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Antony Worrall Thompson is a British celebrity chef.

He has published many books, has owned and run several restaurants and been on food programmes on TV. He writes for the Daily Express newspaper, and the BBC's "Good Food" magazine.

Antony has bright red hair, a nose that he broke seven times while playing sports, and is just 5 feet 8 inches tall (1.7 metres.) He has been married three times: he once tried to kill himself on a runway at Los Angeles airport over a woman.

He is often quite critical in public of other food celebrities, and they have responded in kind. He even got a response out of Delia Smith, when he dismissed her scrambled eggs as lousy and said she was "the coldest woman on the television." She said, "He is dreadful, just repulsive. Food and Drink (Antony's TV show) is the most disgusting programme on television. I will never ever know, as long as I live, how the BBC or the general public can tolerate it." For his 50th birthday, though, Delia sent him a picture of herself wearing a T-shirt that said "I love you really Antony."

Antony was born 1952, in Stratford-upon-Avon. His grandmother helped pay for his schooling at The King's School (a private school) in Canterbury. Just outside Canterbury, an aunt of his ran a pub. He went there often on Sundays to help out in the kitchen. When he was 16, he swam across the English channel.

He then studied cooking and the restaurant business at Westminster College. When he left Westminster College and worked at some jobs in Essex County, his grandmother, who was a bit of a snob, wouldn't write to him because she didn't think Essex County was high enough up on the social scale for her family.

He moved into London in September 1978 to take the job of sous-chef at Brinkley's Restaurant in the Fulham Road. Within one month, he had become head chef. In 1979, he took six months off to do a working sabbatical in France, then returned to Brinkley's.

In 1981, he opened his own first restaurant, the Menage à Trois in Chelsea, which became a favourite of Princess Diana's. It served just starters and desserts.

In 1998, he became the main presenter for "Food and Drink" programme on BBC Two television.

Acknowlegements

Other entries for: Biographies

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