| Born | 22 February 1961 Arras, France |
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Jean-Christophe Novelli ([ʒɑ̃ kʁis.tɔf nɔ.vɛ.li]; born 22 February 1961) is a French celebrity chef.
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Born in Arras, Northern France, in 1961, in a family with Italian roots, Jean-Christophe Novelli left school at age 14 and worked in a bakery before, at the age of 20, becoming a personal chef to the Rothschild family.
He moved to Britain in 1983, to run Keith Floyd's Maltster's Arms restaurant in Totnes, Devon. He won the first of two Michelin stars at Le Provence in Lymington before becoming head chef at the Four Seasons Hotel on Hyde Park Corner.
In 1996 he founded his restaurant, Maison Novelli, in Clerkenwell, Central London. He has opened further restaurants in London, France and South Africa and continues to expand his activities, acting a chef patron or consultant to various establishments and moving into the gastro-pub market, the first of which was "The White Horse", in Harpenden, this has now been sold and is no longer part of Jean-Christophes' portfolio. He appeared in the first series of The Games in 2003 and also became a head chef on Hell's Kitchen in 2005. In the same year he opened a cooking school called the Novelli Academy at his Hertfordshire farmhouse near Luton. In December 2006 Novelli launched a range of frozen ready meals in association with frozen food manufacturer Findus; these ready meals were discontinued in 2008 but the chef continues to endorse a range of products on his website.[1]
He has 21 dogs (most of them Doberman Pinschers) and drives a Porsche Cayenne.[2]
On 5 September 2007 Novelli was awarded Honorary Doctor of Arts from the University of Bedfordshire.
Novelli is twice divorced. His first wife was of English descent and called Tina. He married his second wife, Anzelle Visser, from Stellenbosch, South Africa, in 1999 (they met in 1997). At the time she was a model and also worked at Maison Novelli. They divorced in 2005. He has been rather unclear about this period of his life, first dedicating his first book to her, and later ignoring her role in his life to the media. Following their separation she worked as events manager at the highly respected Reform Club, having never disclosed her history with Novelli there. She is currently production Manager at Xpozure Advertising, South Africa. He has a 24 year old daughter named Christina Novelli from his first marriage.[3] Novelli got engaged in November 2007 to his girlfriend of 2 years, Michelle Kennedy, with the couple announcing in February 2008 that they are expecting their first child.[4] On the 29 August 2008, the couple welcomed a healthy baby boy called Jean Frank Patrick Kennedy, in Los Angeles.[5] [6]
In 2005 Jean Christophe became one of two Head Chefs in the second series with Gary Rhodes. Jean Christophe became the head of the blue kitchen. But this time the two chefs had to teach members of the public rather than celebrities.
In 2006, Novelli appeared on The X Factor: Battle of the Stars, performing in a group with fellow chefs Aldo Zilli, Paul Rankin and Ross Burden. Novelli can presently be seen on the new ITV1 programme …Cooks!
He has been a contestant on Family Fortunes and on 2 May 2007 appeared on "You're Fired!" on BBC Two, the show following "The Apprentice" on BBC One.
In November 2009, he opened his own cooking show called Chef Academy where he tries to train 9 aspiring chefs into professionals.
In October 2010, he teamed up with the Potato Council for a nationwide competition called Master Spud which will give the winner a chance to star alongside him in a national TV advert.
In an interview on the BBC's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Novelli burnt and scratched (with a knife) Jonathan Ross' desk in a cooking demonstration. He was also a member of the celebrity audience in Derren Brown's TV special "The Gathering." Jean-Christophe also gave an interview to The Daily Mail in August 2011 about his daughter Christina Novelli featuring in Channel 5's Candy Bar Girls and how he coped when she came out as a lesbian. [7]
http://www.thefranceshow.com/foodandwine-details.aspx?id=180
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