Presenter biographies: M-O

New Zealand-born Alex Mackay is a cookery teacher, writer and TV presenter. At the age of 19, he left New Zealand for a two-and-a-half year stint in France, learning from Michelin-starred chefs. He then moved to the UK to work at Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons. Ten years ago he returned to become director of the Oxfordshire restaurant's cookery school. In 1999 he opened his own school, Le Baou d’Infer, in Provence.

Alex runs cookery workshops at Norwich City Football club with Delia Smith and writes a monthly cookery school series in Sainsbury’s Magazine. He was voted the Guild of Food Writers Cookery Journalist of the Year in 2006. His first cookbook, Cooking in Provence, was published in 2003 and republished in 2008.

Alex has appeared regularly on TV programmes including UKTV's Great Food Live and is a regular on BBC Two's Ready Steady Cook.

James Martin was born into the chef's life: his father ran the catering side of Castle Howard stately home in Yorkshire and, when he was only 12, James could boast that he'd cooked for the Queen Mother on her visit there.

At 16, he went to Scarborough Technical College to begin his formal training. While there, he was student of the year for three years running. His work was noticed by Antony Worrall Thompson who brought James to London to work, first at One Ninety Queen's Gate and then at dell'Ugo. James then travelled throughout France working in the kitchens of French chateaux alongside the matriarchs of grand old families.

On his return to Britain, at age 22, he worked at the new Hotel and Bistro du Vin in Winchester where, as head chef, he changed the menu every day.

His TV career started in 1996 when he became a regular team member on Ready Steady Cook and he has since appeared in numerous TV shows such as Delicious!, James Martin: Sweet and Yorkshire’s Finest as well as Castle in the Country and Stately Suppers for the BBC. In 2006 he impressed fans with his dancing skills in Strictly Come Dancing. James now presents Saturday Kitchen live on BBC One every Saturday morning, appeared in Sweet Baby James on BBC Two in spring 2007, and took part in BBC Two's Eating with the Enemy.

James is the author of numerous cookery books, including James Martin - Desserts and The Great British Village Show Cookbook, both published in spring 2007. The Collection, a book celebrating traditional British recipes, was released in 2008. James's next book, titled My Kitchen, will be published in autumn 2009.

Outside of his TV work he co-owns a kitchen design/manufacturing company in St Albans, and is a food consultant on the cruise ship Ocean Village.

Ian Matfin is executive chef at Michael Caines’ ABode Hotel in Manchester, which won Restaurant of the Year at the 2008 Manchester Food and Drink Awards.

Ian was born in Newcastle and learned basic cookery skills at an early age from his mum and gran. He started his cooking career at the city’s Country House Hotel and didn’t look back, going on to cook at the only Michelin-starred restaurant in the north-east at the time, Newcastle’s 21 Queen Street, where he worked under Terry Laybourne.

From there Ian worked at prestigious London restaurants including Claridge’s, Aubergine and Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons. He also worked for six years at Michael Caines’ Gidleigh Park, where he became head chef. Ian has worked with Michael Caines for many years and describes him as an inspiration.

Although Ian lives in Manchester, using local produce in his dishes such as Cheshire beef, Yorkshire apples and Cumbrian lamb, he still considers himself a true Geordie. In 2009 he appeared in the fourth series of BBC Two’s Great British Menu, representing his native region, the north-east.

Allegra McEvedy is one of the founding partners of Leon, the healthy fast-food restaurant that opened its first outlet in London's Carnaby Street in July 2004. She left the company in March 2009, though she remains a shareholder.

Allegra completed her classical French training at the Cordon Bleu School in London in 1991 and has worked at Green's, The Belvedere in Holland Park, The Groucho Club and The River Café in London, and at Rubicon in San Francisco. She also ran the kitchen at Robert De Niro's New York restaurant, Tribeca Grill. While in New York, she catered for a Democratic Party fundraiser, which involved personally cooking for then-President Clinton.

When she returned to London, Allegra joined The Good Cook group, initially as head chef of The Tabernacle, a community restaurant in Notting Hill, and later as head chef of The Good Cook in Kensington High Street. She was also the chef-in-residence at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts.

She now devotes much of her time to writing and consultancy and is the resident chef of the Guardian's G2 magazine. Allegra has written three cookbooks. Her first, The Good Cook, was published in March 2000. Her second, Allegra McEvedy's Colour Cookbook, won the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) 2007 Cookbook award in the Chefs and Restaurants category. Leon: Ingredients and Recipes was published in autumn 2008.

In May 2007, Allegra became one of the inaugural presenters, along with Nigel Slater and Katie Derham, of FoodRadio.com. Allegra appeared in the BBC Two series Food Poker in autumn 2007. A new BBC Two series, Economy Gastronomy, which she will present with Paul Merrett, will air in autumn 2009. A book that ties in with the series will also be published at the same time.

