With such a diverse lot of celebrity chefs on the telly these days, we’ve no excuses not to love cooking!

At Home takes a closer look at who else (aside from AWT) occupies the culinary world… Ainsley Harriott
As celebrity chefs go, he’s got a touch of the marmites about him, but love him him or loathe him, there’s no denying our Ainsley is a roaring success in the kitchen (despite what Antony’s enemy, Lord Gordon of Ramsay may think). He is, of course, most associated with hosting the popular TV show Ready Steady Cook, in which contestants turn up with a bag of random ingredients and two chefs compete to whip up the best culinary surprise from what they have in front of them. Ainsley started as an apprentice in a restaurant in London’s East End, eventually rising to head chef at Lord’s Cricket Ground before his big break in telly came calling in the shape of a regular cooking slot on Good Morning With Ann and Nick.

It could have been so different though – our Ainsley always fancied himself as an entertainer and, in the early Nineties, was one half of the Calypso Twins, a singing comedy duo who performed all over the UK and America. Looks like the viewing public had a lucky escape when he switched his vocation back to cooking – somehow we think we’d rather see Ainsley in the kitchen behind a stove than on stage in front of a microphone…

Ainsley’s big break in telly came calling in the shape of a regular cooking slot on Good Morning With Ann and Nick

Rachel Allen
She’s not quite the household name that the other celeb chefs are in the UK, but Rachel is Ireland’s answer to Nigella Lawson. Not in the suggestive finger-licking and late-night fridge raids in search of chocolate sponge pudding sense, but because she is a busy working mum who makes simple dishes from good quality ingredients.

Rachel is most familiar to British viewers from her appearances on Saturday Kitchen, which is where, of course, she became firm friends with Antony, and from her own series Rachel’s Favourite Food. Rachel lives in Ballymaloe in Ireland (near the famous Ballymaloe Cookery School where she trained) with her husband, a fellow cook, who runs two restaurants in Cork.

Rachel is most familiar to British viewers from her appearances on Saturday Kitchen, which is where, of course, she became firm friends with Antony Rick Stein
Not only is he the world’s top seafood chef, but Rick Stein also pretty much owns the entire town of Padstow in North Cornwall – including (deep breath) three restaurants, a bistro, a café, a seafood deli, a patisserie, a gift shop and a cookery school. No wonder it’s been renamed Padstein by the local residents and constant flock of tourists. Rick has been grafting away in the Cornish seaside town since 1974, when he opened his first restaurant there, and is now a regular face on our screens, having made his first appearance on the show Floyd On Fish back in 1985 (Floyd called him ‘Nick’ throughout the show). Since then, he’s presented a host of cookery programmes, most famously Rick Stein’s Seafood Odyssey and Rick Stein’s French Odyssey. But while his career has gone from strength to strength, Rick’s personal life has been the subject of national interest – the chef left his wife of 27 years, Jill, back in 2002, for an Australian publicist 20 years his junior.

A month later, Rick returned to the UK and he now divides his time between Cornwall and Sydney, where he has a house with Sarah Burns, the aforementioned Aussie publicist. It’s a wonder he’s had time to cook any fish… Keith Floyd
Colourful and controversial are undoubtedly the two words most synonymous with one of the original icons of TV cooking. Antony, for one, considers Keith Floyd among his heroes, crediting him with making food sexy with his laid-back manner. Often a little, how shall we put it, worse for wear, while weilding his spatulas, Keith also put a touch of rock and roll into cooking. He was famed for combining food and travel back when those Hairy Biker types were mere embryos, and was often filmed creating fabulous dishes against a stunning beach backdrop, large glass of Merlot in hand. Keith has made 18 cookery series for the BBC, as well as penning 15 books (including Floyd On Hangovers, something we imagine he is rather well qualified to talk about). His decadent lifestyle, however, has come to bite him on the behind numerous times – he’s been married and divorced four times; in 2002, he suffered a minor stroke. And, in 2004, he was banned from driving after crashing his car while three and a half times over the legal alcohol limit. We can’t imagine that kind of behaviour ever coming from Jamie Oliver… Heston Blumenthal
Currently in the process of sparking a culinary revolution, Heston is quite the trailblazer, achieving the fastest-ever three Michelin stars for his restaurant, The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire. Famed for his scientific approach to gastronomy, aside from a solitary week of work experience in Raymond Blanc’s kitchen, he is entirely self taught. He is an advocate of – and here comes the science bit – molecular gastronomy, experimenting with such things as personal sound amplification to enhance sounds like crunching while eating. He is also a fan of ultra-slow cooking, sometimes cooking meat for up to 24 hours. The Fat Duck’s trademark dishes include snail porridge, bacon and egg ice cream, basil blancmange and beetroot jelly.

Heston is quite the trailblazer, achieving the fastest-ever three Michelin stars for his restaurant, The Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Also known as Hugh Fearlessly-Eatsitall, the eccentric TV cook is famed for such dubious culinary activities as eating roadkill and cooking a human placenta and serving it as a pâté to celebrate a new baby’s arrival in his show TV Dinners. Hugh has more recently become involved in the organic movement. Back in 1997, he moved full-time to his holiday home River Cottage in Dorset, which has since been the location for three popular series for Channel 4, Escape to River Cottage, Return to River Cottage and River Cottage Forever – all of which focused on growing your own organic vegetables, rearing your own animals and essentially living the ‘Good Life’. We wonder if Hugh’s neighbours are anything like Margot and Jerry?… Last but not least… Gordon Ramsay
Unlike those chefs whose friendship he values or whose skills he admires, there is no love lost between Antony and don’t-call-me-a celebrity-chef Gordon Ramsay. Their rivalry began when Gordon referred to Antony as ‘the squashed Bee Gee’ and criticised his skills in the kitchen.
‘I wasn’t too worried when he called me the squashed Bee Gee,’ Antony has said, ‘but when he started saying I can’t cook, he went below the belt. I could have sued him, but I thought, ‘no, you’re on telly, you’ve got to take it’. He criticises celebrity chefs by insisting he isn’t one. Bollocks. We had the same agent for ages: I know how desperate he was to be on the telly.’ Go on Antony! Our money’s on you. (Erm, by the way, Ant, where’s that five course dinner you promised us?)

photos Getty Images/PA photos