11 Amazing Facts About Saturday Kitchen

Whether you’re after genuine insight from the world of cuisine, recipes, travel or simply some perfect hangover viewing, ‘Saturday Kitchen’ has become something of a telly institution since it first launched way back in 2002. But you might not know that it’s had a longer - and more controversial history - than you might think…

- It was originally broadcast on BBC Two as part of the Open University. As such, it had a tiny budget, so showing clips from BBC shows from the likes of Keith Floyd and Rick Stein was done more out of necessity than choice, because it cost nothing and it filled space. The format has since been aped on all manner of other shows.

- It proved the big TV break for an unknown millionaire greengrocer called Gregg Wallace, who was the show’s first presenter from 2002 to 2003. In a revamp of the show following its first year, Wallace was replaced with veteran telly chef Antony Worrall Thompson, and it moved from BBC Two to BBC One. James Martin, a former employee of Worrall Thompson at his One Ninety Queensgate restaurant in Kensington, took over the presenting role in 2006 and remains the show’s anchor to this day.

- The record holder for Saturday Kitchen’s long-running 'omelette challenge’, in which guest chefs have to make a three-egg omelette in the fastest time possible, is chef Theo Randall (below), who clocked in at 14.72 seconds.

- The longest consecutive record holder though was chef Paul Rankin, who held the record for nearly 2 years.

- Guest Will Young was once hauled up following an appearance on the show, after he gave the 'two fingered salute’ to a caller from Shrewsbury who consigned him to his 'food hell’, a dish of liver, rather than his 'food heaven’, venison.

- The show was also forced to apologise after restaurant owner and occasional TV presenter Russell Norman (below) dubbed a white loaf he was using for his signature 'posh cheese on toast’ as 'a blue collar, poor white trash white loaf’. The reference was deemed discriminatory by viewers, many calling in to the BBC to demand an apology.

- The show’s first studio used portable gas and had no running water. The studio now is a fully plumbed-in working kitchen.

- There have been two marriage proposals on the show. Both said yes!

- There have been 443 episodes of 'Saturday Kitchen’, so roughly 2200 recipes prepared and cooked. And that’s nearly 900 omelettes (meaning almost 4,500 eggs have been used). The show celebrated its 400th episode in March, 2015.

- Only one chef has not used butter to make his omelette - Agnar Sverrisson from Iceland, who cooks without dairy.

* The show has had over 250 guest chefs. Rick Stein has featured on every single episode in either archive form or in the studio – not even James Martin has managed that record.

Image credits: BBC/Rex Features