Saturday Kitchen

Saturday Kitchen is a 90-minute cookery programme, which is broadcast live on BBC One on Saturday mornings.

History

2002–2003

After a pilot hosted by Ainsley Harriott on 14 April 2001,^[3] the show was launched on 26 January 2002 and was originally broadcast as a BBC production for the Open University under an educational remit. It was hosted by Gregg Wallace, then a relatively unknown presenter. He was joined by a celebrity chef each week in a pre-recorded format and with a low budget, utilised archived content from the likes of Keith Floyd and Rick Stein to fill the show. After the first series, a second series went out live.

2003–2006

After the success of the first two series, the programme was relaunched with established celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson as the host, initially guest hosting from May before taking over on 13 September. The format was tweaked, moving away from the educational remit and simple meals to more aspirational food with an increase in chefs, a number of whom had Michelin stars, and celebrity guests. The BBC archive was retained for the revamped format, with Worrall Thompson and the guest chefs preparing dishes, with the clips used to allow clean-up and "resetting" of the studio kitchen.

During the summer of 2004, the programme temporarily moved to BBC One and aired as Saturday Brunch, live from Worrall Thompson's home.^[4] Subsequently, in January 2006, the show moved from BBC Two to BBC One on a three-month trial that became permanent, a decision which drew controversy after the moving of children's programming from its regular slot on the channel for the first time since the 1970s.^[5][6]

2006–2016

After Worrall Thompson left the network to present Saturday Cooks! in June 2006, James Martin took over as host from 24 June. During Martin's tenure, the audience increased from 1.2 million to around 2.5 million, peaking at 2.7 million on 9 January 2010.

On 8 September 2012, the first episode was broadcast from a new studio set, which saw a new design and the addition of mains gas and running water.

On 23 February 2016, Martin announced that he would be leaving the show to concentrate on other commitments, and "to have a lie in" on a Saturday.^[7] His last show was on 26 March.

Among those to cover in Martin's absence were Tom Kerridge, Tony Singh, Rick Stein, Matt Tebbutt, Cyrus Todiwala, John Torode, Brian Turner, and Valentine Warner.

2016–

Presenters

Since April 2016, Saturday Kitchen has been hosted on rotation.

The show has been hosted by a diverse range of culinary figures since James Martin's departure, including: Jason Atherton, Antonio Carluccio, Gennaro Contaldo, The Hairy Bikers, Ching-He Huang, Tom Kerridge, Lorraine Pascale, Glynn Purnell, Tony Singh, Rick Stein, and Cyrus Todiwala.

Since November 2016, Saturday Kitchen has featured a core group of five rotating hosts, these are: Angela Hartnett, Michel Roux, Donal Skehan, Matt Tebbutt, and John Torode—each having hosted at least once since Martin's departure.

Wine experts

Each week, a wine expert pairs wines to go with the studio dishes.

Previously, the wine experts filmed on location at various supermarkets and wine shops around the UK. These were typically filmed earlier in the week, and edited in time for the show.

Since April 2017, rotating wine experts have joined the host, the guest chefs, and the celebrity guest in the studio.

The featured wine experts are: Susie Barrie, Sandia Chang, Sam Caporn, Jane Parkinson, Peter Richards, and Olly Smith.

Future (2017–2020)

As part of the tender for the production of the programme released in October 2016, it was confirmed that the show and Best Bites will remain on air until March 2020, airing 52 episodes and 50 episodes per year respectively. It also confirmed the show will remain live and continue to feature guest chefs and archive content, but may see changes to the presenters.^[8]

In February 2017, the BBC announced that Cactus TV had been awarded the tender.^[9]

Features

Each show typically includes a host chef and two guest chefs, each cooking in the studio. They are joined by a celebrity guest, usually on to promote a forthcoming or current project.

Each guest chefs dish is paired with a wine chosen by an expert. The experts include Susy Atkins, Susie Barrie, Sam Caporn, Sandia Chang, Jane Parkinson, Peter Richards, and Olly Smith.

In between each studio dish, excerpts are shown from the BBC Archives. The footage has most commonly come from Rick Stein and Keith Floyd, but have also featured James Martin, The Hairy Bikers, and Tom Kerridge, among many others.

Before the introduction of the Heaven and Hell feature, the programme previously featured Worrall Thompson and guest chefs pitching a dish to be cooked, which the public voted on and a running total of wins were recorded by using fridge magnets.

