Antony Worrall Thompson
Encyclopedia
Henry Antony Cardew Worrall Thompson (born 1 May 1951) is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 celebrity chef
Celebrity chef
A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become famous and well known. Today celebrity chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations via mass media, especially television. Historically, celebrity chefs have included Antoine Carême and Martino da Como.-External...

, television presenter and radio broadcaster.

Biography

Worrall Thompson was born in Stratford upon Avon. His parents were actor Michael Ingham and actress Joanna Duncan. He was educated at The King's School, Canterbury
The King's School, Canterbury
The King's School is a British co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils in the historic English cathedral city of Canterbury in Kent. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group....

, where his face was injured playing rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

. He had to wait until he was twenty-one before he could have plastic surgery
Plastic surgery
Plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. Though cosmetic or aesthetic surgery is the best-known kind of plastic surgery, most plastic surgery is not cosmetic: plastic surgery includes many types of reconstructive surgery, hand...

 to correct the disfigurement.

Early career

After he left school he studied hotel management at Westminster Kingsway College
Westminster Kingsway College
Westminster Kingsway College is a further education college in central London with Centres in King's Cross and Victoria . The College has about 14,000 students across all age ranges and provides further, adult and higher education programmes including full-time and part-time vocational,...

. Taking his first catering job in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, it is rumoured that his grandmother refused to write to him because she couldn't bring herself to write Essex on the envelope. In 1978, he moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and became sous-chef at Brinkley's Restaurant in the Fulham Road
Fulham Road
Fulham Road is a street in London, England, that runs from the A219 road in right in the centre of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, through Chelsea to Brompton Road Knightsbridge and the A4 in Brompton, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.Fulham Road runs parallel...

, becoming head chef one year later. The following year he took a sabbatical in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, eating and working his way around the local cuisine
Cuisine
Cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. Cuisines are often named after the geographic areas or regions that they originate from...

. After this he returned to England and started producing pans with his business partner Hassan.

Restaurants

Worrall Thompson opened his first restaurant - Ménage à Trois - in Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...

 in 1981, notable for only serving starters and puddings. He then launched several successful restaurants, including Wiz and Woz in West London and Metro in Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...

 — all of which reflect his somewhat individual approach to food. Until late 2006, he was Catering Director for Old Luxters Barn, in Buckinghamshire.

In February 2009, his restaurant holding company AWT Restaurants was placed into administration. Four restaurants closed - the Notting Grill in west London, the Barnes Grill in south-west London, together with two pubs in Henley-on-Thames, the Lamb Inn and the Greyhound with the loss of 60 jobs, Worrall Thompson personally bought back the remaining Windsor Grill in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

, the Kew Grill in south-west London, and delicatessen
Delicatessen
Delicatessen is a term meaning "delicacies" or "fine foods". The word entered English via German,with the old German spelling , plural of Delikatesse "delicacy", ultimately from Latin delicatus....

 the Windsor Larder.

It was revealed in April 2009 that Thompson's restaurant chain trouble was the result of its being "overstretched" and that his restaurants "had debts of more than £800,000 and owed 214 creditors money. Later in 2009, Thompson re-opened The Greyhound.

Television

He made his first television appearance on BBC2
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

’s Food and Drink
Food and Drink
Food and Drink was a long-running British television series on BBC Two between 1982 and 2001. It was the first national television programme in the UK to cover the subject of food and drink without cookery and recipe demonstrations....

,
before appearing on Ready Steady Cook
Ready Steady Cook
Ready Steady Cook was a BBC daytime TV cooking programme it first debuted on 24 October 1994 and the last edition was broadcast on the 2 February 2010. The programme was hosted by Fern Britton from 1994 until 2000 when celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott became the new host...

from 1994.

In 2003, he appeared in the second series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, which led to him replacing Gregg Wallace
Gregg Wallace
Gregg Allan Wallace is an English writer, media personality and former greengrocer, costermonger and farmer. He is probably best known for co-presenting MasterChef, Celebrity MasterChef and MasterChef: The Professionals on BBC Two and BBC One along with John Torode, where he is referred to as an...

 as the host of BBC2's Saturday Kitchen
Saturday Kitchen
Saturday Kitchen Live is a 90 minute cookery programme, which is broadcast live on BBC One on Saturday mornings. It is currently presented by James Martin; previous presenters have included Antony Worrall Thompson and Gregg Wallace. The programme is currently produced by Cactus TV...

.
The show transferred to BBC1 to replace Saturday morning children's television. However, after a large financial offer from ITV, Worrall Thompson and the production company responsible for the show, Prospect Pictures
Prospect Pictures
Prospect Pictures is an independent TV production company specializing in factual programming from daytime features to cinema documentaries.Founded in 1988, Prospect built its reputation through being one of the UK ’s largest suppliers of lifestyle and cookery programming, most notably with ITV1's...

 transferred the format - including Australian wine expert Matt Skinner - to ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 from June 2006. The new show Saturday Cooks fared poorly against the new BBC production of Saturday Kitchen fronted by the younger James Martin
James Martin (chef)
James Martin , is an English cook who first appeared on television in 1996.-Television career:...

, and retreated as Daily Cooks Challenge to now only air during the week. Since the move to ITV, Thompson has ceased to appear as a guest chef on Ready, Steady, Cook.

