Saturday Kitchen host Matt Tebbutt has admitted he thinks about death "quite a lot" as he opened up about his own mortality. At 52, the BBC star is one of the most recognisable British chefs, having started his career under Marco Pierre White and Alastair Little, opened the FoxHunter restaurant, become a best-selling author, and fronted Saturday Kitchen for 10 years.
A candid admission about mortality
Speaking to the Daily Express, Tebbutt shared: "I'm 52 now, I think about it quite a lot. I think once you hit 50, they call it Sniper's Alley, 50 to 60, you've got to be careful." He added: "I hit it quite hard sometimes, so every now and again you need to remind yourself. So, yes, it absolutely does."
Tebbutt noted that he has lost several industry friends, saying: "You see friends, and in other industries, suddenly disappearing out of the blue, people who you think are terribly fit and healthy and turn out they're not."
Remembering Dave Myers
Among the friends Tebbutt lost was the late chef Dave Myers. In 2024, the father-of-two opened an episode of Saturday Kitchen with a short speech and video montage celebrating Dave and his co-star Si King. Reflecting on the moment, Tebbutt said: "He used to come on a lot; you'd see him at parties, industry events and stuff like that. Always full of beans, life and soul, and so when you read these words out loud, it really kind of sticks in your throat."
He added: "But it's a very important thing to do; by no means should it be skirted over or rushed through. It was a hard one."
Practical preparations with Zurich
Tebbutt's admission comes in collaboration with Zurich, where he discussed the bank's offering: "The one thing that struck me is, and the thing that Zurich were doing is creating this file where you can leave your memories, your passwords, all the little things that somebody will miss if you suddenly disappear."
The chef, married to his wife Lisa for 25 years, added: "If my wife goes, I'm absolutely high and dry, because she's got all the passwords and all the codes and everything like that, and I don't have a clue. So when Zurich came to me, I thought, 'This is a really good idea'. I think about my mortality a lot now, and I also think about the practicalities of it as well, because you don't want to leave all this to somebody else."
Referencing his children, Henry, 22, and Jessie, 24, Tebbutt concluded: "Certainly, if I disappeared, I don't want to leave my kids to have to wade through lots of paperwork and not get anywhere. So it's a very practical and lasting thing they've done."
