There are few chefs still active in the UK restaurant industry who can boast of a profile to match Tom Kerridge. Despite running a growing pub and restaurant empire based in Marlow, he is probably best-known to the public for his numerous TV appearances on programmes such as Bake Off: The Professionals and book sales to rival one Jamie Oliver.
Kerridge got his start in catering as a commis chef at Calcot Manor in Gloucestershire and went on to work for Stephen Bull and Gary Rhodes. He cooked at Odettes in Primrose Hill and Michelin-starred Adlards in Norwich, before deciding it was time to branch out on his own. In 2005 the chef took on a run-down pub called The Hand and Flowers in Marlow, which has since become one of the most famous gastropubs in the country, topping the National Restaurant Awards list in 2013 becoming the only pub in Britain to hold two Michelin stars.
Kerridge’s Marlow empire has continued to expand with the opening of The Coach in 2014 and pub and butchery The Butcher’s Tap in 2017.
The chef also opened his first London restaurant, Kerridge’s Bar & Grill, at the five-star Corinthia Hotel in 2018 and The Bull & Bear at Manchester’s Stock Exchange hotel in 2019.