Worrall Thompson represented the Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...

 and East of England
East of England
The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region.Its...

 in series one of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

's Great British Menu
Great British Menu
Great British Menu is a BBC television series in which top British chefs compete for the chance to cook one course of a four course banquet. The first series banquet was for the Queen on her 80th birthday. The second series was to cook for the British Ambassador to France at the British Embassy...

but was beaten by Galton Blackiston
Galton Blackiston
Galton Blackiston is an English chef, born in Norfolk. The restaurant of his hotel, Morston Hall, is Michelin starred and has 3 AA rosettes. It is on the north Norfolk coast, two miles from Blakeney...

, after burning the meat course of his entry prior to the judging phase.

In June 2008 he made a guest appearance on ITV soap Emmerdale
Emmerdale
Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...

, where he was judging a Pub of the Year contest.

Awards

Worrall Thompson has won the Mouton Rothschild Menu Competition, and the Meilleur Ouvrier de Grande Bretagne (MOGB)
Meilleur Ouvrier de France
"Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France" is a craftsmen competition, held every four years.The title of Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France is a unique award in France according to category of trades in a contest between professionals. This contest is organized and recognized as a third-level degree...

.

In February 2010, Worral Thompson was awarded only one star out of five after a food hygiene inspection at his gastro-pub, The Greyhound, near Henley-on-Thames. South Oxfordshire District Council said the score meant hygiene was "poor" with "standards generally low".

Criticism

Worrall Thompson's recipe for Snickers Pie
Snickers pie
Snickers pie is a dessert which contains Snickers bars.- History :Snickers pie appeared as a recipe on the BBC cookery show, Saturday Kitchen. On the show it was made by Antony Worrall Thompson.- Reception :...

 was nominated by independent food watchdog The Food Commission
The Food Commission
The Food Commission is an independent food watchdog campaigning for safer, healthier food in the UK. The commission is primarily funded by public subscriptions to their campaign journal, the Food Magazine.-External links:**...

 as one of the most unhealthy dessert recipes ever. Consisting of five Snickers
Snickers
Snickers is a brand name chocolate bar made by Mars, Incorporated. It consists of peanut nougat topped with roasted peanuts and caramel, enrobed in milk chocolate. Snickers has annual global sales of $2 billion....

 bars, puff pastry
Puff pastry
In baking, a puff pastry is a light, flaky, leavened pastry containing several layers of fat which is in solid state at 20 °C . In raw form, puff pastry is a dough which is spread with solid fat and repeatedly folded and rolled out and used to produce the aforementioned pastries...

, mascarpone
Mascarpone
Mascarpone |denaturation]], whey is removed without pressing or aging. One can manufacture mascarpone by using cream and tartaric acid, citric acid, or even lemon juice....

, soft cheese, sugar and eggs, a single slice has been estimated to contain 1,250 calories.

Thompson recommended the poisonous plant Henbane
Henbane
Henbane , also known as stinking nightshade or black henbane, is a plant of the family Solanaceae that originated in Eurasia, though it is now globally distributed.-Toxicity and historical usage:...

 as a "tasty addition to salads" in the August 2008 issue of Healthy and Organic Living magazine. Apologising for the error Thompson said: "I was thinking of a wild plant with a similar name, Fat Hen
Fat Hen
Fat hen or fat-hen may refer to:* Hen and chicks, common name for a group of small succulent flowering plants native to Europe and northern Africa* Fat Hen, common name for Aristolochia rotunda , a perennial herb native to Southern Europe...

, not this herb. It's a bit embarrassing, but there have been no reports of any casualties. Please do pass on my apologies." The magazine sent subscribers an urgent message stating that Henbane "is a very toxic plant and should never be eaten."

Personal life

Married to his third wife Jacinta Shiel, the couple live in Henley on Thames and have two children.

Worrall Thompson is a patron of FOREST
FOREST
FOREST is a United Kingdom political pressure group that campaigns from a pro-smoking perspective, opposing measures to reduce tobacco consumption on the grounds of defending a perceived right to smoke tobacco...

, a UK-based pro-smoking lobby. He claimed to have given up smoking recently (February 2010) in a feature for Radio 4's Woman's Hour
Woman's Hour
Woman's Hour is a radio magazine programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom.-History:Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by Alan Ivimey the programme was first broadcast on 7 October 1946 on the BBC's Light Programme . It was transferred to its current home in 1973...

. He is also involved in fundraising for the Conservative Party and an active supporter of National Family Week
National Family Week (UK)
National Family Week is an annual event in the UK taking place throughout the Summer half term holiday , in late May/early June. The campaign aims to celebrate family life, encourage families to spend more time together and highlights the important role families play in society...

.

In 2003, Worrall Thompson funded the Antony Worrall Thompson Trophy - a charity football cup played by 8 semi-professional
Semi-professional
A semi-professional athlete is one who is paid to play and thus is not an amateur, but for whom sport is not a full-time occupation, generally because the level of pay is too low to make a reasonable living based solely upon that source, thus making the athlete not a full professional...

 teams in the summer, pre-season. However, due to Worrall Thompson's financial issues, the trophy lasted only one year and was never replayed after Altrincham F.C's 2003-2004 victory over Northwich Victoria F.C. Altrincham won the game 4-3.

Antony's Godfather is the Welsh actor Richard Burton, as commented on The Wright Stuff on Friday 19 February 2010.

October 2010 saw Antony join Uncovered (magazine)
Uncovered (magazine)
Uncovered magazine, published by Fantelli Imprint Ltd, is a UK news stand publication dealing with Mental health and Wellness issues.The first issue was in published October 2010. Columnists include: TV's Dr Rob Hicks and resident psychologist Colin Matthews along with Antony Worrell Thompson,...

 as a regular columnist offering recipes and advice on eating for good health and seasons finest produce.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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