Presenter biographies: A-C

Although he's been cooking since the age of 16, it was when Tom Aikens launched his own eponymous restaurant in London in April 2003 that he sealed his reputation as one of the most exciting young chefs in the UK.

Born in 1970 in Norwich, Tom's early exposure to food and wine came from his father and grandfather, both of whom were wine merchants, and the family regularly travelled to France sampling fine regional cuisine.

Tom and his identical twin brother, Rob, both studied at Norwich City College Hotel School. Tom completed the Advanced Catering Diploma in 1989, securing his first job as a commis chef at the Mirabelle restaurant in Eastbourne. He subsequently worked at various Michelin-starred restaurants in London, including Pied à Terre, before spending a year gaining more Michelin experience at three-star level in France.

Returning to London in 1996, he re-joined Pied à Terre as head chef and co-proprietor, becoming the youngest head chef to earn a second Michelin star at the age of 26. Tom left the restaurant after a dispute and spent the following year as head chef at La Tante Claire.

He opened Tom Aikens restaurant in 2003 which has since won a Michelin star. His second, more informal restaurant, Tom's Kitchen, was launched in October 2006, along with his first cookbook.

Rachel Allen was brought up in Dublin and her early cooking experiences were with her sister, both pretending to be Delia Smith and talking to the wall as they made biscuits. Encouraged by her family, Rachel went to the Ballymaloe Cookery School at the age of 18 and realised that she wanted to make food her career.

After graduating from the school she cooked at the Ballymaloe House Hotel, eventually returning first to test recipes and then to teach at the school. She also spent some time working as a caterer in Vancouver.

Rachel has had four BBC TV series: Rachel’s Favourite Food, Rachel’s Favourite Food for Friends, Rachel’s Favourite Food at Home and Rachel's Food for Living, all accompanied by books. She also appears regularly on BBC One's Saturday Kitchen.

Rachel has written for many Irish publications, including the lifestyle magazine Image, and the Sunday Tribune magazine. She has also contributed to BBC Good Food magazine.

Rachel lives near the cookery school with her two young sons and her husband, another cook, who runs three restaurants in Cork.

Anjum Anand grew up in London but has also lived and studied in Geneva, Paris and Madrid. After gaining a European business degree she decided to develop her interest in Indian cookery and, in particular, to make it fresher, lighter and simpler to cook.

Anjum has worked across the world in innovative restaurants such as Café Spice in New York City, the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles, and the Park Royal Hotel's Indian restaurant in New Delhi, but her real love is delicious and stylish food that is simple enough to cook at home. She challenges fiercely the assertion that Indian food is heavy and difficult to cook and is determined to make 'cooking an Indian' as common as rustling up a stir-fry.

She was one of the first writers to create and write Indian recipes catering for the health-conscious cook and her first book, Indian Every Day: Light, Healthy Indian Food, was published in 2003.

Anjum has family homes in Delhi and Calcutta and loves the regional and cultural traditions of Indian food. Anjum was a regular guest on Good Food's Channel's Great Food Live from 2004 to 2007.

Anjum's six-part primetime BBC Two television series on Indian cookery, Indian Food Made Easy, aired in summer 2007. A second series of Indian Food Made Easy was broadcast in November 2008.

Skegness-born Jason Atherton is executive chef at Gordon Ramsay's Maze and Maze Grill restaurants, in the Marriott Grosvenor Square hotel in London's Mayfair.

Jason was the first British chef to complete an internship at Spain's famous El Bulli restaurant, under Ferran Adrià. It was here that he became interested in innovative flavour combinations and the possibilities of a tapas-style menu of small tasting dishes, which he puts into practice at Maze.

Jason has worked under Pierre Koffman and Nico Ladenis, and first achieved critical acclaim when he opened L'Anis restaurant in Kensington, London. He then worked with Gordon Ramsay as executive chef at Verre in Dubai.

