John Torode
| John Torode | |
|---|---|
John Torode at Masterchef Live in 2010
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| Born |
23 July 1965 (age 51) Melbourne, Australia |
| Residence | London, England |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Broadcaster, celebrity chef, restaurateur |
| Years active | 1990s–present |
| Employer | BBC |
| Known for | MasterChef |
| Spouse(s) | Jessica (2000–2011) |
| Children | 4 |
John Douglas Torode (born 23 July 1965) is an Australian celebrity chef. He moved to the UK in the 1990s and began working at Conran Group's restaurants. After first appearing on television on ITV1'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 written a number of cookbooks.
Torode was born in Melbourne, Victoria, but between the ages of four (when his mother died) and ten he lived in Maitland, New South Wales, with 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 Beaumauris, 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. He has also said that one of the first books he enjoyed at school was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
He 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. When he first met Conran, Torode asked his fellow chefs who that "nutter" was, as he'd arrived in the kitchen wearing a coffee stained shirt and clutching a bag of figs asking for them to be put on the menu. In later interviews, Torode described Conran as a "genius". Whilst working at Quaglino's, Torode first met Gregg Wallace, whose company supplied the vegetables for the restaurant.
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