Could British superchef Tom Kerridge be the man to take hugely successful BBC cookery show MasterChef into a new era, following the highly controversial departures of presenting duo John Torode and Gregg Wallace?
The odds on it happening are shortening by the day, but he wouldn’t put a bet on himself – at least not for now.
The 51-year-old tells MailOnline Travel: ‘The phone hasn’t rang yet! I doubt it will be me but whoever does get the role has a magical experience coming their way. It’s a phenomenal show.’
Kerridge is a busy man, and shoehorning one of Britain’s biggest TV shows into a schedule that already includes running a six-restaurant empire – said to be worth more than £37million – that started with his two Michelin-starred pub The Hand and Flowers in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, wouldn’t be easy.
He already spends nine weeks a year filming another BBC hit, Great British Menu, and has just finished filming the follow-up to Tom Kerridge Cooks Britain, which bagged more than a million viewers per episode when it aired on ITV in the autumn.
For the follow-up series, airing this week and in collaboration with M&S Food, he’s pointed his compass at Spain, spending five weeks trundling a bright blue 1980s Mercedes truck north to south, east to west in Britain’s favourite holiday destination – and saying hola! to some very unique producers.
‘One of the characters we met – and I loved this guy so much – was called Juan. He’s a rice farmer but he’s also a former Spain’s strongest man.
‘The juxtaposition between this absolute giant monster of a man who’s up at five in the morning training, and then he’s spending this wonderful, tranquil time in the rice fields sowing his rice plants.’
Tom Kerridge’s latest TV adventure hits screens this week and sees him heading for Britain’s favourite holiday destination – Spain
Pintxos por favor! San Sebastián in northern Spain has the most Michelin stars per capita in the world – and Tom says he loved the country’s passion for finding flavour
That Spain even has rice fields – Tom visited the Ebro Delta in the Catalonia region – was amazing to the chef, who grew up with a single mum on a council estate in Gloucestershire, with childhood holidays rare.
‘The highlight of the whole series for me was probably those paddy fields. When you think of rice fields you always think of South-east Asia – but of course, Spain’s most famous dish is paella!’
He loved the ‘amazing’ anchovies in the Bay Of Biscay, saying the northern Spanish coastal towns felt ‘like a really hot Cornwall’ with their rugged coastline and cobalt horizons – ‘and the working fishing ports were beautiful and brilliant’.
The weather was universally hot, except for one day of filming in Seville in which the series celebrated the city’s famous oranges, for which Kerridge conjured up citrus-inspired dishes.
‘The region has more sunshine than any other part of Spain – except the day that we visited, when it was like a November day in Oldham, throwing it down with rain and freezing cold.’
How’s his Spanish? He laughs: ‘Really rubbish. I haven’t got a brain for languages. It’s just not there. I love culture and I love meeting new people and learning new words… but they don’t stay in my brain.’
Exploring the world is something Kerridge, who’s married to sculptor Beth Cullen, says he’s still learning to do.
His childhood summer holidays were mostly spent ‘hanging around having fun with my mates’ on the estate where he grew up – although two classic British bucket-and-spade destinations did feature.
Tranquility: For new series Tom Kerridge Cooks Spain, the chef headed for the paddy fields on Spain’s Ebro Delta – and found a former Spain strongman planting rice
The pursuit of citrus dishes took the chef to Seville – only for the rain to turn up: ‘It was like a November day in Oldham’, says the chef
‘To be honest, I didn’t really have many holidays [as a child]. We had a couple to the Isle of Wight, my mum, myself and my brother.
‘We went probably two or three years in a row to a holiday camp, staying in chalets. It felt really important for me because we went on a ferry – it felt like we were properly leaving, we weren’t just driving there.’
There’s big nostalgia for Weston-super-Mare in the Bristol Channel too, where the family would take day trips to the beach.
‘It’s only down the M5 from where I grew up in Gloucester. It was a big holiday town and I still have huge fond memories of Western, I think it’s amazing.’
He didn’t get on a plane ‘until I was 18’ and holidays didn’t feature while he was carving out the stellar career that’s made him one of Britain’s most famous chefs.
