Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What inspired Matt Tebbutt to pursue a career in cooking?
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
That laugh. Pretty unmistakable. And if you are one of those who puts on BBC One on a Saturday morning, chances are you know who it belongs to.
When you're with Matt, it's gales of laughter all the time. I mean, hurricane force laughter, in fact. I don't know yet.
Wine expert Ollie Smith has known and worked with Matt Tebbett for years.
The way in which he's brought all the things he's learned in a kitchen to touch everybody equally so that everybody feels they can chip in and I hope people at home also feel like they're part of that conversation because that's really Matt's greatest skill is making other people feel welcome.
MUSIC
This year, Saturday Kitchen celebrates the 20th year since it took over Saturday mornings on BBC One. Over those two decades, it's become a fixture for many at the weekend. And for much of that last decade, Matt Tebbit has been the main presenter.
Good morning. We've got an all-singing, all-dancing line-up for you today.
2026 has seen Matt join another legendary cooking show, stepping into MasterChef for a series. And he started his own podcast, available now on BBC Sounds. But this programme really isn't about what's new with Matt Tebbett. This is all about finding out who the real Matt Tebbett is. The man behind the big laugh. What drives him? What keeps him excited about food?
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Chapter 2: How did Matt's experience with Marco Pierre White shape his career?
I would buy cookbooks. And I remember just doing things over and over and over again. I blew up the kitchen once with some caramel. Do you remember when you used to, the condensed milk used to boil for hours and the thing exploded. My parents, so they had toffee all over the kitchen and they had to have the whole kitchen re-grouted, which was quite annoying. because it had only just been done.
And this idiot son blew up caramel in the kitchen. So I used to just practice and practice and practice.
But becoming a chef wasn't his first ambition. That was the Air Force. So he went to university and joined the University Air Squadron.
It was a great club. You got a bit of discipline. You learned to stay up late and then get up the next day and look relatively straight. But then it came a tipping point. That was for three years. And for various reasons, I was kind of edging away from joining the Air Force. And I thought, what else do I do? So, I mean, obviously, you know, the food was always there.
So I thought, well, I'll leave uni, I'll go up to London. I did a year at Pru Leith's College. What was that like? It was one of the best years of my time, actually. You know, I was pretty young, single. I had a scooter. It was early 90s. The restaurant scene was all kind of kicking off. and it was really, really exciting. So, yeah, I absolutely loved it. I had a great time.
After completing his training at Leith's culinary school, Matt started to look for jobs.
I remember doing stages at the fifth floor with Henry Harris and Alastair Little and Marco. And I always wanted to work for Marco Pierwhite because of the book White Heat. I mean, he made cooking in restaurants look dynamic and fun and edgy and... All the things it was never really had the associations with, you know. Chefs were always kind of kept in basements.
They wore big hats and they're all quite sort of fat. And suddenly he made it look really exciting. So I always wanted to work for him. So I did that.
How did you cope in Marco Pierre White's kitchen? Because I know he's notoriously challenging.
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of The Foxhunter gastropub in Matt's journey?
I wouldn't like to do it now. I'm far too old and I've got too many opinions now. But, you know, when you're young and you have that ability to put your head down and get on with it, it was hard, but it was exciting.
Later, Matt worked for celebrated London chefs, Alistair Little and Sally Clark.
Sally's take on seasonal produce was second to none. Nothing was compromised on the ingredients.
But it's an interesting approach, isn't it? Because I feel that's what Saturday Kitchen does at its best. It does seasonality, has a lot of attention to detail in terms of the source of ingredients. It really highlights small producers as well. Is this something that you feel you have a kinship with or have you led the way on that? Absolutely.
Absolutely. I don't think I'd have left the way because it's a live show. We cook what's, you know, in season. And it makes sense. But it always kind of made sense to me to be cooking seasonally.
Life in London was going well. But Matt and his new wife, Lisa, wanted to move back to Wales.
We thought, right, let's move out, start family, let's move back to Wales. And the only thing we could afford was an old pub.
It was a grade two listed building called the Fox Hunter in Nantaderry. And it was here that Matt started getting noticed by the media.
