His dramatic 76kg weight loss wowed the world — until the scales started creaking again. The chef tells Lisa Markwell about his new sustainable regime to eat well and stay in shape.
"This is definitely my last diet book. That's it." Excuse me, what? That's a surprise from the Sunday Times chef Tom Kerridge, given that in the past five years he has become known as much for his physical transformation through diet as for his Michelin-starred restaurants.
At his heaviest, Kerridge weighed in at around 30 stone (190kg). Then, about five years ago, he shed an incredible 12 stone (76kg). He did it by cutting out pasta, bread, potatoes, rice, alcohol and by going swimming every day.
"People kept wanting to know how I'd lost so much weight and would ask me about it all the time — on Twitter, at cookery demonstrations, in the street," he says. "It's weird, because if I wasn't a chef I'd be driving a white van or wearing a hi-vis jacket — I'm that kind of guy. And now I've turned into a bit of a weight-loss guru." He agrees that part of his success is an everyman quality that makes the rest of us think, if he can do it, so can I.
Then the weight started to creep back on. What happened? First, his busy schedule meant he found himself unable to get down to the pool as often as he used to. Second, that initial diet was unsustainable. A large percentage of his time is taken up with creating and approving dishes for his restaurants and testing recipes — often indulgent ones — for this magazine. Tasting food for a living means there is more temptation for him to resist than the average person faces.