‘I was in the kitchen as an 18-year-old and that was it. I don’t regret it at all – I loved every minute of it.
‘The first holiday that I probably went on was with my wife Beth. We went to a small little Greek island and it was it was magic.
‘I just remember thinking, wow, holidays are amazing. I can’t believe I’ve waited until I’m 25 to do this.’
Kerridge took a retro 1980s Mercedes truck around Spain for his latest ITV series
Tom pictured as a child, he grew up on a Gloucester council estate and says holidays were a rarity – and became even more scarce as he threw everything at making it as a top chef
Nostalgia: Bucket-and-spade resort Weston-super-Mare was Tom’s go-to for daytrips as a youngster
‘Now, we always try to go back to one of the Greek islands, I like Crete a lot. It’s a four-hour flight, the weather is beautiful, the people are lovely.
‘The vocabulary of Greek food is very, very simple too but you can always get something pretty tasty, whether it’s grilled fish, simply roasted potatoes or just a Greek salad.’
He’s determined to make up for lost time on the holiday front and ‘expand our horizons.
With wife Beth and son Acey, nine, the family escapes two or three times a year now, he says, with winter sun, a European summer jaunt and an annual trip to Carrara in Tuscany, where Beth sources the marble for her sculptures, their general routine.
‘In all honesty, I normally do what I’m told. I’m super busy so my wife books the holidays! We try and get some winter sun, we’ll have Christmas with the family, then go away for New Year with another chef and his family. This year it was Thailand, which was phenomenal.’
You won’t find him by the pool though with a book though. ‘I’m not very good at sitting on a sunbed and doing nothing.
‘I’ll be there for about six minutes and then I’ll say “what are we doing now?”. It drives my wife nuts.’
Thankfully, he’s got a partner in crime to turn to. ‘I’m quite lucky that my son’s nine – we’re more like brothers, to be honest.
The star took his first proper holiday with now wife Beth Cullen, a sculptor, when he was 25 and says while he can’t sit still on beach breaks – he’s got a partner in crime, son Acey, nine, to have adventures with
Family favourite: The top chef is a big fan of Greece and its food, saying simple dishes such as salads, grilled fish and potatoes are done really well (Pictured: Crete)
‘We’ll say: “Let’s go play somewhere with the ball. Let’s go throw something at something. Let’s go swimming. Should we go find a go-kart track? What about going on a jet ski?”
‘Later in the day, Beth comes and finds us somewhere.
‘By the time she’s read her book and is ready for lunch, we’ve played seventeen games of table tennis, had a go at water skiing and flown a kite.’
Speaking of lunch… when it comes to holiday food, Tom says he’s not always expecting culinary alchemy – ‘bog standard is fine’ – but there’s destinations he rates with his chef’s hat on: ‘Singapore is always amazing, Hong Kong is also brilliant and Asia is somewhere I’d like to go a lot more to.
‘I’d love to do India and Sri Lanka. We try to expand our horizons and go and eat in as many places and visit as many places as possible.’
He reluctantly admits he didn’t like Portugal – saying a burger he ate at a water park was ‘one of the worst things I’ve ever eaten’ – but is forgiving.
‘I think it was the wrong time of year, we went to the wrong place and it wasn’t Portugal’s fault.’
Over the border in Spain for his most recent TV adventure though, it was, happily, a much better foodie proposition – with easy-to-recreate dishes in the new series including crispy tempura anchovies, a pork chop and white-bean stew and yes, paella.
Asian destinations are a huge draw as well, with Singapore and Hong Kong (pictured) amongst his favourite foodie destinations
‘I loved seeing how rich and vast the country is with so many different varying areas.
‘You’ve got foodie Meccas such as Catalonia, Andalucia and San Sebastian – it’s a country that’s so full of passion for food, for flavour and for life.
‘It was great doing the Britain show and it’s been magic now adding Spain too.’
Tom Kerridge Cooks Spain in partnership with M&S Food airs on ITV1 and ITVX on Thursdays from 24th July to 28th August
