Alumni

Tom Calver

Somerset-based cheese maker Tom Calver graduated from Leiths in 2000. His raw milk cheese produced from his herds of Friesian-Holstein cows at Westcombe Dairy, near Shepton Mallet, was recently awarded the top Cheddar accolade at the 2011 Royal Bath and West Show for ‘Best Cheddar in Show’. Tom was also featured in Jamie Oliver’s latest book ‘Jamie’s Great Britain’ as well as the Channel 4 TV show tie-in, which saw Jamie head to the farm with his crew to shoot Tom’s dairy in full action.

Gizzi Erskine

Former BBC Good Food Award winner Gizzi is a successful TV presenter and cookery book author. Gizzi rose to fame as a co-presenter on Channel 4′s ‘Cook Yourself Thin’, before hosting Channel 4 show ‘Cookery School’ alongside Richard Corrigan. She has also somehow found the time to pen ‘Gizzi’s Kitchen Magic’, a technique focused cookery bible published by Virgin.

Henry Harris

Leiths-trained chef Henry Harris is chef patron of Knightsbridge’s Racine, having made his name as executive chef at Harvey Nichol’s The Fifth Floor restaurant. Over his prolific culinary career, he has also written two cookbooks, Harvey Nichol’s The Fifth Floor Cookbook and A Passion for Protein.

Lorraine Pascale

Former catwalk model Lorraine Pascale is the owner of Covent Garden bakery Ella’s Bakehouse. She is now also a household name after the popularity of her BBC cooking series ‘Baking Made Easy’ and its accompanying recipe book. Her second series ‘Home Cooking Made Easy’ is currently showing on BBC 2.

Matt Tebbutt

UKTV’s Market Kitchen presenter Matt Tebbutt, is a Leiths Diploma graduate and chef proprietor of The Foxhunter in Nantyderry near Abergavenny. Matt trained under Marco Pierre White at The Oak Room and with Bruce Poole at Chez Bruce, before moving to chef Alastair Little’s Soho restaurant. This year he joined fellow alumnus Gizzi on Channel 4′s Drop Down Menu.

Joe Mercer Nairne

Joe Mercer Nairne’s first solo venture, Medlar was met with a barrage of high acclaim from the critics when it opened in 2011, and has already established itself as both a neighbourhood favourite for the Chelsea dweller and a desination restaurant for Londoners. After graduating from Leiths, Joe cut his teeth at the Savoy Grill for two years and Chez Bruce for a further four years, with a six month stint at Sydney’s Rockpool in between.

Diana Henry

Leiths Diploma graduate Diana Henry is one of Britain’s leading food writers, having achieved great acclaim as the Sunday Telegraph’s award winning food writer. She has written six books including ‘Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons’, ‘Cook Simple’, and ‘Roast Figs, Sugar Snow’. Her latest book, ‘Food from Plenty’, chosen as one of the top cookbooks of 2012 by The Washington Post, is rapidly becoming a culinary classic.

Signe Johansen

After completing the Leiths Diploma in Food and Wine, Norway-born food writer and anthropologist Signe Johansen went on to work in the experimental kitchen at Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck.  Scandilicious, her first Scandinavian cookbook, was published by Saltyard Books in May 2011. Her second book, Scandilicious Baking, is set for release in May 2012.

Sam Harris

Since graduating from Leiths with a Diploma in Food and Wine, Sam Harris has worked at The River Cafe, Bibendum and Harvey Nichols. In 2007, Sam opened the Maltings Café, a well-trodden local lunchtime establishment in SE1 and more recently Zucca, a critically acclaimed Modern Italian restaurant on Bermondsey Street.

James Hughes Davies

Since graduating from Leiths School of Food and Wine, James Hughes Davies has worked as a private caterer, a fresh food manager for an organic food company, and a restaurant chef. In 2009 James set up his own company – Little Jack Horner’s. Over the past two years, James has sold pies at various Farmers Markets across London where he has been able to develop and expand the Little Jack Horner’s  range of products. Next stop for 2012, a pie canteen!

Sarah Cook

 After graduating from Leiths, Sarah Cook won the internship with BBC Good Food magazine where she was later asked to stay permanently.  Sarah has now been styling food for photography for BBC magazines for several years, and is now Deputy Food Editor of BBC Good Food magazine. Sarah recently returned to Leiths but this time as a teacher running the successful Food Styling evening course.

Jane Hornby

After graduating from Leiths School of Food and Wine Jane Hornby fulfilled a life-long dream by joining the team at BBC Good Food. Jane spent many years writing, food styling and editing the magazine as well as editing seven of the BBC Books ‘101’ series before having her own book published by Phaidon.

Following the success of Jane’s first cook book What to Cook and How to Cook it in 2009, her second cook book Fresh and Easy will be published in spring 2012.

Angela Malik

Former Leiths Cookery Diploma student Angela Malik has established herself as a successful teacher, specialising in Asian cuisine. Leiths often ask Angela to return and share the secrets of cooking authentic Indian food. As well as appearing at many London farmers markets, Angela Malik offers private catering and runs a thriving a Delicatessen.

Alan Rosenthal

Leiths trained Alan Rosenthal set up the very successful stewed! company, devising, making and selling stews in a convenient form. Alan has recently returned to share his secrets and recipes at Leiths with his inspirational One Pot Cooking course.

Xanthe Clay

Xanthe Clay worked as a bookseller specialising in cookery books, and when the bookshop chain folded she spent her redundancy money training to be a chef at Leiths school of Food and Wine. She worked as a chef and caterer in the West Country before starting the Readers’ Recipe column for the Telegraph. Since then she has worked on both food and cookery features for Weekend Telegraph and written numerous cookery books.

Sam Clark

After studying at Leiths, Sam Clark went on to work at The River Cafe before establishing Moro with his wife in the spring of 1997.  The southern Mediterranean Moorish style food served at Moro continues to be a great success, as do the cookbooks – Moro Cookbook, Casa Moro and Moro East.

Camilla Stephens

After graduating from Leiths, Camilla Stephens worked for Leiths catering company and Good Housekeeping magazine before starting up her own pie business – Higgidy Pies. With the help of her team, Camilla has grown the company from a kitchen based start-up to a million pound business. Hiddidy Pies are available in most supermarkets, as well as independent farm shops, grocery stores and delis.