Omelette Challenge

Each week, the guest chefs are challenged to cook a three-egg omelette, as quickly as possible.

The current record holder is Theo Randall with a time of 14.76 seconds, set on 2 May 2015. The achievement was recognised by Guinness World Records and Randall is officially the world's fastest omelette maker.^[10]

Heaven or Hell

Each show concludes with the host and guest chefs cooking the celebrity guest a dish containing their favourite or least-favourite ingredient/s.

Which dish is cooked depends on an online vote for viewers at home to choose heaven or hell. Formally, only the viewers who phoned in to the show were able to vote, along with the guest chefs.

The selection is also wine-paired.

Celebrity guests

Among those to have faced "Heaven or Hell" include:

Guest chefs

The programme attracts many highly acclaimed chefs, award-winning, and popular chefs. These have included:

Controversies

In June 2006, it was revealed that host Antony Worrall Thompson was to defect to ITV to host a similar cooking show in the same slot, Saturday Cooks!, though later rescheduled to noon. In addition to his defecting, the new show was to be made by the Saturday Kitchen producer, Prospect Pictures. In light of the changes, the programme was revamped with new host James Martin and new producer Cactus TV.

At the same time, a new "Heaven or Hell" feature was introduced, which saw the celebrity guest provide their heaven and hell ingredients for two recipes, with the public phoning in to vote for the choice to be cooked at the end of the show. A sister show to the new Worral Thompson show, Sunday Feast, had a similar feature at its launch, a week before the new feature was introduced as part of the revamp to the programme. The idea was, however, first announced three weeks before the launch of the revamped programme.

In February 2007, the programme was accused of misleading viewers to phone in to an apparently live segment, which was found to have been pre-recorded a week earlier.^[11]

Spin-offs

The programme has produced a number of spin off series, including Spring Kitchen, Christmas Kitchen and Saturday Kitchen: Best Bites, a compilation programme currently airing on Sunday mornings on BBC Two, as well as the "Saturday Kitchen Cookbook with James Martin", published by BBC Books in July 2007.

Christmas Kitchen

Christmas Kitchen is a weekday, daytime spin-off of Saturday Kitchen.

Series 1 (2013):
Each show, James Martin was joined by guest chefs, including Gennaro Contaldo, Daniel Galmiche, Ching-He Huang, Nathan Outlaw, Theo Randall, Vivek Singh, and Bryn Williams.

In addition to this, Martin was joined by a different star each show. These included James Blunt, Tom Chambers, Anthony Head, Ben Miller, and Sharleen Spiteri.

Series 2 (2014):
James Martin returned for another 10-episode run of Christmas Kitchen in December 2014. Over the 10 episodes, he was joined by several respected chefs, including Jason Atherton, Galton Blackiston, Monica Galetti, Ching-He Huang, Nathan Outlaw, Glynn Purnell, and Bryn Williams.

Also joining Martin were various celebrity guests, including Jon Culshaw, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Micky Flanagan, Dave Gorman, Alex Jones, Denise Lewis, Al Murray, Sarah Parish, and Frank Skinner.

Series 3 (2016):
Matt Tebbutt and Andi Oliver replaced Martin in the presenting role.

As well as appearances from Sabrina Ghayour, Theo Randall, and Vivek Singh, Tebbutt and Oliver were also joined by previous Great British Bake Off contestants, including former winners Candice Brown, Edd Kimber, Frances Quinn, and Jo Wheatley.

There were celebrity appearances from Ronni Ancona, Helen George, David Haig, Aled Jones, Miles Jupp, Adil Ray, Louise Redknapp, and Nina Wadia.

Spring Kitchen with Tom Kerridge

Spring Kitchen was a weekday, daytime spin-off of Saturday Kitchen presented by Tom Kerridge. The series aired for 14 episodes in April 2014.

For each show, Kerridge was joined by different chefs, including Lisa Allen, Jason Atherton, Michael Caines, Daniel Clifford, Gennaro Contaldo, Angela Hartnett, Ching-He Huang, Tom Kitchin, Glynn Purnell, Theo Randall, and Bryn Williams.

Kerridge was also joined by a diverse cross-section of celebrity guests, including Amanda Abbington, Chris Addison, Amanda Byram, Nicki Chapman, Jenny Eclair, Chris Hollins, Alex Jones, Jo Joyner, Nick Knowles, Dominic Littlewood, Craig Revel Horwood, Gaby Roslin, Danny Wallace, and Paul Young.

References

External links

• Saturday Kitchen at BBC Programmes