Every dish James Martin cooks on his ITV show is one he is making for the first time. “We don’t do any rehearsal or any practice,” he told The Independent, as James Martin’s Saturday Morning reached its ninth year. His latest cookbook, named after the show, gathers recipes he first made in front of the cameras.
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The method is loose by television standards. The ingredients sit written out in front of him, and somebody behind the camera writes the steps down as he cooks. He compares it to a grown-up Ready Steady Cook, backed by decades in professional kitchens.
Why skip the rehearsal
Martin says the unrehearsed format keeps the talk with guests natural, where rehearsing again and again waters it down. He claims the food never makes him nervous. The guests sometimes do, and he named the late Sir Michael Parkinson as one interview that demanded his best.
He reckons he cooks six or seven recipes a show, and about 5,000 over the years. Most of the book is his own on-screen cooking. Guest chefs added some recipes, including a pear crumble from Paul Rankin and a fish stew from Nathan Outlaw.
He still won’t watch it
Martin, then 53, said he has not watched himself once in 34 years on television. The reviews come from his mother instead, who rings to complain about his shirt or his hair.
He made his name on Ready Steady Cook and The Big Breakfast. He then hosted BBC One’s live Saturday Kitchen from 2006 before moving to ITV’s Saturday Morning in 2017. Leaving the BBC after a decade was a big decision, he said, but the right time.
Filming at home
Saturday Morning is filmed at his house, which he says gives it a more relaxed feel. His home was also the backdrop to what he called one of the most fraught periods of his life. BBC News reported in 2023 that ITV had heard complaints about how he treated production staff. One incident dated from early 2018, when he became angry after a blocked drain flooded his home during filming.
He apologised to the crew. He also disclosed that he had been diagnosed with facial cancer around that time, and that it had since returned more than once. ITV said it had passed staff welfare recommendations to Blue Marlin, the production company behind the show.
The cameras still roll in that home kitchen, and the recipes still arrive unrehearsed.