Jason cooked the winning starter and main course in the 2008 series of Great British Menu on BBC Two, representing London and the South-east.

Born and bred in Newcastle, Kenny Atkinson left school at 16 and fell into cooking after a stint working with his uncle in the kitchens of a local hotel. Once he’d qualified as a chef, he went to cook in Greece, then worked his way up the ranks in kitchens around the UK, including the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel in London.

In 2006 Kenny was invited to become head chef at Tean Restaurant, in the Scilly Isles. Here he gained his - and the Scilly Isles’ - first Michelin star, in 2008, after only his first full season at the restaurant.

Kenny has been executive head chef at The White Room restaurant at Seaham Hall in County Durham since 2008. The restaurant won a Michelin star within six months of him taking the reins.

Kenny's heart is firmly rooted in the north-east: his classical British food with a modern twist champions locally sourced produce.

In 2009, Kenny cooked the winning starter in the fourth series of BBC Two’s Great British Menu, representing his beloved north-east. His winning dish was Salad of Aberdeen Angus beef, carrots, horseradish and Shetland Black potato crisps.

Ed Baines is the chef and co-owner of Randall & Aubin champagne and oyster bar in London's Soho. His first TV series Lunch With Ed Baines, which aired on Carlton Food Network, featured him cooking for, and then lunching with, his famous friends at Randall & Aubin.

In 1999 he completed the six-part series Ed Baines Entertains, broadcast on ITV. Two more series followed. He has also appeared as one of the chefs for the BBC daytime lifestyle show Housecall.

Ed Baines fell into catering. After a two-year apprenticeship with Anton Mosimann at The Dorchester in London, he spent a few years cooking on an exclusive yacht and at hotels in Juan-les-Pins in France and Queensland in Australia, then back home at Bibendum and the River Café in London. He then became the official Armani chef and dabbled in modelling. At the age of 25, Ed was contracted by restaurateur Mogens Tholstrup to open Daphne's restaurant in London's South Kensington, where he remained head chef for three years.

In 1996 he opened Randall & Aubin as chef-patron with his friend James Poulton and later opened another restaurant with the same name in Fulham Road.

Ed was a regular chef on the BBC daytime series Step Up to the Plate in autumn 2008. His first book, Entertain, was published in 2001 and the second, Best of British, was published in February 2009. He later appeared in the BBC Two daytime series, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is in spring 2009.

Sat Bains and his wife run Nottingham’s Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms, which in 2003 was awarded the city’s first ever Michelin star.

Sat, who comes from a Punjabi family, was born in Derby and moved to Nottingham when he was 21. He now admits he went to catering college to meet girls, but he found he loved cooking so much he kept doing it.

After passing his City and Guilds qualification, Sat got his big break when he became part of the team helping to open the first of Raymond Blanc’s brasseries, Le Petit Blanc in Oxford in 1996. A spell at L’Escargot in London followed shortly afterwards, before he returned to Nottingham to take the head chef position at the Martins Arms in Colston Basset.

After working with the restaurant of The Ashbourne Gallery in Derbyshire, Sat won the Roux Scholarship in 1999, which gave him the chance to work at the three Michelin-starred Restaurant Le Jardin des Sens in the south of France. On his return he secured the position of head chef at the Hotel des Clos in Nottingham, which was relaunched and renamed Restaurant Sat Bains at Hotel des Clos in November 2002.

Sat appeared in the second series of Great British Menu in spring 2007 and won the chance to cook the starter at the ambassador's banquet.

Sat appeared in the 2008 series of Great British Menu, representing the central region.

Mary Berry is one of the best known and respected cookery writers and broadcasters in the UK.

She started her career as cookery editor at Housewife magazine and later moved to Ideal Home magazine.

Mary has presented seven TV series for Thames TV and more recently for BBC One with Mary Berry's Ultimate Cakes and Mary Berry at Home. The book of the Ultimate Cakes series sold 350,000 copies. She has also appeared as a guest on the former Carlton Food Network and for many years was a contributor to BBC radio.

