Last updated at 10:34, Friday, 07 August 2009

Chef stars: Ainsley Harriot, left, Jean-Christophe Novelli, and Nick Martin will be at Whitehaven food festival next weekend

AINSLEY Harriott, the King of the TV kitchen, will be headlining this summer’s Whitehaven Festival. He will be rattling pots and pans alongside celebrity chef and heart-throb Jean Christophe Novelli.

The star of BBC2’s Ready Steady Cook will be appearing at the two-day event which replaces the biannual Maritime Festival which last came to the town in 2007.

He admits he’s never been to Whitehaven and said: “It is exciting for me because there are new things to discover.

“There is so much to see in Britain and we forget how beautiful this country is.

“I was told it was beautiful up there and it is great to get to places you would not normally visit.”

Ainsley, who has clocked up almost 2,000 appearances as host of Ready Steady Cook, is especially interested in visiting Whitehaven as he lives in a Georgian house in Wandsworth, London.

The flamboyant cook will be demonstrating some dishes from his new cook book Just Five Ingredients, due to be published this summer.

“I still enjoy cooking and demonstrating and getting the chance to chat with people. With the book I just want to show people that it doesn’t take much to turn out something a little bit different, something with a twist.

“I don’t want people thinking ‘I’ve got to reduce that for an hour and I need 12 saucepans’.

“We still like the classic steaks and stews, but everyone knows how to do those, I just want people to have a go at something that is good and healthy and does not involve too many ingredients.”

And he is hoping to make a holiday weekend of it with his costume designer-wife Clare.

He said: “I’m hoping to bring the missus up as well and if the weather’s nice, we’ll get the blanket out for a picnic!”

Ainsley’s lifelong passion for cooking is a tribute to his mother, Peppy, who encouraged him to help cook for family and friends in what was always an open house in Balham. Following the rules he learned from his mother, he advises people to “use fresh ingredients, have everything ready beforehand and never say ‘it’s too difficult’!” His philosophy is that simple dishes can be just as good as fancy ones.

Aged 16, Ainsley trained at Westminster College and embarked on a career in London’s top hotels and restaurants, starting out as a junior trainee at West End restaurant Verrey’s, where he graduated to commis chef before moving to The Strand Palace as Chef Tournant. He also started his own catering company.

In the early 1990s Ainsley worked as head chef of the Long Room at Lord’s Cricket Ground and it was during one cricket season that BBC Radio asked him to present More Nosh, Less Dosh for BBC Radio 5.

A call from BBC Pebble Mill soon followed and Ainsley moved in to become resident chef on BBC TV’s Good Morning With Anne And Nick.

This in turn led to Ready Steady Cook and his TV career took off.

Ready Steady Cook started airing in 1994. When he became series host in 2000, the show gained a new lease of life and extra viewers. During 2009, the show will approach 2,000 episodes. Can’t Cook Won’t Cook, his popular daytime cookery challenge, ran on BBC1 for several seasons.

Ainsley is also a No.1 best selling author, and has 123 solo books to his name. It all goes towards his aim – “it’s to make cooking fun,” says Ainsley.

First published at 15:44, Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Published by http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk