the restuarants owned by the celebrity chef
Corrigan was initially operated on by surgeons at the Royal Free Hospital in London (pictured)
Corrigan recently attended the protest outside the hearing of Kneecap singer Liam O’Hanna
He said: ‘A policeman sees me,’ he says, ‘and he says, “You’re that chef off the telly, aren’t you? I’ll escort you through the crowd, sir.” So I say, “No, I’m joining the protest.”
The celebrated chef has never been afraid of airing his opinions in public, admitting earlier this year that he found Meghan Markle’s Netflix series ‘pretentious’.
‘I admit I watched With Love, Meghan – it’s a bit pretentious,’ the Irishman told the Mail’s Richard Eden.
‘I don’t like the pretence. California is all very Hollywood, it’s all very samey – Britain is not like that.’
The chef compared Harry and Meghan to Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, another American divorcee. Edward abdicated in 1936 so he and Mrs Simpson could be married.
Corrigan said: ‘I don’t think anyone likes people doing cheap TV. If you’re gonna leave [royal life], buy yourself a nice pad and entertain and enjoy yourself, but don’t become a burden.’
The remarks were not the first time Corrigan had expressed his disappointment with the former actress’s behaviour.
‘I cooked for the Queen free of charge, of course. And I’ll cook for anyone, but let me just say, some people will have to pay. I’d let [Meghan] in the restaurant, for sure, but the Queen had the red carpet rolled out. Would Meghan? I don’t think so.’
Chef Richard Corrigan had less than flattering things to say about Meghan Markle’s Netflix series ‘With Love, Meghan’ – deeming it ‘pretentious’
Meghan’s eight-episode series, released on Netflix as part of the Sussexes’ reported £85million deal with the US streaming giant, has now been renewed for a second season
The chef said that while he cooked for the Queen free of charge, Meghan would be welcome in his restaurants but would have to pay for her meal
While Corrigan holds the Queen in the highest regard, it is clear that he has less affectionate feelings to some other members of the Royal Family besides Harry and Meghan.
In 2021 he revealed that he had a ‘minor member’ of the royals escorted out of one of his restaurants after they used the word ‘Paddy’ – which can be an anti-Irish slur.
He has to this day refused to name the royal, but confirmed only that it was a woman.
‘I have witnessed very little racism, or racist kind of remarks, to me in over 33 years of living and working in London,’ Corrigan said.
‘I mean, [there were] the odd times that they did pass comments. There’s been a few [times a] minor member of the Royal Family called me “Paddy”.’
Referring to the incident, he said: ‘I made her pay her bill and kicked her out on the street, so that word goes around very quickly.’
He added: ‘I’ve always associated racism and comments like that with the bullies, so if you give it straight back into their eyes, they tend to shut up and go away, and stay quiet around you.’
But he says that the prejudice he faced was nothing compared with that endured by Irish immigrants in the past. ‘It has happened in the previous generation going there [to London], the Irish people that went there in the Fifties and Sixties, they got it between their two eyes.’
Richard Corrigan in his chef’s apron on the Sunday Brunch TV show back in 2019
Corrigan has also courted controversy by lashing out at health and safety culture in British restaurants.
Speaking in 2018 to Mail Online, he said: ‘The nanny state has taken all the fun out of dining. Enough is enough.
‘Every day there’s another public health scare.
‘The relentless cries of a fearful few tell chefs that we can’t serve bacon, we mustn’t offer red meat, and if we do it must be well done or we risk cursing our customers with a death sentence.
‘I’m increasingly being told how to prepare my meals by health and safety executives.
‘The finest game our country can offer is to suffer the indignity of being served with all traces of pink removed.
‘We may as well bin the lot. No one with any taste wants to eat the way these zealots would have us eat.’
Corrigan’s restaurant portfolio includes Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill and Corrigan’s, both in London’s swanky Mayfair district.
The TV chef also runs Daffodil Mulligan near Old Street, as well as Virginia Park Lodge in Co. Cavan, Ireland, with the most recent addition to his portfolio being the much-lauded The Portrait Restaurant – branded ‘one of those rare restaurants that can match the splendour of its surroundings’ by the Mail.
