James Martin to leave BBC Saturday Kitchen after 10 years

Saturday Kitchen, the BBC TV show he has presented for the past 10 years.

Martin will leave at the end of March, with a series of guest presenters expected to take over from April onwards.

Saturday Kitchen, which Martin first began presenting in 2006, became one of the BBC’s success stories, with up to three million viewers tuning in every week. It has featured a vast array of the UK’s best chefs â€" and many from abroad â€" across the years, including Jason Atherton, Tom Kerridge, Ken Hom, Theo Randall, Nathan Outlaw, Clare Smyth, Thomas Keller and many others.

In a tweet, Martin said working on the show had been a great pleasure. In a statement, he said: “"I would like to personally thank all the viewers for turning Saturday Kitchen into a three million-plus smash hit. I could not have done it without them. I would also like to thank the BBC and Saturday Kitchen for the great opportunity they gave me.

"It has been an amazing journey and I have been privileged to work with some of the world's greatest chefs and some of the greatest names in showbiz. I wish the new chefs every success.”

Chef Daniel Galmiche joined those on Twitter commenting on the news, writing: “Oh no, love doing the show with James, and also he’s my friend,” while Anthony Demetre of Arbutus said: “You’ll be sadly missed, Mr Martin”.
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