She has written more than 40 cookery books, including The Aga Book. The Mail On Sunday's You magazine said: "Mary Berry is to Aga what Pavarotti is to opera."

She describes her style of cooking as 'family' - practical, healthy recipes using a little less animal fat and incorporating lots of fresh ingredients.

In June 2009, Mary was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Guild of Food Writers.

In 1979, Galton Blackiston set up a stall at Rye market selling his own range of homemade cakes, biscuits and preserves. The range became known as 'Galton’s Goodies’ and such was its success during that year that Galton abandoned plans to be a professional cricketer, deciding instead on a career as a chef.

Galton began working in the Lake District at the renowned Miller Howe hotel under the eye of flamboyant TV chef John Tovey and gradually worked his way up to the position of head chef. Work experience in New York, Canada, South Africa and London followed.

It was while working at Miller Howe that he met his future wife, Tracy. Tracy and Galton were married in 1987 and in 1991 they restored an 18th century, brick-and-flint manor house on the edge of the Morston Marshes in Norfolk.

Morston Hall is now a Michelin-starred hotel and restaurant and one of Britain’s leading country hotels. Galton has also gone on to become 2001 UK Craft Guild of Chefs Chef of the Year and was East Anglian Chef of the Year 2002 and 2003.

Galton has been sharing his passion for Norfolk produce and the skills of Morston Hall’s kitchen, in twice-monthly series of cookery demonstrations since 1992.

Galton will always tell people that there's "no finer area" than Norfolk. "I believe that real cooking involves using the highest quality locally sourced seasonal ingredients and cooking it as simply as possible. It's simple things done well rather than complicated things done badly that really interests me."

Galton has written three books - the most recent of which is Summertime, joining his previous two, Cooking at Morston Hall and A Return to Real Cooking. He was a finalist in the 2006 series of Great British Menu, representing the Midlands and East, and he also appeared in the second series in spring 2007. He appeared in the BBC Two series Food Poker in autumn 2007. More recently, Galton took part in the BBC Two series Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

You won't find many people willing to argue with Raymond Blanc's reputation as one of the world's top chefs.

The chef and owner of Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons is famous for being a restaurateur, hotelier and businessman.

He arrived in the UK from France in 1972 and, since then, he has been credited with not just witnessing a change in the nation's eating habits, but also with actually fostering it and putting the emphasis on flavour.

"I just want to show the beauty of the flavour and texture... even when I peel a carrot, I think how to produce the flavour better," he says. His recipes reveal this emphasis and provide an imaginative and original twist on many French classics.

Raymond, the son of a clockmaker, grew up in Besancon near Dijon. Before he decided to become a chef, at the age of 17 he tried to impress his mother by making a crêpe suzette. Unfortunately, he made the pancakes in a glass dish instead of a frying pan and the result was exploded caramel-covered glass. So, for a while, his desire to cook faded.

After trying different jobs, including factory worker and nurse, he finally discovered that he had a genuine interest in cooking. Raymond explains that when he was 21, he was looking through a restaurant window and saw a chef flambé a sea bass. And that was the beginning. He approached the restaurant owner who gave him a job washing dishes.

While he taught himself about food, he progressed to waiter. He decided the chef's cooking was bad so he told him and ended up having a copper pan thrown at him, plus a broken nose and jaw.

While in hospital, he heard of a job in England at the Rose Revived in Newbridge, Oxford, and he jumped at the chance. After a year, he was promoted to chef. Over the following years, he worked all hours to save for his own restaurant. At the age of 28, his dream was realised with the opening of Les Quat' Saisons in Oxford.

The restaurant soon won Michelin stars and a host of other distinctions. Now called Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, and relocated to a sumptuous small country house in Great Milton, the restaurant is thriving and has a cookery school alongside it. Raymond is reportedly keen to open another restaurant in Bath.

Raymond's most recent book, A Taste of My Life, is a memoir celebrating his greatest culinary influences - including his mother, Maman Blanc.