We lived upstairs, we did it up. And it just so happens that that was right at the start of that sort of whole gastropub thing. And I remember we were open about a year and then Dinah Henry got in touch because she was writing the gastropub cookbook. And that got us a lot of attention. And it was nice to be part of, there was a gang of young chefs who were coming out of London.
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Chapter 4: How does Saturday Kitchen Live operate behind the scenes?
I was just too shy to go out and talk to people. So had the restaurant been really rock and rolling, I would have said, don't be so silly. And I would never have done it. But because it was like a lifeline, I said, yeah, whatever. Let's give it a go. And it's quite emotional actually thinking about it. It was a hard time.
Yeah.
And it changed the trajectory of your career.
Yeah, totally. So we did this show called Market Kitchen and it was great fun. And, you know, Tom Parker Bowles was one of the presenters, Matthew Fort. There was a whole sort of cast. So it wasn't exactly an overnight sensation.
But by now, food television is reaching bigger audiences. And while Matt gets to grips with presenting Market Kitchen, Cactus TV is reshaping Saturday Kitchen, moving it from BBC Two to BBC One and into the heart of weekend telly. Amanda Ross is co-founder of Cactus TV and executive producer of Saturday Kitchen. When we took over Saturday Kitchen, I wanted to redefine what Saturday Kitchen was.
And so I brought in loads of Michelin star chefs and younger people and people from all different backgrounds and things like that. And Matt first came on the show in the first year and he was in his 30s. I instantly thought he was great because he's very attractive and he doesn't realise how attractive he is, which makes him more attractive because it does. LAUGHTER
Looks and charm might have got him first noticed but in a TV world where people come and go, why does Amanda think he's lasted week after week, year after year? He's not intimidating. He's personable. Everyone wants to be his friend. And he draws people in. And what he gets is that basically Saturday Kitchen is a zoo show. It's about every single person on it.
And the team in front of and behind the camera are all equally as important. And he gets that. What's brilliant about Matt as well is he never pretends he can do something he can't. Of course he knows way more than the questions he asks on the show. But his job is to be the mind of the viewer.
And I think hosting Saturday Kitchen, and obviously Cactus have produced a lot of different types of shows, but I think hosting Saturday Kitchen is one of the most difficult jobs on telly. Why is it so hard? Because it's live and you've got to interview people like a chat show host does, but you're cooking at the same time. And that's why our rehearsals are so important.
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Chapter 5: What challenges does Matt face as a live TV presenter?
There's too many. He's done 400 and something shows. I mean, I think the nicest moments are when he's made someone who was really, really nervous look and feel great. And they finished their item smiling. And then I just think, yeah, that's absolutely fantastic. Amanda Ross, Saturday Kitchen's executive producer. So how did shy Matt become confident, laugh a minute, relax Matt?
I mean, that comes with, I guess, experience, really. I mean, I hate having my photo taken. I'm useless at that. I mean, public speaking, I was awful. I mean, that's why chefs go into kitchens. They're not really show-offs. They want to be at the back and they want to sort of, you know, creatively do things.
So that's just come through, you know, practice and becoming more and more relaxed with it. But I think certain types of telly like Saturday Kitchen and things you're comfortable in, that's really easy. I mean, there's other bits of TV I do and I'm awful. I mean, put me on a sofa and try and interview me and I'm terrible.
So it's kind of an odd juxtaposition. What you feel like is your natural shy self and the not so shy self you present to the world.
Yeah. I mean, it's I love doing that show. It's so much fun. I love the fact it's live because that comes with its own energy. And if things go wrong, which they invariably do, it's kind of funny.
People love it.
People love it when things go wrong. I really don't care. I know why people would get upset about things going wrong. I mean, there are things you don't do. You can't swear. And that I have to, you know... I have to guard myself against because you do get very relaxed. And it's like, you know, being in your own kitchen.
What's in some of the other Saturday Kitchen live TV moments? The mishaps.
The mishaps. I mean, people cut themselves. What else? Oh, double dipping. I mean, that's that. I mean, really? Is there not enough going on in the world? I mean, chefs are chefs, right? They have a pot of spoons. They go in and they go in again. You know, people use their hands to cook. But I think TV is kind of magnifies that. And people are really shocked that chefs taste food.
