Meeting James Martin (Leeds Loves Food Festival)

July 3, 2009 · Filed Under Blogging

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It’s not often you meet a genuine celeb, and I guess James Martin is the real deal.

Via good old twitter, I was invited over to meet James at the Leeds Love Food Festival, which is going on right now and over the weekend. Admittedly, this is not a food blog, but having a soft spot for most types of nice grub, plus knowing Mr Martin was a petrolhead, I went over to meet him.

He was a really nice chap – you can see why he is well liked – a marketing person’s dream. Before he left I grabbed a couple of minutes with him talking cars and Macs – just click the play button below:

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It was very encouraging to see that the PR firm who were involved had organised a session for bloggers (that’s me that is) to meet him and ask questions, so there was a few of us who turned up and got asking. I made a few notes, and managed a couple of foodie questions before getting onto the good stuff

He doesn’t think of himself as a celebrity, but branded one
He finds inspiration by going to great places
He started out as head chef at Hotel Du Vin in Winchester (and in fact I remember him back then in a Lotus Esprit Turbo), where he was discovered by a “lady old enough to be my Mother” who “popped her card in his pocket and said she would make me a star”
This led to an interview and job on the Big Breakfast on Channel 4
He had his birthday a few days ago, with hundreds of people attending a party, with 100 plus chefs of course. He said “what the hell do you cook for Michelin starred chefs?” Well, he did fresh langoustines, wood-fired pizza and then an ice cream van turned up for dessert. I like it!
The good news – he is a Mac, not a PC and has used them for 12+ years
He is driving a number of cars at Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend and cook for 1100 people one evening!
He has just got the new R8 V10 a couple of days ago and is very impressed (he’s a big Audi fan)
He hasn’t been to the ‘Ring (the big girl’s blouse)
He is going to do the Mille Miglia again in 2010
Top tip for office lunch is to hollow oout some fresh bread, fill with chicken, pesto, mozzarella etc, then put in the fridge and take a slice to work each day – it will last all week
His latest project is a serving 30,000 meals around the world.