The first series of Raymond's BBC TV series, The Restaurant, in which nine couples competed to win the chance to run a restaurant backed by Blanc, aired in autumn 2007. The second series aired in autumn 2008 on BBC Two and another series is underway for broadcast in 2010.

At the age of 16, Heston Blumenthal travelled to France with his family for the first time and became fascinated with the world of food. On his return to the UK, he tried to gain a position in the kitchens of London's hotels and restaurants, but this proved too daunting a task. Unabashed, Heston spent the next decade learning the basics of French cuisine from books and worked in various jobs to fund his research trips to France.

One of the books that most influenced him was On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, which questioned the fundamental rules of the kitchen and explored the science of cooking.

Heston has been described as a 'culinary alchemist' for his innovative style of cuisine. His work researches the molecular compounds of dishes to enable a greater understanding of taste and flavour. This approach to cooking has earned him many awards as well as recognition from the scientific community, including an Honorary Royal Society of Chemistry Fellowship in July 2006.

Heston Blumenthal is chef-patron of The Fat Duck in Bray, which he opened in 1995 with no financial backing. In 1998, the restaurant gained its first Michelin star; its second came in 2001 and the third in 2004, which it has kept ever since. Heston also owns the Hinds Head Hotel, a village public house, also in Bray, and plans to open a restaurant in London's Mandarin Oriental hotel.

Heston's TV series, In Search of Perfection, in which he applies his trademark scientific, investigative approach to classic dishes, aired in autumn 2006. The second series aired on BBC Two in autumn 2007. Both series were accompanied by cookbooks: In Search of Perfection and Further Adventures in Search of Perfection, respectively. His first book - Family Food - was published in 2004. His latest tome (and his largest yet), the Fat Duck Cook Book, was published in 2008.

In January 2009, Heston appeared in the Channel 4 series Big Chef Takes On Little Chef in a bid to overhaul the ailing motorway eatery chain. Since the programme aired, Heston's prototype for the 'new' Little Chef franchises has been given the green light to be applied nationwide. Heston's Feasts, another Channel 4 production, aired in March 2009.

Born and brought up in Bath, Martin was influenced by his mother's wholesome cooking from her homeland of Latvia, as well as by his Russian relatives.

His first restaurant was named Restaurant Lettonie (French for Latvia), on the edge of Bristol, and nine years later, in 1997, he opened a larger version of Lettonie in Bath. The restaurants, both of which have now closed, were each awarded two Michelin stars.

Martin learned his craft through college training in Cheltenham. He did a spell at the Strand Palace Hotel in London, a season in Switzerland and went on many a cruise on a Greek tycoon's yacht before settling down in a job at Lampwick's on London's Battersea Road.

Martin now lives in Bath with his wife, Sian, a trained chef herself, their two sons, Leon and Max, and daughter Coco. He now concentrates on consultancy and television work, and he is currently writing a book on Eastern European cookery.

Martin appears regularly on television and radio with slots as guest chef on Good Food Channel's Great Food Live, Food Uncut and Saturday Kitchen. He has also appeared on BBC's MasterChef Goes Large. He was chosen to cook for the Queen during her jubilee year celebrations, which was documented in the BBC series All the Queen's Cooks. He appeared in the BBC Two series Food Poker in autumn 2007.

Influenced by his relatives' taste for fine dining, it didn't take Mark long to decide he wanted to be a chef. He got a part-time job as a pot-washer at a restaurant opposite his school called the Yew Tree and was promoted to one of the sections after a week.

Catering college was the next step and alongside his studies he worked in various restaurants in the Manchester area. His big break came when, at the age of 17, he got a commis chef job in Knightsbridge at the Rembrandt hotel. He then worked at the five-star Britannia Intercontinental, spending three years working under David Nichols.

Mark was executive chef at Oliver Peyton's Isola restaurant before becoming executive head chef at London's Bluebird restaurant in 2004. He left the restaurant in October 2008 to take up consultancy work with club owner Jonathan Downey; he hopes to one day open his own restaurant in London.

Mark was a finalist in the second series of Great British Menu in spring 2007.

Model-turned-presenter Ross Burden is one of the regular chefs on BBC Two's Ready Steady Cook.

Ross hails from New Zealand and is a self-taught cook. He has hosted and been a guest on programmes across the world.

Since first coming to prominence when he won MasterChef, Ross has been a regular on Ready Steady Cook for the past eight years, filmed a healthy-eating video with Joan Collins, and has made five series for Taste. He has published two cookery books.

As well as all his cookery, Ross is a co-patron of Against Breast Cancer and is working with the Food Standards Agency on their Food in Focus campaign. He also supports the Galapagos Conservation Trust, Friends of the Earth and the WWF.

John Burton Race was born in Singapore in 1957, the son of a British diplomat, and he spent his formative years travelling the globe, experiencing a multitude of cuisines.

His family settled in Hampshire and his career in food began, including working as sous chef at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, Oxford, and head chef and manager of Le Petit Blanc, Oxford.

In 1986, John opened a restaurant of his own - L'Ortolan, in Berkshire, gaining and maintaining two Michelin stars from 1986 until 2000. From 2000 until 2003 he ran The Landmark restaurant, in London's Landmark Hotel, and reclaimed not one, but two Michelin stars within the first year of trading. The restaurant was shut temporarily in 2007, but was bought up by Clive Jobs - a friend of John's - in 2008.

John made a name for himself with his TV series, 'French Leave', and he became one of our most celebrated chefs as a result of his award-winning restaurants in London and the Home Counties.

John and his family moved to Devon and bought the restaurant of his dreams, the Carved Angel in Dartmouth. It was relaunched as the New Angel in May 2004 and the TV series 'Coming Home' followed. The restaurant won a Michelin star in its first year.

John, along with Angela Hartnett, attempted to reform some of Britain's worst kitchen offenders in the BBC Two series Kitchen Criminals. He was a regular chef on the BBC daytime series Step Up to the Plate in autumn 2008.

He uses local produce for his dishes, including freshly landed shellfish and seafood, beef from Devon's Red Ruby cattle, and Devonshire lamb and game.

John was recently appointed development chef for Kent Inns of Distinction's newest restaurant project, Harvey's Fish Market & Oyster Bar, which will open in Ramsgate in summer 2009.

Aiden worked as executive chef at Danesfield House Hotel and Spa in Buckinghamshire, and was chef Tom Aikens' protégé, working as his sous chef at Pied à Terre, in London, then joining him at his eponymous Michelin-starred restaurant as head chef.

Aiden has worked at a number of other Michelin-starred restaurants in Ireland and across the UK, including three years as head chef at Adlards Restaurant in Norwich, where he earned his first Michelin star aged just 22, being the youngest chef ever to be awarded one.

Aiden was head chef of The Grill Room at The Dorchester in London until 2008. He then left the Dorchester to become chef-proprietor of The Church Green, a gastropub in Cheshire.

Aiden appeared in the BBC Two series Food Poker in autumn 2007. Aiden's first cookery book, Made in Great Britain, was published in summer 2008. In 2009, he represented the north-west in the fourth series of BBC Two’s Great British Menu.

Aaron Craze was one of the second group of trainees from Channel 4's Jamie's Kitchen programme. Aaron left school with no formal qualifications and flitted from job to job before applying to become a trainee in Jamie Oliver's London restaurant, Fifteen, having seen the first series of Jamie’s Kitchen in 2002. He graduated from the Fifteen Chef Training Programme with merit in 2004. He since worked at the Ivy.

Aaron won the Channel 4 series Jamie's Chef in 2007 and took over The Cock Inn, in Braintree, until its closure in 2008. Aaron's first book, Aaron Cooks Italian, was published in June 2008 and he regularly appears on Good Food Channel's Market Kitchen.

