BBC Good Food Show Winter - Birmingham NEC 28 November - 1 December 2019

Mary will be at the Show on Saturday 16 June. See her around the Show in live interviews and in the Big Kitchen.

James Martin made a great impact with his television debut in November ‘96 and has rarely been off screen since. He was a regular chef on Ready Steady Cook (BBC2), and in 2006 reached the semi-finals of Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1). He went on to present BBC1’s hit series Saturday Kitchen for 10 years, regularly attracting viewers in excess of 3.5 million.

Designed by Owen Morgan, Mosaic Landscape Design

Every Little Helps Show Garden, BBC Gardeners' World LiveTesco return to BBC Gardeners' World Live with a Show Garden for the second year running. For 2018, the design focuses on a family garden which provides spaces and activities for all ages without compromising on luxury and design.

The garden is a space designed to engage visitors with ideas and inspiration for their own gardens. The multi-faceted design includes an informal lounge area, raised pond, Mediterranean inspired border, artificial lawn play area, den-making and secret garden within a wildlife area, outdoor dining area, outdoor kitchen/bar room and edible beds.

The main focus of planting within garden will be a strong structural form of hedging, trees and shrubs, which give the space year round usability. This will be supported with a profusion of seasonal planting in pots and containers.

The interactive nature of the garden will be supported by demonstrations and masterclasses which take place from the garden during the Show, including a mix of culinary and horticultural sessions. Masterclass timetable to follow.

Tommy Banks, Head Chef of The Black Swan at Oldstead, winner of Great British Menu 2016 & one of the youngest chefs to be awarded a Michelin Star in the UK.

Tommy has a unique cooking style; cutting edge and modern yet influenced by tradition. He heads up the kitchen at The Black Swan at Oldstead, Yorkshire, which he and his family have owned and run for the past 10 years. They have lived and farmed around Oldstead for many generations; it's very much their creation, and very much Tommy's passion. With his farming background naturally he wanted to grow his own produce in Oldstead so there is now a 2 acre kitchen garden in the field next to the restaurant. Both kitchen and front of house are very closely involved in the incredibly short journey from field to plate.

Tommy has achieved great attention and national recognition. At the age of twenty-four, he became the youngest Michelin-starred chef in Britain when The Black Swan retained its star in September 2013. The Black Swan gained a 4th AA Rosette in January 2016, making it unique as the only restaurant in Yorkshire and the North-East to hold a Michelin Star and 4 AA Rosettes.

Jim is one of the UK’s leading gardening experts. He was superintendent of the Royal Parks for 25 years and his clients have included Her Majesty the Queen and his old friend the Queen Mother.

Jim's love of gardening began when, having been excluded from class, the naughty youngster was set to work in his school's walled garden.

This judge thrives in an outdoor environment; there's nothing Jim doesn’t know about planting and growing. His dedication has seen him judging competitions all over the world and sharing his knowledge with the public is his greatest passion.

At any one time only 63 people in the world hold the Victoria Medal of Honour – the highest accolade in horticulture. Jim is one of them. He was also head judge for ‘Britain in Bloom’ for 25 years, where he was nicknamed ‘Judge Dread’.

Affectionately known as the Yummy Brummie (coined by Olive Magazine), Glynn Purnell owns and runs Purnell’s in Birmingham. Winning dozens of awards for his inspired and adventurous cooking, Glynn has remained firmly rooted in his home city and won the Birmingham’s first Michelin star in January 2005 as Head Chef at Jessica’s.

Glynn’s first food memory involved baked beans on toast and curry powder! Left in charge of his little brother and sister, he would experiment on them with new combinations and challenged their taste buds. He continues to do this with dishes like poached egg yolk, smoked haddock milk foam and cornflakes on the menu at Purnell’s, cooking which earned him top accolades on BBC’s Great British Menu. Glynn takes old fashioned flavours and brings them up to date with dishes like Royal of Goats Cheese and Pineapple on sticks.

The proud owner of three establishments in Birmingham: Purnell’s restaurant opened in 2007 and was awarded a Michelin star in 2009, Ginger’s Bar and Purnell’s Bistro. He started work in kitchens at the age of 14 and spent the following two years at the Metropole Hotel, going every day after school. They took him on as an apprentice and six years later he won the prestigious Salon Culinaire award. Glynn moved to Simpson’s which won a Michelin star while he was a Sous Chef and where he also won other personal awards such as the Academie de Culinaire Francaise Annual Award of Excellence in 1996. He went on to work with Claude Bosi at the 2 Michelin-starred Hibiscus in Ludlow before helping to launch Jessica’s back in Birmingham in 2003.

Glynn has taken part in BBC’s The Great British Menu, winning twice and then appearing as a mentor. He has previously featured onThe Great British Food Revival, Pies and Puds with Paul Hollywood and with Mary Berry and Michel Roux Jnr and Tom Kerridge on Food and Drink. Glynn is a regular guest chef on Saturday Kitchen with James Martin and recently appeared on BBC 2’s Extra Slice. Glynn’s book Cracking Yolks and Pig Tales was published by Kyle Books in May 2014.

He has leant his knowledge to iconic British department store Harvey Nichols as consultant in 2015 for the launch of their new restaurant concept in Birmingham.

Aktar Islam is an award-winning English chef, restaurateur and entrepreneur. In May 2018, he opened Opheem in Summer Row, Birmingham. It is the sixth restaurants Aktar has established in and around Birmingham and the first for which he has had 100% creative control.

Opheem has a 70-cover restaurant with a sleek bar on Summer Row near the city’s iconic Jewellery Quarter. It celebrates the culinary heritage of India and showcases Aktar’s passion for progressive Indian gastronomy while delving into the country’s ancient culinary traditions. Opheem champions the subcontinent’s distinctive flavours, spices, textures, taste balances and applies modern techniques and flair.

Aktar became a household name in 2009 when his skills in the kitchen put his former restaurant Lasan on the map as the first Indian restaurant in the United Kingdom to be selected as the "Best Local Restaurant" by Gordon Ramsay on Channel 4's The F Word. In June 2011, the chef cemented his culinary credentials by winning BBC Two’s Great British Menu.

Alan Titchmarsh will share his expert advice in the BBC Gardeners' World Live Theatre on Friday 15 June 2018, plus live interviews at other stages around the Show.

With their irresistible enthusiasm, Si King and Dave Myers, aka The Hairy Bikers, have become national treasures. Big hearted, down-to-earth cooks with a love of good food, they have been cooking together for more than twenty years. They have created haute cuisine dishes with Michelin-starred chefs and travelled the world in the pursuit of great food. They’ve also explored the length and breadth of the British Isles to discover brand new recipes and create their own fresh takes on cooking classics.

Radio 4s Gardeners' Question Time regular Matt Biggs will be at BBC Gardeners' World Live everyday.

Trained at The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Matthew has gone on to present numerous television programmes including Channel 4's Garden Club. He has had experience behind the camera too directing Meridian Television's popular gardening series Grass Roots and working as a Horticultural Consultant for a garden design series on Channel 5.

Matt, a graduate of The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners Question Time.

He writes regularly for BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and BBC Countryfile and has written several books including ‘Matthew Biggs Complete Book of Vegetables’, ‘Lessons from Great Gardeners’ for the RHS and was commissioned to write ‘Gardening at Eden and how to do it at home’, for The Eden Project. He has travelled world-wide, leading gardening tours for BBC Gardeners World magazine, the most recent, to Belgium and the Netherlands.