Presenter biographies: J-L

As an actress, TV presenter and writer, Madhur Jaffrey has many strings to her bow, but it is for her cookery that she's best known.

Ironically, as a child she never went into the kitchen and when she left India, she couldn't even cook.

Born in Delhi, Madhur Jaffrey came to the UK at the age of 19 to pursue her passion for acting by studying drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. It was here that her love of cooking began, though more through necessity than anything else.

While in London, she desperately missed Indian home-cooked food, so she started writing letters to her mother asking her how to cook different dishes. Her mother would regularly send her recipes so, effectively, she learned to cook by correspondence.

After graduating from RADA, she acted in TV, film and radio productions, but then left England and headed to New York where she began to write food articles as a way of supplementing her income and to help get her children through school. Then came her hugely successful books and accompanying TV programmes.

With four decades of culinary experience behind her, it's the straight-talking clarity of her language that makes her books so successful. She unravels the mysteries of Indian food and says her aim is to keep things simple and easy to follow. As she only started to cook when she was 20, she writes from the perspective of someone who had to teach herself and is aware of all the difficulties presented in the kitchen.

Today, Madhur continues to combine her dual careers as a successful actress and cookery writer. Madhur is one of the featured chefs in Get Cooking, the BBC Food website's video console.

"There's no mystique to making your own baby food," says author Annabel Karmel. And with three children of her own, she should know how important it is to provide them with healthy and tasty food.

Annabel is a leading author on preparing food for children and, as a busy working mother, has first-hand experience of the difficulties of feeding young children.

Following the tragic loss of her first baby, Annabel researched extensively the subject of feeding young children. A trained Cordon Bleu cook, she combined her findings with her own experience and worked with a nutritionist to produce her first book, The Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner, in 1991. The book was a big hit and was endorsed by the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children.

Since then, Annabel has gone on to produce several more books on cooking for youngsters including Feeding Your Baby and Toddler, The Family Meal Planner and Superfoods for Babies and Children.

She writes regularly for magazines and newspapers and has featured on TV and radio programmes, including BBC One's Saturday Kitchen.

Lawrence Keogh is head chef at the renowned Roast restaurant located in London's Borough Market, where he is committed to sourcing the freshest and best produce for the restaurant's daily menu. He has been in the restaurant trade for more than 20 years and has previously held the position of head chef at The Avenue, Bluebird and Quo Vadis, all in London.

Lawrence has cooked for a number of dignitaries and royals, including the Queen Mother, Margaret Thatcher and the late King Hussein of Jordan. Lawrence produced a recipe book called Food For Life, from which all proceeds went to the National Kidney Foundation.

Lawrence has appeared on BBC One's Saturday Kitchen and Good Food Channel's daily show Market Kitchen. He appeared in the BBC Two series Food Poker in autumn 2007.

Graham Kerr will be forever remembered as the Galloping Gourmet, one of the most colourful and entertaining celebrity chefs.

Graham's career began in earnest when he emigrated to New Zealand to work as a catering consultant to the armed forces. While still in the Air Force, his superiors ordered him to appear on TV to demonstrate how to cook an omelette.

His charm quickly won over the audiences and, after popular shows in Australia, in 1969 he headed to Canada to make the Galloping Gourmet. The show, featuring antics, jokes and a little bit of high-calorie cookery, was a worldwide hit in the late 1960s and early 1970s and made him a global star.

But two years later, a horrific car accident forced him to reconsider his life. When he finally reappeared on TV screens many years later, he and his wife had found religion and a passion for low-fat cookery. The man who was once dubbed the most dangerous in the world by Weight Watchers was later made an honorary life member of the American Dietetic Association.

Tom Kitchin, head chef at The Kitchin restaurant, is one of Scotland's most talented young chefs. He opened The Kitchin on the waterfront in Leith in June 2006, with the aim of showcasing seasonal Scottish produce prepared using the techniques of classic French cookery. The restaurant was awarded a Michelin star in January 2007.

Tom began his career at the prestigious Gleneagles Hotel, near his childhood home in Kinross. He went on to train and work alongside some of the world's most respected chefs, including Pierre Koffmann at La Tante Claire, Guy Savoy at Restaurant Guy Savoy in Paris and Alain Ducasse at the Louis XV in Monte Carlo.

Tom was a finalist in the 2008 series of Great British Menu on BBC Two, representing Scotland. In 2009, he represented Scotland again in the fourth series of the programme.

Born in Jamshedpur in eastern India, Atul began his cooking career at the Oberoi group of hotels in India. In June 1993 Atul graduated to the five-star deluxe Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi, where he worked as a sous chef in one of the five restaurants in the hotel, supervising a team of 18, raising the standards in the kitchen.

In January 1994 Atul moved to the fine dining restaurant of Bernard Kunig, one of the finest Hilton chefs and by November of that year had been invited to London to open Tamarind in Mayfair. By January 2001, at the age of 31, Atul became the first Indian chef to be awarded a Michelin star.

In June 2002 Atul joined Marks and Spencer as consultant chef for their Indian range. In August that year, Atul left Tamarind to set up his first independent venture, Benares, which opened on 30 April 2003.

Atul has been awarded The Restaurant Personality of the Year 2001 by the Real Curry Guides' Best in Britain Awards (BIBA) and was awarded Outstanding Contribution to the Curry Industry at the 2005 British Curry Awards.

Atul's recipes have appeared widely in magazines and newspapers. He also demonstrates regularly on food shows in the UK and abroad and teaches Indian cookery at Thames Valley University. He lives in west London with his wife and daughter.

