Peter Gorton, Vice Chairman of Masterchefs of Great Britain

Peter Gorton is a celebrity and consultant chef and one of the best known chefs in the south west of England.

Click here for a detailed biography of Peter's working life. He began his career in 1980 at the age of 16 and trained at some of the best restaurants in Great Britain and around the world, from The Walnut Tree in Abergavenny to Burnham Beaches Hotel in Melbourne, Australia and Jamin in Paris. He became chef/proprietor of the Carved Angel restaurants and cafes in Exeter, Taunton and Dartmouth and The Horn of Plenty in Devon.

Peter lives in Devon with his wife and two children, and has become one of the best known and well regarded chefs with years of Michelin star experience. 

He has made a number of local television series his latest, Little Chefs, a six part programme, was shown on ITV Westcountry in 2008. He is happy in the media spotlight and regularly contributes to magazine articles and recipe columns for the local and national media. He's also a regular voice on BBC Radio Devon's Breakfast Show where he gives tips and recipe ideas to listeners on the show's ‘phone-in'.

Peter is a well known demonstration chef and is always out and about doing public cookery demonstrations and is a popular regular at the region's many food events including the Taste of the Tamar Food and Craft Festival, Plymouth's Flavour Fest and Exeter's Food and Drink Festival.

If you would like to have Peter do a demonstration or a cookery course at your house or function, give him a call or drop him a line via the contact page. He can do demos in your own home, one to one cookery tuition or for groups of up to 12 people (price on application). Call him to find out more.

As well as writing a cookery book ‘Peter Gorton's Horn of Plenty', he has his own range of stainless steel pans and knives and he has won numerous awards and accolades over the years. He is due to publish another book this year.

Peter runs his hugely popular cookery schools throughout the year and really does enjoy helping people to gain confidence in their cookery ability and skills. (Waitrose Food Illustrated rated his courses as in the top 25 in the world).

One of Peter's greatest passions is to encourage children to cook and he has visited many local schools and colleges in the area giving demonstrations. In 2007 he developed a pilot scheme in Plymouth for chefs to ‘adopt a school' for a year - not just to teach them about nutrition but to apply the use cookery and food in a number of subject areas (such as history, geography, science and mathematics). Peter ‘adopted' a Plymouth school in 2007 and the venture has proved extremely popular, with over 50 schools writing to him asking for his help.

New in 2009 is Peter's "FOOD IS FUN" programme for schools, developed in association with Castles Kitchens of Plymouth.

Peter does a lot of fund raising for Little Bridge House, the only Children's Hospice in the South West - including cookery demonstrations at the Hospice's annual fete and other fund raising events. He even runs in the London marathon for the charity.