I have the best job in the world: I’m a food adventurer. I know that sounds a bit odd, but there’s really no other way of explaining it. I spend my life working to inspire fascination with food and I do it by cooking, exploring and occasionally blowing stuff up. Actually, I do quite a lot of blowing stuff up. I develop half of my own TV shows, and I’ve made some pretty wild series to get people excited by what they eat (Food Factory, Gastronuts, Incredible Edibles, Full on Food), and also lots of serious documentaries about hunger, conflict and anthropology (Can Eating Insects Save the World?, Calves Heads and Coffee: The Golden Age of English Food, Cooking in the Danger Zone, Feasts). I love food science (Food Factory, E Numbers: An Edible Adventure) and I particularly enjoy staging big live food stunt shows. Basically, I like cooking food that will blow your mind.

So, how do I earn my biscuits? Well, I work as a TV presenter/writer (I’ve made sixteen TV series of my own and often appear in other people’s), an author (I’ve written six books), a writer for various magazines and newspapers and I perform and host live events. I do a fair amount of corporate work hosting conferences and helping companies come up with new food ideas, too.

My hobbies are cooking, hanging out with my kids, cooking, windsurfing, cooking, travelling, cooking, cycling...you get the picture. Mostly, I like blowing stuff up, though.

Here’s how and why I got into it.

Here are some reviews of my TV series

Here are some reviews of my book Gastronaut

Can Eating Insects Save the World?

BBC4 Plum Pictures TX early 2013

Incredible Edibles Gutbusters

CBBC Objective Productions TX March 2013

Food Factory

BBC1 2012

Incredible Edibles

BBC1/CBBC Objective Productions 2012

Calves Heads and Coffee: The Golden Age of English Food

BBC4 Crocodile Media TX Nov 2012

Ecomaths

BBC Learning - Cornucopia Productions TX 2012

E Numbers: An Edible Adventure

Plum Pictures for BBC2 TX July 2010

Nominated for two Guild of Food Writers awards

Gastronuts II Objective Productions for BBC1 TX 2010

Feasts

Plum Productions for BBC4/2 TX 2009

Nominated for Gourmand Food Broadcast award

Gastronuts I

Objective Productions for CBBC/BBC1. 13 eps TX 08/09 Nominated for a Guild of Food Writers award

Cooking in the Danger Zone - 3 x series

16 x 30min BBC production for BBC2 TX 2006-2008    Winner Best TV series Bologna Food on Film Festival, Nominated for Gourmand Food Broadcast award

Food Uncut 120 x 30min eps UK Food TX 2007

Full on Food 7 x 60mins BBC2 TX 2004

I also appear (with varying degrees of regularity) on:

Newsnight BBC2

Blue Peter BBC1

This Morning ITV

The Wright Stuff Channel 5

Iron Chef USA Food Network

Today Show NBC

BBC Breakfast BBC1

Alan Titchmarsh Show ITV

BBC London

Newsround BBC1

Loose Ends Radio 4

Something for the Weekend BBC2

Radio Scotland

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures Channel 5

You and Yours Radio 4

Radio 6 Music

Sky News

PM Radio 4

Hackers Howlers CBBC

Market Kitchen Good Food Channel

The Hour STV

BBC World News

Here are a few press and telly shots in case you’re interested

Kitchen Cabinet

Radio 4 food panel show

Somethin’ Else production produced by Lucy Armitage/Robert Abel

What Would Jesus Eat?

Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper - the most important dinner party of all time?

Radio 4 documentary - Somethin’ Else production, produced by Russell Finch

Stefan Gates’ Cover Story

In the early 70s I appeared naked on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy album. In 2009 I finally decided to lay some demons to rest by finding out what happened during the shoot, and what on earth this weird and disturbing photo means.

Radio 4 documentary - Somethin’ Else production, produced by Russell Finch