John Torode

John Douglas Torode (born 23 July 1965) 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 Sydney to Seoul, My Kind of Food and John and Lisas Kitchen with his wife Lisa Faulkner.

Early life

John Douglas Torode was born on 23 July 1965 as the youngest of three boys in Melbourne, Victoria, but, between the ages of four (when his mother died) and ten, he lived in Maitland, New South Wales, with his brother Andrew, and his grandmother who taught him to cook. He then lived in Edithvale, Melbourne, with his father and his brothers, though his father was frequently away from home because of work.

His early cooking career started at Le Coq Au Vin restaurant in Aspendale and his later apprenticeship was at several establishments in Beaumaris, both in Melbourne. He has said that the food in his childhood was fairly normal, and roast chicken remains one of his favourite dishes because of the connection to his childhood, although his favourite meal at that time was crumbed lamb cutlets.

Career

Torode began his cooking career at the age of 16, after leaving school to attend catering college. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1991. A year later he began working at Le Pont de la Tour and Quaglino's as a sous-chef for the Conran Group under Terence Conran. While working at Quaglino's, Torode first met Gregg Wallace, whose company supplied the vegetables for the restaurant.

He cooked on ITV's ''This Morning'' in 1996, and continued in that role until 2000. In 1998, his cookbook ''The Mezzo Cookbook'' won the James Beard Foundation Award for "Best Food Photography". He opened his former restaurant in Smithfield, London in 2000, called ''Smiths of Smithfield''. After a year, he opened a second restaurant, called Cafeteria, near Notting Hill Gate. Its closure made way for larger projects.

Torode has presented a show for the BBC Good Food channel in the UK alongside former ''Celebrity MasterChef'' contestant Hardeep Singh Kohli, called ''New British Kitchen''. The show aimed to feature the impact of imported cuisines in Britain. Other television work has included an appearance on the BBC's '' The Magicians'', which saw Torode and Wallace participate in a stunt by magicians Barry and Stuart which hung the pair off the side of the Tate Modern in London. In 2001 Torode shot a 12-part series for Taste CFN called ''Sea Breeze'' in which he travelled around the Balearic Islands cooking with local chefs and visiting popular tourist attractions.

He presented the 2014 series ''John Torode's Australia''; the 10 episodes retrace the flavours of John Torode's childhood and the people that inspired his passion for food as he travels the country to go back in time. It has been hosted on BBC Good Food and had three reruns. ''John Torode's Australia'' was also recorded as having the largest viewing figures on Good Food in 2014. In 2015, he presented ''John Torode's Argentina'' as part of the BBC Two series ''A Cook Abroad'', looking specifically at the country's production, cooking and consumption of beef. The episode explored the history and culture behind Argentina's great beef production and included Torode joining a group of gauchos on a working livestock ranch, before ending at a restaurant in Mendoza where cooking beef is regarded as being an art form.

Torode was featured on BBC News as one of the people behind the project 'Come Eat Together!' The project encourages the elderly to get together in the community and enjoy food together.

Torode's 2016 show, ''John Torode's Malaysian Adventure'', aired on the Good Food channel throughout the early part of 2016. The 10-part series, filmed throughout Malaysia and the UK, and was commissioned as a result of the success of ''John Torode's Australia''. It explores Malaysian cuisine.

The ''Korean Food Tour'' (2017, Good Food Channel) sees Torode travel around South Korea, to the mountains, the cities, the countryside and the coast and work his way through some of the nation's top 100 dishes then creating his own version of Korean classics with a modern twist.

Torode's food tours led to his 2017/2018 culinary adventure ''John Torode's Asia''. This premiered on the Good Food channel, achieving the highest viewing figures for the channel since March 2013. Commissioned by Good Food's Luke Hale and UKTV's Sally Quick, the series was funded in partnership with a number of organisations including the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

In each location, Torode looked for the most inspiring cooks, discovering the distinctive flavours of their country's cuisine. Cooking on location with local chefs, each episode saw several dishes created, popular and typical of their region. This included eating in an underwater restaurant, discovering a street food market on the banks of the Yangtze River and making traditional dumplings with a Beijing family, ultimately inspiring the viewer to bring the cuisine of Asia into cooking.

In 2018, ''John Torode's Middle East'' (10 x 30 minutes) produced by Blink Films, featured the chef as he travelled across the region to find delicious eats.

In March 2019, Torode, along with actress and food writer Lisa Faulkner, was given his own weekend cooking show. They host ''John And Lisa's Weekend Kitchen'' on Sunday mornings on ITV.

On 21 July 2022, ''John Torode's Ireland'' premiered on ''Food Network'', the six-part series sees the chef discovering Ireland's varied cuisine.

During early 2024, Torode and Lisa Faulkner presented ''John & Lisa's Food Trip Down Under''; a five-part ITV1 series about Western Australia's food and drink.

''MasterChef''

In 2005, the BBC television show ''MasterChef'' was relaunched with an updated format and with Torode and Wallace as presenters replacing Gary Rhodes. Torode was chosen instead of food critic AA Gill. By 2011, the show had been sold to 25 countries. Torode said in interviews that he enjoyed that the show is unscripted and that the cameras are just there to capture the genuine interactions between the judges and the contestants. The show subsequently spawned a spin-off, also hosted by Torode and Wallace, called '' Celebrity MasterChef''. In October 2009, Torode opened a restaurant in Spitalfields market, Commercial street, London, called ''The Luxe''. He sold his shares and moved on from the two restaurants, but under his leadership, turnover at the Luxe and Smiths of Smithfield reached £9.2 million.

He has also co-presented ''Junior MasterChef'', initially along with Nadia Sawalha, the former winner of ''Celebrity MasterChef'', and more recently alongside Donal Skehan.

Guest appearances

Torode has been a guest several times on BBC One's '' The One Show'', '' Alan Carr: Chatty Man'' and '' The Graham Norton Show'', and on ITV's '' Loose Women'' and '' This Morning''. On 23 July 2014 (as a keen cyclist) Torode was a guest on ITV4's ''The Cycle Show''.

Personal life

Torode has four children. He was married to Jessica, in 2000, the mother of his son and daughter but was divorced in 2014 after separating in 2011. He also has two other children from previous relationships.

Torode has been in a relationship with actress and '' Celebrity Masterchef'' winner Lisa Faulkner since 2015. The couple married on 24 October 2019 at Aynhoe Park, Oxfordshire.

Torode was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to food and charity.

Published works

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*Torode, John (2019) ''Sydney To Seoul.'' London: Headline Publishing Group.
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References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Torode, John
Living people
Australian food industry businesspeople
Australian television chefs
Australian television presenters
Australian emigrants to England
Australian expatriates in England
Television personalities from Melbourne
1965 births
Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire