Antony Worrall Thompson

Antony Worrall Thompson, restaurateur and one of our most familiar and popular TV chefs, is the new presenter of Saturday Kitchen and a regular guest chef on Ready Steady Cook. Known fondly as AWT or Wozza, Antony Worrall Thompson was born in Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon and educated at a Canterbury public school. Afterwards he studied hotel and catering management at Westminster College before taking his first jobs in the world of food in Essex. Legend has it that his grandmother refused to write to him because she couldn't bring herself to write the word Essex on the envelope. In 1978 he moved to London and became sous-chef at Brinkley's Restaurant in the Fulham Road. One month later he was already head chef. The next year he took a sabbatical in France, eating and working his way around the local cuisine. By 1981 AWT had opened his own restaurant in London - notable for only serving starters and puddings. Since then the restaurants he's been involved with have been heaped with accolades. He has won the Mouton Rothschild Menu Competition and the Meilleur Ouvrier de Grande Bretagne (MOGB) - the chef's Oscar. More recently he opened his own very popular neighbourhood restaurant Wiz in Holland Park, which has recently been revamped as Notting Grill. Antony has also written a number of recipe books and contributes a regular column for the Express. He is passionate about organic farming and grows many herbs and vegetables for his restaurant. Despite an extraordinary and energetic professional lifestyle, he still manages to find time for art, antiques, tennis and swimming (incidentally, he swam the Channel when he was 16), gardening and, of course, his wife Jay and their two young children, plus a dog called Trevor, two cats, 12 pigs and a variety of fish who all live at his country cottage on the banks of the Thames. In 2003 he showed he was game for a laugh when he appeared on ITV's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here.