Tom Kerridge

Thomas "Tom" Kerridge (born 27 July 1973 in Salisbury, Wiltshire) is an English professional chef who has worked mainly in the United Kingdom. After initially appearing in several small television parts as a child actor, he decided to attend culinary school at the age of 18. He has since worked at a variety of British restaurants, including the Michelin-starred Rhodes in the Square and Adlards. With his wife Beth, he opened the gastropub The Hand & Flowers in 2005 and within a year gained his first Michelin star. In the 2012 list, he won a second Michelin star, the first time a pub had done so. As a chef he has appeared on the Great British Menu, MasterChef and Saturday Kitchen.

Kerridge currently presents Food and Drink (2015–present) and presented Bake Off: Crème de la Crème (2016), both for BBC Two.

The elder of two brothers, Kerridge's parents divorced when he was eleven. His single-parent family moved around several estates in Gloucestershire while his mother held down multiple jobs. He attended Saintbridge secondary school in Gloucester, and began cooking for himself and his younger brother after school while his mother was at work. Kerridge enjoyed riding his bike and visiting Westonbirt Arboretum.

He attended a youth theatre for three weeks when he was spotted and cast in the 1991 Christmas special of the BBC1 television show Miss Marple: They Do It with Mirrors. A number of other small television roles followed, but at the age of eighteen he decided to pursue his love of cooking instead of an acting career. Kerridge found Marco Pierre White's White Heat cookbook inspiring, and states that it encouraged him to pursue a career as a chef by attending catering college in Cheltenham.