Michael Caines was born in Exeter in 1969 and adopted into a large and loving family. After attending Exeter Catering College and spending three years under his mentor, Raymond Blanc, he moved to France for two years, learning his profession under the guidance of the late Bernard Loiseau in Saulieu and Joël Robuchon in Paris.

Michael returned to Britain in 1994 to take up the position of head chef at Gidleigh Park, the prestigious two-Michelin-starred hotel on the edge of Dartmoor in Chagford, Devon. Tragically, only two months into the job, Michael suffered a terrible car accident in which he lost his right arm. Remarkably, he was back in the kitchen within two weeks. Four years later, in 1999, Gidleigh Park won its second Michelin star.

In 2003, Michael went into partnership with hotelier, Andrew Brownsword, and purchased the Royal Clarence Hotel in Exeter, which was to become their first ABode hotel: Abode Exeter. Michael also ran the Michael Caines Restaurant in the Bristol Marriott Royal hotel for three years, stepping down in July 2006 to concentrate on his other hotel restaurants.

Michael is based at Gidleigh Park, and regularly cooks alongside his head chefs in Exeter, Bristol, Glasgow and elsewhere. He relaunched the restaurant at the Bath Priory in early 2009.

Michael was awarded an MBE for services to the hospitality industry in the Queen’s birthday honours list of June 2006. He currently lives in Devon, with his partner Ruth and their son Joseph and daughter Hope.

He was a finalist in the 2006 series Great British Menu, representing the south-west, and appeared in the second series in spring 2007. Michael appeared in the second series of Countryfile Summer Diaries, based in the south-west of England, in August 2007.

John Campbell was brought up by his grandmother in Liverpool who taught him simple home cooking. At 15, he became a trainee chef, which led to him being awarded a prestigious Forte Hotels training scholarship. John left Forte Hotels in 1997 and went to Lords of the Manor in Gloucestershire, where he gained a Michelin star.

John has a degree in International Culinary Arts and is particularly interested in the effect of temperature on flavour. He says, "The science of gastronomy has taught me to respect the ingredients and to understand the effect that temperature, as well as the combination of these ingredients, has on flavour."

In 2001 he published Formulas for Flavour and he has contributed to the student chef manuals Practical Cookery and Advanced Practical Cookery. Since 2002 he has worked at The Vineyard at Stockcross where he gained two Michelin stars in 2007. John first appeared on Saturday Kitchen in February 2009.

Elisha Carter is head chef at the Sharpham Park restaurant at Charlton House hotel in Somerset.

North London-born Elisha Carter started his career with a two year apprenticeship at The Ritz, under the watchful eye of Keith Stanley. Elisha then spent a year at Gleneagles hotel as pastry chef. He has since worked with John Burton Race, with Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Oxfordshire and with Richard Corrigan at Lindsay House in London's Soho.

Elisha appeared in the 2008 series of Great British Menu, representing the south-west.

Originally from Canterbury, Daniel completed his apprenticeship in 1992 and promptly became commis chef at the Bell Inn in Buckinghamshire. He moved around different restaurants all across the country, before relocating to France for six months in 1995, where he worked in the Michelin-starred Restaurant Jean Bardet, in Tours.

Daniel returned to England to work with well-known chefs such as Simon Gueller and Marco Pierre-White. He took over as head chef at Midsummer House, which overlooks the river Cam in Cambridge, in 1998.

Daniel was forced to refurbish the restaurant after the river flooded the establishment in 1999 and again in 2000. Despite the upheaval the floods caused, Daniel now sees them as a blessing, as they were instrumental in creating the restaurant that exists today.

Midsummer House won its first Michelin star in 2001 and a subsequent one in 2005 and Daniel is now aiming for a third. His is the only restaurant in Cambridgeshire that has been recognised by Michelin, and the only two-star restaurant in East Anglia. Daniel opened his first pub, The Headley in Great Worley, in 2007.