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Chapter 6: How does Matt maintain his passion for cooking at home?
Yep, yep. Come this way. I mean, not that I need to show you. You've seen all this before.
But for our listeners who have not seen it before.
Okay, so here we are with the entrance there to my dressing room.
Where's the row of shirts?
That's what I'm expecting. 50 shades of blue.
Fewer shirts than I thought.
You can see the Pantone sort of colours.
Blue, grey, black. Okay. Your fashion, Matt, do you have a stylist?
What?
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Chapter 7: What is Matt's perspective on the future of the culinary industry?
We prep the plates. We prep for the chefs, we prep what we call heroes, which are things that we've made earlier. That's what we call it in the trade. Because obviously they've only got 10 minute slots on the show. So we need to make sure that things that take longer get cooked. We rehearse on Friday. I'm with the chefs, stand by the chefs, breathe over the chefs.
to make sure that they're cooking it right and then on a Saturday I have a little chair in the corner of the set where I'm obviously watching them they're not washing their hands remind them to wash their hands health and safety is a massive thing obviously we've got ex-police out there and social media police and so we should because we should be representing the best way and health and safety of course it's not like cooking in the kitchen it's on live telly isn't it so chef's
chefs get nervous yeah exactly and you can get the best chefs in the world and they will still be nervous in this environment my job is to make them feel confident make sure that their skills on set so their knife skills things like that are good so i might need to do a little bit of extra training with some people how does matt's feature within you a chef and then matt how does that relationship work
So Matt brings the fun, and he steadies the ship. He's about the timing. So if I say to Matt, you've got two minutes to do something, because he's an amazing chef, he has that internal clock where he knows what two minutes is. Like, we play a game at home all the time. Like, somebody will say to me, six minutes, Michaela, and I will do it bang on.
Because that's your internal chef clock, but that's important for live.
As well as the recipes bought in by the guest chefs, there are two other recipes cooked for the Heaven and Hell section, where the celebrity guest is asked to talk about ingredients they like and dislike, and the viewers vote which dish they want Matt to cook for them. How do you get the ideas for the dishes that are the heaven and hell?
So the guest has a research chat and they will give a list of heaven and list of hells. They then go to Matt and then Matt then writes. But the core recipes come from Matt? Yeah, absolutely. They're all Matt's dishes. I mean, I might suggest a little tweak here and there. Like today, for example, we plated up a dish and it needed a pop of colour.
So I said, let's just put some really bright red chillies on top. So I'm always there to add... Help. He'd probably say the opposite. Annoy. I mean, we joke about it all the time, but when we're cooking a recipe, I'll be like, right, I don't think we should do that. I think we should do it like this. And he'll be like, no, no, no. And obviously I respect him. It's his dish and he has an opinion.
We'll get to the end of the dish and he'll go, I think I should have done it your way. And I'll go, no, really? Okay. But yeah, we have the relationship. We can do that.
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Chapter 8: How does Matt connect with audiences through his cooking?
But yeah, absolutely no waste.
So no one's leaving here with an empty stomach.
I always say, if you leave Saturday Kitchen, not full and not drunk. I was going to use another word. We have not done our job properly. You need to roll out of here.
Michaela, thank you so much for showing us your prep kitchen and how the magic really happens.
You're welcome.
Mac, what happens when the cameras turn off on Saturday Kitchen? Do you just carry on? Do people keep eating, drinking?
Yeah, pretty much. We do the show and then there's a green room upstairs. So very often we'll go up there and then very often we'll go to the pub with some of the team, some of the camera boys. Once you come off live TV, your adrenaline's sort of through the roof. If you have a drink, it just comes down nice and gentle. We go there and we'll kind of discuss the show.
Sometimes we go with a guest. I mean, Tom O'Dell has been down the pub with us. That was cool. We had the camaraderie of the crew. And I couldn't do my job if the crew hated me.
Watching Matt work, it's clear he sees Saturday Kitchen as a team effort, getting on air live each weekend, which raises the question, in a broadcasting world, moving away from live viewing, why does Matt think live telly still matters?
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