Never complacent with the quality of his work, he returns to his homeland whenever possible to research new recipes and ingredients. His acclaimed cookbook Indian Essence is the product of one such trip. His second book, called Fish, Indian Style, was published in 2008.

Atul has appeared on BBC One's Saturday Kitchen and was one of the finalists in both the 2006 and 2007 series of Great British Menu. He appeared in the BBC Two series Food Poker in autumn 2007. Atul appeared in the 2008 series of Great British Menu on BBC Two, representing London and the South-east.

Since publishing her first cookery book, How to Eat, in 1998, Nigella has been teaching us about the pleasures of the table. The success of her first book led to the acclaimed Channel 4 series Nigella Bites and placed her among Britain’s most admired celebrity chefs.

Having studied medieval and modern languages at Oxford, Nigella embarked on a career in publishing. She went on to become deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times and then pursued a successful freelance career, writing for a range of magazines and newspapers, including the culinary magazines Gourmet and Bon Appétit in the US, delicious in Australia and a food column for Vogue.

Following the success of her first book and television series, Nigella’s second book, How to be a Domestic Goddess, was published in 2000 to much acclaim. Meanwhile, Nigella Bites enjoyed a second series on Channel 4 and was accompanied by another top-selling book of the same name.

Already an international star, in 2006 Nigella collaborated with the Food Network in the US and launched the television series Nigella Feasts. Her 2006 BBC Christmas special showed her at her inspiring best. Her latest series, Nigella Express, which was also accompanied by a book of the same name, aired on BBC Two in autumn 2007.

Nigella was voted author of the year at the 2001 British Book Awards. Her other books include Feast (2004), Forever Summer (2005) and Nigella Christmas (2008).

Jeremy grew up in a village just outside Dundee. His father and grandfather were artists and originally Jeremy thought he'd go to art school, like his two brothers. Instead he got a job as a waiter in local restaurant the Old Mansion House Hotel, Auchterhouse. He didn't enjoy being front of house and eventually got a job in the kitchen, where he stayed for three years before moving to London.

Jeremy developed his knowledge of modern European food while working with Simon Hopkinson at Bibendum in London. He was head chef at the Frith Street Restaurant from 1992 until 1994 and subsequently launched Euphorium in Islington. Jeremy has been head chef at the Blueprint Café in London since 1995.

Jeremy has also had a successful food-writing career. He was shortlisted for Newspaper Cookery Writer in the 2002 Glenfiddich Awards for his work in The Guardian Weekend.

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

Tom Lewis is becoming recognised as one of Scotland's foremost culinary experts.

Tom was 13 years old when he moved to the Monachyle Mhor Hotel in Perthshire with his family in 1983. After finishing school he left home to travel and work in the Middle East, New Zealand and the US for ten years before returning to Perthshire in 1995.

On his return Tom made the decision to pursue a career as a chef after being inspired by two people: the well known chef Nico Ladenis, who he heard enthusing about food on Desert Island Discs, and David Wilson of the Peat Inn in Fife.

By the end of 1996, the Monachyle Mhor Hotel had won its first AA rosette. Since then the awards have come thick and fast for Tom and Monachyle Mhor, including Booker Prize Industry Award in 2003 and an Egon Ronay Award in 2005.

Tom and his team also are great believers in preserving the best of their produce, from homemade jams and pickles to cured beef and bacon. "I change the menu every day - that makes it more exciting and keeps me from getting stale." Tom competed in BBC Two's Great British Menu 2006.

He may be self-taught, but Alastair Little's cookery has been a major catalyst in the evolution of modern British cuisine.

As a boy, Alastair travelled widely across Europe because his father was a naval officer. His travels ignited his passion for food. Unusually though, he didn't study cooking formally, preferring to read archaeology at Cambridge. After university, he returned to the kitchen and learned his trade at the Old Compton wine bar, at the Zanzibar Club and in his first two tries at running his own restaurant: Le Routier in Suffolk and Simpsons in Putney.

He became head chef at L'Escargot and the legendary 192 Kensington Park Road, before setting up his own eponymous restaurant in Soho in 1985. This soon became known as one of the great London eateries. In 1995, he set up a second restaurant in west London, also called Alastair Little.

He has written two books in conjunction with Richard Whittington and two on his own. He also spent ten years teaching summer cookery courses in Italy. He no longer teaches but retains an interest in the company.

Alastair has now left the restaurants that carry his name, and devotes himself to cooking in and running, with his wife Sharon, a food and tableware shop called Tavola in west London, with a little writing and lecturing in addition.

Giorgio Locatelli was surrounded by good food from an early age as his family ran a Michelin-starred restaurant in northern Italy.

He worked in various restaurants in Italy and Switzerland before travelling to London to work with Anton Edelmann at The Savoy. After a spell in Paris, Giorgio returned to London, becoming head chef at Olivio and then opening his own restaurant, Zafferano, in Knightsbridge.

At Zafferano, Giorgio developed the cooking style that earned him a Michelin star, highlighting the role of good ingredients and often importing them from Italy. The venture was such a success that he later opened Spighetta and Spiga, which have since closed. He moved on again this time to act as a consultant to Cecconi's, but is now back in the kitchen full-time at the Michelin-starred Locanda Locatelli, one of London's most talked-about restaurants.

One of the key features at all his restaurants is the welcoming atmosphere, especially for children; Giorgio has two children of his own.

Giorgio has appeared on the BBC's Fresh Food, Ainsley's Gourmet Express and Tony and Giorgio.

His book, Made In Italy, Food & Stories, was published in 2006.