Merrilees Parker

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Merrilees Parker

Cooking style no-nonsense
Current Restaurant(s)
Television show(s)

Merrilees Parker is a British celebrity chef and TV presenter. She is mainly known for presenting television programmes combining food and travel (Planet Food and Full on Food) as well as various more traditional cookery programmes. Parker is also renowned for the menu she presented working for the members-only club The Lansdowne in Primrose Hill in London.

Parker's distinguishing characteristics are her no-nonsense cooking style and her passionate method of presenting. Many of her recipes are freely available online.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Parker was already passionate about cooking as a young girl, at which time her grandmother assisted her in the kitchen. Her mother is half-Portuguese[1] and she has a sister called Hannah Foster who is the Consertative party candidate for Exeter at the next election

Parker lives in the United Kingdom and speaks french fluently.

[edit] Career

Parker develops several career paths in parallel, mainly involving cooking, but not all in the public eye.

[edit] Career as tv presenter

Parker started her career in tv in 1996 as a researcher on the BBC cookery programme Ready Steady Cook. She also researched for Channel 4.

She began presenting in 1997 on a tv programme called Barbecue Bible, in which she appeared as the Home Economist. Parker became a familiar face as tv chef in 1999 on a long running BBC series Anything You Can Cook, which she presented together with Brian Turner.

In 2001 Parker was the tv chef in the BBC day-time show House Call.

In 2005 Parker presented the BBC programme Full on Food, together with Heston Blumenthal and Richard Corrigan. For this programme she travelled to various cultures to sample their traditional cooking. As most memorable and most inspiring places she visited for the programme she mentions Hanoi (in Vietnam) and Peru.

For the programme Planet Food she made several more travel and cookery documentaries. As one of the presenters for these 50 minute programmes, she travelled one country or region per episode, met with interesting local chefs and tasted local (food) culture. Several of the places visited by Parker are Japan, Malaysia, Caribbean and Germany. Planet Food is made by Pilot Guides and broadcast around 2006 by several tv stations worldwide like Travel Channel and Food Network (USA).

Parker also co-presented Orgasmic Organic[2] and Great Food Live. For Sky she did Taste and for the BBC made had some appearances on Saturday Kitchen.

For UKTV Food Parker has presented Food Uncut in 2006 with Stefan Gates and Jean-Christophe Novelli. For ITV, Parker is presenting Daily Cooks and Saturday Cooks in 2007.

In 2007, Parker has also been a judge on ITV1 cooking show Soapstar Superchef.

[edit] Career as chef

At the age of 17, Parker worked as a chalet girl in France, where she impressed the chef. Upon returning to the UK she worked for The Eagle, which is the first gastropub in London. Later she opened her own gastropub.

Parker has been the chef at the The Lansdowne in Primrose Hill in London. Here she developed her personal cooking style and received good reviews. Parker was head chef at The Greyhound in Sonning Common.

While working for Wiz Events, Antony Worrall Thompson's company, Parker has provided consultancy for his restaurants and catered for several events and cookery demonstrations. Parker now runs her own catering company called Pink, together with Bernadette Fitzpatrick, also of the Antony Worrall Thompson stable.

[edit] Magazines

Parker has been contributing to the print magazine BBC Good Food since 2002 and also contributes to Olive.

[edit] Style

[edit] Presenting style

Parker's presenting style is passionate, open and positive. In her travel documentaries she tastes local foods even if they may sometimes look unappealing to western eyes. She doesn't believe eating from street restaurants is risky: if something is cooked in front of you in a hot wok it's less likely to give you food poisoning than something that has been sitting on a lukewarm buffet.[3]

While cooking on tv, she focusses on how people at home can easily follow that recipe, as well as on the benefits of good and organic ingredients.

[edit] Cooking style

Parker's cooking style has been described as no-nonsense. She also emphasises the need to adapt to the target audience, mentioning that for a children's birthday party she creates food that is visually interesting and fun to eat, rather than more suitable for adults. Her company Pink promotes as one of its distinguishing features its range, going from posh clubs via corporate events to children's parties.[4]

[edit] Charity

In 2007, Parker joined the Westminster Arctic Challenge[5]. This charity event raised awareness and money[6] for several causes. The participants were besides celebrity chef Parker, several UK MPs as well as representatives of the charities and a journalist. The participants went on a challenging sponsored trek to the Arctic, on husky-powered sledges.

[edit] References

  1. ^ video of Merrilees Parker at agent website. Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
  2. ^ Video's of Merrilees Parker presenting Orgasmic Organic. Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
  3. ^ Interview about Full on Food. Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
  4. ^ Pink company website. Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
  5. ^ Westminster Challenge. Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
  6. ^ Merrilees Parker sponsor page for Westminster Challenge. Retrieved on 2007-07-28.

[edit] External links