James Martin has said his restaurants will "always come first" as he reflected on his departure from the BBC a decade ago. The chef, a familiar face on television for three decades, said broadcasting is only part of his working life and not the "main job".
Reflecting on a 20-year BBC spell
Speaking as he marks 10 years since he chose to leave the BBC's Saturday Kitchen, Martin looked back on his two decades at the corporation. He said he was ready to "seek pastures new" at the time, adding that his restaurants will "always come first".
Martin told the Yorkshire Post that he had been working in a restaurant until 1.30am that morning. "You work as a chef, my main job is I work in restaurants. I was working in a restaurant until 1.30am this morning – that is my job, that's what I do. Television is a part of it, but it is not 'the' part of it. The restaurants will always come first."
Portfolio of restaurants
Away from television, Martin has built up a restaurant portfolio of at least three sites: James Martin Manchester, James Martin at The Lygon Arms in the Cotswolds, and The Kitchen at Chewton Glen in Hampshire.
The comments follow reports that Martin used an unexpected trick to boost ratings for Saturday Morning. Holly Willoughby revealed the tactic while speaking with Joanne McNally on her YouTube channel, Holly Willoughby Together.
Willoughby said: "I was listening to something this morning on the radio, you know James Martin who [used to do] Saturday Kitchen? He's like a Yorkshire kind of lad and he had his colours done, went back on Saturday Morning wearing colours and the ratings went up like 40 per cent and consistently stayed the same."
As she recounted the tale, Willoughby caught a coat hanger on her top, inadvertently showing her bra. She joked: "That's how I get my ratings up", adding of Martin: "Apparently, it was because of the colours".
Actor guests on the show
In other news, two actors who appeared on James Martin's Saturday Morning have spoken about a discovery they made on the show. Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps co-stars Ralf Little and Will Mellor were offered a tour by Martin.
Mellor told The Two Pints podcast: "It was a great experience, it was nice to go on and talk about, obviously, the pod and how interested he is. But also how well he's done on tours. He does a tour."
Little revealed that he discovered a poster at Martin's home, where the show is filmed: "He has a poster, he sold 30,000 tickets and smashed his tour and on one of his posters it just goes, '26 shows, 26 standing ovations, 26,000 more ticket sales than Paul Hollywood'. I thought that was really class."
James Martin's Saturday Morning airs today (August 22) on ITV, from 10.30am to 1pm.
