MARIANNE RETURNS TO THE HEAT OF MASTERCHEF KITCHEN
COUNTY PROFESSIONAL LINES UP FOR A FESTIVE TELLY KNOCKOUT
THE traditional way of relaxing over the Christmas break involves lots of festive food and treats and lots of television – and this week there’s a chance to combine both, with a Leicestershire twist.
Two episodes of MasterChef: The Professionals – A Festive Knockout, will air on BBC One tomorrow and Wednesday, each featuring some of the most memorable chefs from past series, who return to the kitchen to create some wow-inducing celebratory food.
Among the chefs returning in the first episode is Leicestershire chef Marianne Lumb, who was a finalist in MasterChef: The Professionals in 2009.
Along with three other former contestants, Marianne will be showcasing her culinary talents in a bid to impress the judges – Michelinstarred chef Marcus Wareing; highlyreputed chef Monica Galetti and celebrated MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace.
Monica and Marcus will start by setting a skills test and demonstrate what they would do if faced with the challenge themselves.
From a bench full of festive ingredients, Marcus will then ask the chefs to come up with a dish inspired by Christmas leftovers.
The chefs must then create a seasonally themed two-course menu in two-and-half hours.
Whether Marianne will be crowned Best Chef is being kept under wraps – and we wouldn’t want to spoil the tension of the show anyway, but to whet your appetite, here’s more about her.
WHO IS MARIANNE LUMB?
Marianne came into the public eye when she appeared in the 2009 series of MasterChef: The Professionals, in which she finished third.
Her culinary journey began when she was a child, in the kitchen of her family’s Long Clawson home.
She recalls the joy of making pigs in blankets with cheese and potato pie (made with Red Leicester cheese) in the school holidays.
She says her love of food was inherited from her dad Steve, who was the village butcher until his death in 1979.
“We always had an unlimited quantity of beautiful meat. The bus used to stop right outside the shop after school, and I’d go in and get butter, cheese, ham – whatever we wanted – and cook it at home,” said Marianne, who had summer jobs picking fruit at Belvoir Fruit Farms, and turning cheeses at the Long Clawson Stilton factory.
Despite her early appreciation for good food, Marianne didn’t pursue a career as a chef straight away.
Encouraged into academia by her family, she began an architecture degree at University College London, but found spending 15 hours a day at a drawing board was not for her.
She left university and did a ski season in Austria where, while cooking for others, she realised that was what she wanted to do as a career.
Marianne, then aged 21, began training at The Olde Stocks restaurant, in Grimston, Norfolk.
She spent six months working at Sonny’s in Nottingham, and a year at the Michelin-starred Gravetye Manor, Sussex.
Despite working 90 hours a week at Gravetye, Marianne used her days off to cook for lavish dinner parties. The hard work paid off and, after a year, she left Gravetye and concentrated on dinner parties full-time.
WHO HAS SHE COOKED FOR?
In demand as a private chef, she went on to work for a number of high-profile clients, including the Bamford, Sainsbury and Soros families and celebrities such as Sir Elton John, Lulu and Joanna Lumley.
Her career has also involved working as a consultant, teaching at the prestigious Leith’s School of Food and Wine, and writing.
Her first book, Kitchen Knife Skills, was completed just before her first MasterChef experience began.
Marianne opened her first restaurant - Marianne, in Notting Hill, west London – in 2013. The restaurant may have been small, seating just 14 people, but it made a big impact.
It was named as number 33 in the The Good Food Guide’s top 50 restaurants in the UK for 2018, and in 2017 earned the top prize in Harden’s London Restaurant Awards, for cooking that was described as “peerless perfection”.
Celebrity diners included Sophie Ellis Bextor, members of Pink Floyd and Jude Law.
Marianne left the restaurant in August 2018 to pursue other projects, and it closed shortly afterwards.
That year, Marianne appeared in the BBC programme Great British Menu and, having triumphed in the central regional heat, reached the final week of the competition.
She has also appeared on BBC show Saturday Kitchen.
We must support our pubs, or we will lose them, and it’s easy here in a well-served county
Marianne
WHAT IS SHE DOING NOW?
“Over the years I have tried to perfect three different roles,” Marianne told the Mercury.
“I am a restaurant chef, a food sector and business consultant, and a private chef. I’m feeling fortunate at the moment, focusing on the second two.
“Pre-virus, and after the restaurant, I wanted to travel, and I cooked from Thailand to Ireland.
“My favourites have been Switzerland, Sardinia and France, cooking for family, for friends, and even for rock stars and ‘Hollywood royalty’. I’ve been very lucky with clients.
“Consulting-wise, I have really enjoyed creating a sea food menu for Harbour Bites in Saundersfoot, south Wales, for example – from chips to kombucha, to jellyfish – and I’ve worked with the dairy near home (Long Clawson Dairy), a supermarket, and looked at some take away businesses too.”
In the long-term, Marianne says she plans to create a cookery school and chef’s table in Leicestershire.
WHAT’S IT LIKE BACK ON MASTERCHEF?
“I am so at home in the kitchen, it can even be in a studio!” said Marianne.
“Like Great British Menu, and Saturday Kitchen, the team were lovely. Obviously, the cooking challenge and context is always very different.
“From the scale of the competition in 2009, to the ‘at home’ feel of 2020, MasterChef has reflected its time very well.”
WHAT ARE HER FAVOURITE PLACES BACK HOME?
“When friends visit, especially from London, they’re always very impressed with the country here. It’s a pleasure, by bicycle, by foot, or, with Rutland Water, even by boat!
“We must support our pubs, or we will lose them, and it’s easy here in a well-served county, and one where we don’t do badly for high quality suppliers and produce either.
“Melton Mowbray still has a good market on a Tuesday. Produce and game here can be very good, and reasonable. I also found there some of my favourite copper pans.”
Marianne mentions Melton Cheeseboard, with its excellent selection of cheese, and Gerald Botterill’s geese, which can be seen in the fields around Croxton Kerrial. There are more surprising delights, like Rothley, a most excellent vineyard. We are very lucky.”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE HOSPITALITY SECTOR?
“It is heartbreaking to see good businesses fail due to the virus. But the people of the sector are so vibrant and dynamic, I do hope we can mostly bounce back,” Marianne said. “In normal times, restaurants and food options turn over so fast. At the 2018 Harden’s Awards, for instance, so many category winners had been open even less than a year – the industry is constantly throwing up amazing shoots.
“We absolutely must find and support good options, old and new.
“My mission is to share delight in the culinary arts, from environment to people, from ingredient to plate.
“I can’t see this need going anywhere, and our customers will lead us to the best way.”
■ Watch Marianne on MasterChef: The Professionals, A Festive Knockout, beginning on BBC One at 8pm tomorrow.