Between the ages of 10 and 18, Clodagh spent all her summers with a French family, for whom food was very important. At home in Ireland, her dad did all the cooking and would come home in his lunch hour to make dinner. Clodagh would come home from school to a list of things to prep.

Eventually Clodagh went on to work as a chef in Ballymaloe House for three years, following her training at the Ballymaloe Cookery School in Cork. While working there, the Middleton Farmers' Market opened and Clodagh set up her own stall at weekends selling fresh pasta, pâté and pickles. She soon decided to devote her time fully to working in the market. In her spare time, she travelled across Ireland, selling her own produce.

In 2001 she was asked to run events for the West Cork Slow Food Convivium, which gave her the opportunity to strengthen the connection between producer and consumer, something she believes in passionately.

Her first book, The Irish Farmers' Market Cookbook, was published in 2006, and she has filmed a TV series to accompany it.

Clodagh currently lives in Italy, where she is involved in the Slow Food movement. She writes for many publications, including The Mail on Sunday, Food and Wine magazine and delicious magazine, and is also the editor of the Slow Food Ireland Guide to Producers. Clodagh appeared in the BBC Two series Food Poker in autumn 2007.

Noel McMeel is head chef at the Catalina restaurant at Lough Erne Golf Resort in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. He was formerly executive head chef of Castle Leslie estate and cookery school in Glaslough, County Monaghan.

Noel has earned critical acclaim for his use of carefully sourced ingredients and his modern Irish cooking style. His upbringing in a farming environment, with the family more or less self-sufficient, helped to spark this interest in quality produce.

Noel trained at the Northern Ireland Hotel and Catering College. His first job was an apprenticeship at the Villager, Crossgar, followed by a stint working with Paul and Jeanne Rankin at Roscoff, Belfast.

Noel received a scholarship to study in the United States, at the Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, and Boston University. He then worked in some of the most respected and well known restaurants in the world, such as the Watergate hotel in Washington DC and Chez Panisse in San Francisco. Noel then returned to Northern Ireland and took up the position of head chef at the Beech Hill Country House Hotel. He opened his own restaurant, Trompets, in the late 1990s.

Noel appeared in the first and second series of Great British Menu in 2007 and 2008, representing Northern Ireland.

Paul Merrett was the presenter of BBC Two's Ever Wondered About Food... series. Paul also co-presented a BBC Two ten-part prime-time series called The Best which aired in 2002 and was accompanied by a book of the same name.

Paul trained under Gary Rhodes at The Greenhouse in Mayfair, London, following his apprenticeship at The Ritz and three years working with chef Peter Kromberg at Le Soufflé. He then moved to The Terrace Restaurant at the Meridien Hotel in Piccadilly Circus, where he established a reputation for British cuisine with an Asian twist.

In October 1997, Paul took over the kitchens at Interlude in Charlotte Street, London W1, where his food continued to earn rave reviews. Ironically, after the restaurant was bought by investors and then shut, Paul was awarded his first Michelin star for the restaurant that was no longer there! Paul then returned to The Greenhouse where he was head chef and had been awarded a Michelin star but he left to open a less formal restaurant, The Farm gastropub in Fulham, London. Paul left The Farm in 2005 to work on his second book, Using the Plot: Tales of an Allotment Chef, which was published in 2008. Paul and his business partner opened the revamped The Victoria pub and dining room in East Sheen in London in summer 2008.

Paul has appeared as a regular presenter on the BBC food series entitled Fresh Food which was broadcast in July 1999, and has appeared as Guest Chef of the Week for Food Network Daily on the Carlton Food Network and as co-presenter on Good Food Live on UKTV Food. Paul contributes regularly to Olive magazine.

Paul is also one of the featured chefs in the BBC Food website's Get Cooking video console and appeared on the BBC daytime series Step Up to the Plate in autumn 2008. He will co-present a new BBC Two series, Economy Gastronomy, with Allegra McEvedy in autumn 2009.

Danny Millar has been director and head chef of Balloo House, Killinchy, Northern Ireland since September 2006. The restaurant won the Hospitality Award at the Northern Ireland Tourism Awards 2007.

After four years working in Germany’s Black Forest, Danny returned to Northern Ireland and cooked with Robbie Millar in Bangor for two years. Danny then spent four years as head chef at the Narrows Seafood Restaurant in Portaferry, followed by another four years as head chef at Paul Rankin’s Cayenne, in Belfast.

Danny was a finalist in the 2008 series of Great British Menu on BBC Two, representing Northern Ireland. In 2009 he returned to represent Northern Ireland in the fourth series of the programme.

Sophie has been passionate about cooking since she was a child and her professional kitchen career kicked off at the tender age of 14. Sophie studied at Butler's Wharf Chef School and then went on to work in London's The Greenhouse, The Lanesborough, and The Embassy.

Sophie worked as family chef for a top supermodel for two years and during this time cooked for various VIP clients. She appeared as head chef for Channel Four's The Fit Farm programme. Her first cookbook, Irresistible, was published in March 2005. Since then she has presented Channel Four's Cook Yourself Thin and has appeared as a guest on a variety of programmes, including regular appearances on UKTV Food's Great Food Live. She first appeared on BBC Two's Ready Steady Cook in spring 2008.

Having left school with no qualifications, Inverness-born Alan Murchison is now managing director of Alan Murchison Restaurants Ltd and is the only British chef outside the capital with two Michelin-starred restaurants.

Alan has worked with several Michelin-starred chefs since he started his restaurant career as a pot-washer. He worked under Graham Newbould and Simon Haigh at Inverlochy Castle, then as John Burton Race's sous chef at l'Ortolan, near Reading, which he bought from Burton Race in 2001. He also worked with Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, in Oxfordshire, for more than four years as a senior sous chef and teacher.

In 2007, he bought the site of the Michelin-starred chef Claude Bosi's Hibiscus restaurant in Ludlow, and relaunched it as La Bécasse. Both this restaurant and L'Ortolan serve modern versions of classic European cuisine. In December 2007 he also published his first cookery book, Food for Thought.

Alan is passionate about British produce, which makes up 95 per cent of the food used in his restaurants. He also leads by example, growing his own mushrooms and picking his own berries for his kitchens.

Alan appeared in the 2009 series of Great British Menu, representing Scotland.

Nick Nairn, one of Scotland's most exciting cookery talents, and a familiar face to many thanks to his regular appearances on Ready Steady Cook, is also a staunch supporter of top-quality Scottish produce.

Born and brought up in the village of Port of Menteith in Stirlingshire, Nick began his working life as a navigator in the merchant navy before returning to Scotland to study at Glasgow's College of Nautical Studies. Student poverty and a desire to recreate the exotic dishes he'd experienced on his travels drove him to teach himself to cook, and in 1986 he opened his first restaurant, Braeval, a few miles from the Trossachs village of Aberfoyle.

The restaurant flourished and in 1987 Nick won the Scottish Field and Bollinger Newcomer of the Year Award. Four years later he became the youngest chef to win a Michelin star in Scotland.

Nick's second restaurant, Nairns Restaurant with Rooms, opened in Glasgow in 1997 and in 2000, he established his own event-catering business, Nairns Anywhere. A keen advocate of healthy eating, he then opened the Nick Nairn Cook School near his childhood home in Stirlingshire. Eventually Nick hopes to open more schools in Aberdeenshire, as well as two more near Glasgow and Edinburgh and one in London.

Nick's unflagging energy and distinctive style of cooking have ensured the popularity of his TV and radio appearances over the years. He represented Scotland in the finals of Great British Menu in 2006, and was chosen to cook the main course for The Queen's 80th birthday banquet. He also appeared in the second series in 2007. Nick has also appeared in Saturday Kitchen, Who'll Do the Pudding, Masterchef, and Nick Nairn and the Dinner Ladies, for which he won a Glenfiddich Award in 2004.

Having sold his restaurant in Glasgow in 2003, Nick is now based at his Port of Menteith Cook School where his busy schedule includes writing, teaching and food consultancy.

Australian-born Ben started off his career working in a number of restaurants throughout Australia. These included Jessica’s in Perth, Goodfella’s restaurant in the trendy Newtown area of Sydney and the much-acclaimed Tribeca restaurant in Double Bay, Sydney.

Ben then came to the UK and worked at the River Café, before moving to become head chef at Monte’s Club in Knightsbridge.

Since January 1999, Ben has also been a consultant and food stylist to Jamie Oliver, as well as assisting Jamie with various outside catering functions, including cooking for Tony Blair and the Italian Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street in 2001.

Ben co-presented a BBC Two ten-part series entitled The Best in April 2002 with an accompanying BBC book of the same name, and filmed an eight-part food and travel series for the Australian Broadcasting Company, Surfing the Menu, with an accompanying ABC book in early 2003. This series was shown in Australia in February 2004 and was screened on the UKTV Food channel in 2004, with the UK book coming out at the same time. The second series of Surfing The Menu and its accompanying book were released in 2005. Ben's latest book, Outdoor, was published in October 2008.

