Chef James Martin relives nightmare that ended his wedding catering days

James Martin’s refusal to cater weddings, regardless of the fee, stems from two unforgettable mishaps that shaped his entire approach to large-scale events. The chef, renowned for his work at Michelin-starred establishments like Maison Troisgros in France and his own acclaimed restaurant at the Talbot Hotel in North Yorkshire, first encountered disaster early in his career while on work experience at Basewells in London’s Park Lane Hotel.
On the Good Food podcast, Martin recounted, “Eight hundred and forty-six apple tarts, aged 15 years old, work experience in Basewells at the Park Lane Hotel in London, I got my Fahrenheit and centigrade mixed up for a wedding. I nuked 850 portions of apple tart.” His punishment for the blunder became a running joke in the London restaurant scene, as he was sent on a wild goose chase for “2kg of chicken lips,” a fictional ingredient, as penance—“Three days later, there isn’t such a thing. I went from restaurant to restaurant, from hotel to hotel, it was my penance paying for it, that was probably the worst.”
This early experience left Martin doubting whether he’d ever want to cater weddings professionally, but a second incident sealed his decision during an outdoor wedding event. “There’s another one where we catered for a wedding, and I don’t cater for weddings anymore, basically because of these two things. That was one of them, the other we did this thing in a field, it was crazy, 420 people or something like that and you go through everything in fine detail.”
Despite meticulous planning—“You organise napkins, table cloths, salt, pepper, every single thing you think about. Ovens, ventilation, flooring, washing-up, there’s tonnes of stuff to think about and the only thing we didn’t think about was how the ovens work, we didn’t organise any gas. That was a killer”—a crucial oversight with the ovens meant he had to prepare food in advance, leaving a lasting impression. “They got their dinner and I’m never cooking for weddings again. Would never do it, not for any money in the world.”
Martin’s rise to fame began in the 1990s on Ready Steady Cook and The Big Breakfast, before a decade-long stint presenting BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen. In 2017, he transitioned to ITV with James Martin’s Saturday Morning, where he continues to champion small producers and share his culinary journey, returning to screens this morning alongside Kirsty Gallacher, Shivi Ramoutar, Alex Dilling, and Romy Gill.
His stories resonate in an industry where kitchen disasters are not uncommon, as a 2023 survey by the UK’s Food Standards Agency revealed that over 60% of professional chefs have experienced major mishaps during large events, often due to equipment failures or miscommunication. Martin’s candidness about his failures has endeared him to both viewers and fellow chefs, highlighting the unpredictable nature of catering on a grand scale and the importance of resilience and humor in the culinary world.