Do you ever use any of their recipes, enjoy watching their programmes, and who do you consider to be the best?
For me, Rick Stein is my favourite. I love watching any of his programmes, and having visited his various eateries in Cornwall it's cool to see some of those places again. Plus I love fish.
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Anything Jamie Oliver does annoys the crap out of me. Never been to his Brighton restaurant, and it doesn't particularly appeal.
Surprised Ramsey hasn't already been mentioned...just on account of him having his own knob placed firmly up his backside at all times.
Tom kerridge is good but Raymond Blanc is the best...
Ask any professional chef and they all slate Jamie Oliver for nicking other peoples ideas.
I don't watch a lot of the TV shows but do have a library of 100+ cook books, to some this might seem slightly obsessive but I run 16 pubs so its good to keep up with current trends and new techniques and remind yourself of some old classics. My top 10 must have books based on easy to follow recipes and great wholesome food in no particular order are -
Simon Hopkinson - The Good Cook, Week in Week out, Roast Chicken and other stories & The Prawn Cocktail Years.
Marcus Wearing - Gilbert Scott, Nutmeg & Custard.
Madalene Bonvini-Hemel - The British Larder
Peter Gordon - Salads, Vegetables
Hugh Fernley Whittingstall - Three Good Things
Tom Kerridge - Proper Pub Food
Yotam Ottelenghi - Plenty, The Cookbook, Jerusalem
Mario Batali - Molto Italiano
Bruno Loubet - Mange Tout
Gary Rhodes - New British Classics, Spring in to Summer, Autumn in to Winter
Nathan Outlaw - British Seafood
I know that the list is 11 but I just couldn't leave any of these out.
On the point about whether professional chefs hate Jamie Oliver for ripping off other peoples recipes, they don't! this happens all the time and is just part of the business. However they do hate him because they are all jealous of the fact that he was lucky enough to be picked up by a TV film crew and is now worth 50+ Million and they haven't been, we had numerous film crews in the Raymond Blanc kitchens I worked in for 4 years and I never got a sniff...
Jamie Oliver