Ben has now returned to Australia after 13 years of living in the UK.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has been credited with getting the Government to increase funding for school meals - something that many parents have been trying to do for years. An established star of TV cookery programmes, Jamie Oliver has wowed all generations of food lovers with his fresh, no-nonsense cooking style and his inspiring recipes.

Jamie grew up surrounded by good food: his parents ran the Cricketers pub in Essex and, from the age of eight, he started cooking and helping the chefs.

The use of quality fresh produce at the pub gave Jamie a love of good ingredients. After an undistinguished school career, he decided he wanted to cook for a living and went on to study catering at Westminster Kingsway College in London. It was around this time that he met Jools and they started dating. After college, he travelled to France to learn more about his trade.

Jamie's apprenticeship to restaurant cooking came under some of the best chefs in London. To begin with, there was Antonio Carluccio at the Neal Street Restaurant, then he moved on to the River Café under Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers. The Italian influence on his cooking is strong, with its use of herbs and simple, full-flavoured recipes. It was while he was working at the River Café that he was spotted by a TV producer and his life changed.

The first series featuring Jamie cooking was the Naked Chef. Viewers were treated to a glimpse into his world, zipping about London on a scooter and hosting parties for all of his friends, all to a rock'n'roll soundtrack. The food was reassuringly hearty, but not too fiddly, and Jamie always seemed to have his hands full of fresh herbs and olive oil. It was an overnight success, attracting an audience that wouldn't normally watch food programmes. The book that accompanied the series became a bestseller and the young chef, always fully clothed, was catapulted into the limelight.

Fast on the heels of the first series came the Return of the Naked Chef. Again, it was packed full of the same stylish food and London party-goers, but we also saw more of Jamie's domestic side, at home with girlfriend Jools and cooking on a smaller scale. The second time around, viewers loved the show and the book, forcing Jamie into a whirlwind schedule of travelling around the world to promote the Naked Chef.

After taking some time off to marry Jools, Jamie worked on his third series, Happy Days with the Naked Chef.

In 2002, Jamie embarked on his most ambitious project yet. He took 15 under-privileged youngsters who had never been anywhere near a restaurant kitchen and turned (most of) them into professional chefs to work under him at his new restaurant Fifteen in London. The restaurant and its accompanying TV series, Jamie's Kitchen, have both been huge successes. There are now three more Fifteen restaurants, in Amsterdam, Melbourne and Cornwall.

Eventually, his passion for Italian cooking culminated in the first of his Jamie's Italian restaurants, the first of which opened in Oxford in 2008. There are Jamie's Italian restaurants in Bath, Brighton and Kingston-upon-Thames while branches are planned for Guildford, London's Canary Wharf and Cardiff.

His television career has continued to thrive, with programmes such as Jamie's Great Escape, in which he brought his Italian-inspired cooking to (sometimes bemused) audiences in Italy, and Jamie's Chef, in which he helped one of his top trainees at Fifteen to set up his own gastro-pub. Jamie at Home saw him cooking his own home-grown vegetables and in the hard-hitting Jamie's Fowl Dinners he took a critical look at the issues surrounding poultry production. It was quickly followed up by Jamie Saves Our Bacon, where he celebrated British pork while highlighting the plight of British pig farmers.

Jamie has written numerous cookery books and has also written for The Times newspaper, GQ and Marie Claire and delicious magazines. In 2008, he launched his own food title, Jamie Magazine. His next cookbook, Jamie's America, will accompany his newest television series, Jamie's American Roadtrip.

He lives in London with his wife Jools and their daughters, Poppy, Daisy and Petal.

Nathan Outlaw, who grew up in Kent, always wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, also a chef, with whom he started cooking at the age of 14. Far from being a soft touch, his dad piled on the pressure to introduce his son to the reality of restaurant life.

After qualifying as a chef, Nathan worked under several mentors including Peter Kronberg, Gary Rhodes, Eric Chavot and Rick Stein, whose restaurant brought him to Cornwall in 1998. After further stints in two of John Campbell’s Gloucestershire restaurants, Nathan returned to Cornwall in 2003 and opened his first restaurant, the Black Pig. Within eight months, this venture had earned Nathan, aged just 25, his first Michelin star.

Another Michelin star followed Nathan when he closed the Black Pig and in 2006 continued his career at St Ervan Manor, a luxury Cornish B&B. Eighteen months later, he opened Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, also in Cornwall, which under his direction as head chef earned its first star in 2008. In June 2009, Nathan opened another restaurant in Cornwall, at the St Enodoc Hotel in Rock - called Nathan Outlaw Seafood and Grill.

Nathan describes his cooking style as clean and simple British cuisine that uses the best local produce. “Above all my food is accessible to all and avoids gimmicks and pretentions,” he says.

Nathan represented the south-west in BBC Two’s Great British Menu in 2009.