In France, Daniel developed his expertise in classical French cooking techniques, which he introduced to Midsummer House. However, back in England he is increasingly using this training to reinvent British classics, and the majority of his suppliers are now British.

Daniel appeared in the 2009 series of Great British Menu, representing the central region.

Born in Minori on the Amalfi Coast, Gennaro Contaldo is one of the most respected chefs in London and is widely known as the man who taught Jamie Oliver all he knows about Italian cooking.

Gennaro was a regular guest on Channel 4's the Italian food expert on Richard and Judy programme and has appeared on BBC One's on Saturday Kitchen. He has also appeared on Jamie's Italy, Jamie's Kitchen, Oliver's Twist, Jimmy's Farm, Countryfile: Summer Diaries and Sky One's Greatest Dishes in the World.

In 1999 Gennaro opened his own restaurant Passione, on Charlotte Street in London, which was awarded Best Italian Restaurant 2005 in the Tio Pepe ITV Restaurant Awards. The restaurant closed in spring 2009. His first cookbook, also called Passione, was published in 2003 and won the Gourmand World Cookbook Best Italian Cuisine Book 2003, and was shortlisted for an André Simon Award. Gennaro's second book, Gennaro's Italian Year, was published in 2006. Another book is due to be published in March 2010.

Gennaro appeared in the BBC Two series Food Poker in autumn 2007.

Richard Corrigan was born in Dublin and brought up on a 25-acre farm in County Meath in the Irish midlands. Richard started his career at age 14 as a trainee chef at the Kirwin Hotel, in his home town of Athboy, Country Meath.

At age 17 Richard moved to Holland and lived there for four years developing his skills as a chef de partie at various top hotels and restaurants.

In 1985 Richard moved to London to work with Michel Lorrain at Le Meridien Hotel in Piccadilly. After one year he became head chef for Stephen Bull in Blandford Street W1, before moving to Mulligan’s in Mayfair. He then worked at Bentley's Bar and Grill in Swallow Street W1 (he recently purchased the lease on this long-established restaurant) and then returned to work with Stephen Bull in Fulham Road, where he was awarded a Michelin star.

In 1996 he launched Searcy’s at the Barbican and then formed a business partnership with Searcy’s.

Having gained tremendous critical and public success in all these establishments, in autumn 1997 Richard took over the iconic Lindsay House restaurant in London’s Soho, where his Celtic roots were evident in a menu of earthy and robust tastes and textures. The restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in 1999 and in 2000 Richard was awarded 'Outstanding London Chef' at the Carlton London Restaurant Awards.

In 2004 Richard and Searcy’s Ltd opened an exclusive restaurant and bar at the top of St Mary’s Axe, the striking Norman Foster-designed building known affectionately as The Gherkin. In 2006, Richard took over the reins at the well-established London fish restaurant, Bentley's, opening a second Bentley's in Dublin in 2008.

Richard opened his latest restaurant, Corrigan's, in August 2008. It was also announced around the same time that Lindsay House would close, after 25 years, in May 2009 after its lease came to an end.

Richard has appeared on television many times, including stints on BBC's Masterchef, Saturday Kitchen and Full on Food, as well as Channel 4's Jamie's Kitchen. Richard was a participant in the 2006 series of Great British Menu and his smoked salmon starter went through to the final of the competition. He cooked the winning fish course in the second series of Great British Menu in spring 2007.

Richard has catered for numerous prestigious events, including preparing lunch at 10 Downing Street for Tony Blair and the King and Queen of Jordan, the Lord Mayor's dinner at the London Guildhall in 2002, and a dinner held by Tony Blair for Irish President Mary McAleese. Richard is one of the regular judges for Gordon Ramsay’s scholarship award and is also a consultant to British Airways on their Culinary Council, advising on in-flight menus. He does a great deal of charity work and sits on Ken Livingstone’s London Forum.

Richard is married with three children and lives in north London.