John Torode Biography

Childhood & Early Life

John Torode was born on July 23, 1965, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was the youngest of the three children of his parents. When John was 4, his mother died. Following this, he and his brother Andrew went to live with their grandmother, in Maitland, New South Wales. His grandmother not only taught John to cook but also helped him develop a taste in fine cuisine. At 10, he moved in with his father and brothers in Edithvale, Melbourne, though his father was mostly away from home due to work.

Career

John Torode began cooking at the tender age of 16, after he left school to join a catering institute. John’s first job as a chef was at the restaurant Le Coq Au Vin in Aspendale, Melbourne. He also worked as a culinary apprentice at various restaurants in Beaumauris, Melbourne. In 1991, John moved to the U.K. and bagged a job as a sous chef at the Conran Group restaurants Le Pont de la Tour and Quaglino’s. During this time, he worked under Terence Conran. While at Quaglino’s, John met Gregg Wallace (with whom he worked on a few culinary shows later in life). Apparently, Gregg was the supplier of vegetables for the restaurant. While John worked at Mezzo in London, a TV crew came to the restaurant to film. He went up to the producer and told him he wished to be part of some culinary program on TV. This eventually led to his debut TV show, ITV’s culinary show This Morning, in the late 1990s. He began presenting MasterChef on BBC One, when the show was relaunched in 2005. He appeared as a co-host, along with Gregg Wallace, replacing the previous host, Gary Rhodes. John also appeared on Celebrity MasterChef. In 2000, John launched his first restaurant, Smiths of Smithfields, in London. The following year, he launched another restaurant, Cafeteria, near Notting Hill Gate. The restaurant later closed down. In October 2009, he launched a restaurant named Luxe near New Spitalfields Market, London. He has, over the years, appeared on many shows, such as Loose Women, The One Show, Alan Carr: Chatty Man, John Bishop’s Britain, Breakfast, The Wright Stuff, Saturday Kitchen, and The Graham Norton Show. He has been a co-host on the Good Food show New British Kitchen, along with Hardeep Singh Kohli. The show focused on imported cuisines in Britain. John has also appeared on the BBC show The Magicians. He hosted the 10-episode 2014 series John Torode’s Australia, which tracked his culinary journey across the country. In 2015, John hosted John Torode’s Argentina, as part of BBC Two’s series A Cook Abroad. BBC News featured him as one of participants of the project Come..Eat Together!, which encouraged the elderly to mingle with the community and have food together. In 2016, he presented the 10-episode Good Food series John Torode’s Malaysian Adventure, which was filmed in the U.K. and Malaysia. The 2017 Good Food program The Korean Food Tour featured John traveling around South Korea and exploring the country’s favorite cuisines. The Good Food show (2017-2018) recorded the highest viewership for the Good Food channel since March 2013. The show was commissioned by Luke Hale of Good Food and Sally Quick of UKTV, in association with organizations such as the Hong Kong Tourism Board. John Torode’s Middle East, a Blink Films production, was aired in 2018. In March the following year, John teamed up with actor/food writer (and his wife now) Lisa Faulkner to host his own weekend culinary show, John and Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen, aired on Sunday mornings on ITV. John has also co-hosted Junior MasterChef, first along with Nadia Sawalha, winner of Celebrity MasterChef, and then with Donal Skehan.

Personal Life

On October 24, 2019, John Torode married actor Lisa Faulkner at Aynhoe Park, a 17th-century country house in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Their wedding was attended by celebrities such as Gregg Wallace, Charlie Condou, and Amanda Holden. John and Lisa had met in 2010, on Celebrity MasterChef. She was a contestant on the show and had eventually won. In April 2012, Lisa divorced her previous husband, Chris Coghill, after a 7-year marriage. John and Lisa started dating each other publicly in October 2012. John once described Lisa as “easy to live with and work with.” He proposed marriage to Lisa on Christmas 2018 in Goa. John was previously married to Jessica Torode. They had married in 2000 and had separated in 2011. Their divorce was finalized in 2014. He has four children, namely, Casper, Lulu, Jonah, and Marselle. Lulu and Jonah are from his marriage to Jessica, while Casper and Marselle are from another relationship. One of his favorite dishes is roast chicken. He was also fond of lamb cutlets in childhood. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was one of the first books he had read. John once stated that cooking helps him relax and compared it to yoga. John is also a skilled cyclist. At age 9, John was gifted his first bike. When he first moved to the U.K., he would often cycle from South Kensington to Camden. He once told Cycling Weekly that cycling prevents him from gaining weight. On July 23, 2014 John was featured as a guest on the ITV4 program The Cycle Show.

Controversies

In an episode of MasterChef in 2018, John and his co-host, Gregg, criticized a dish prepared by a Malaysian contestant, Zaleha Kadir Olpin, saying it was not “crispy” enough. Following this, several Malaysian, Singaporean, and Indonesian people attacked John and Gregg online, saying the dish in question, rendang, was not supposed to be crispy.

On Social Media

John Torode is quite popular on Instagram. His Instagram account, johntorodecooks, has gained over 163 thousand followers. He joined Twitter in October 2010. His account on the platform, JohnTorode1, has gained more than 177 thousand followers. He has his own website, johntorode.com.

Trivia

John Torode apparently does not get along or socialize with his MasterChef co-host and colleague Gregg Wallace in real life. In April 2020, while filming an episode of This Morning from his London home, John accidentally set a tea towel on fire.