John Torode

John Torode

John Torode runs Smiths of Smithfield, a four-floor restaurant, private dining room and café, located near London's Smithfield market, and is a well-known food writer and TV presenter. John was the resident chef on ITV's This Morning with Richard and Judy for four years.

Australian-born, John joined the Conran Group in 1992 where he started out at Pont de La Tour before becoming sous chef at Quaglino's. After two years at Quaglino's John became head chef at Mezzo, which was one of Europe's largest restaurants when it opened. John's next move was to Conran's Bluebird restaurant and food market.

John has been credited as one of the main players in introducing Australasian food to the UK in the mid-1990s and is an enthusiast of rare-breed meat and organic food and farming. He has built relationships with many small farmers across the length of the UK who supply the very best of produce to Smith's. John passes on his knowledge through a fine meat list in the restaurants. John was part of the judging panel for the Glenfiddich Food & Drink awards in 2002.

John regularly contributes to Olive and BBC Good Food magazines. He has also written several cookbooks: The Mezzo Cookbook (1999), Torode's Thai Trek (1999), Relax, It's Only Food (1999) and John Torode's Beef (2008). His most recent book, John Torode's Chicken and Other Birds, will be published in autumn 2009.
John's second restaurant, The Luxe, will focus on feathered game and chicken; it is due to open in London's Spitalfields in autumn 2009.
Along with Gregg Wallace, John is co-presenter of the MasterChef series on BBC Two, which encourages budding chefs.