New Figure Old Flavours

Chef Tom Kerridge may have lost 11st in the last three years, but his passion for the Great British food scene, curries and all, remains as strong as ever…

- Frank Grice

It’s said that life begins at 40, yet while some men buy the sports car or embark on a change of image, when celebrity chef Tom Kerridge passed that famous age milestone he decided he needed to alter his lifestyle in order to make the most of his middle years.

“I think when people get to 40 a great number end up taking a long look at themselves – they start to think about where they’ve gone, what they’ve done, what they’ve achieved and where they are going in the future,” the owner of Marlow’s two-Michelinstarred gastropub The Hand and Flowers explains. “From a health point of view, I definitely wasn’t in a great place and I needed to change that. So it hadn’t altered where I was, and I don’t think it was having an effect on my life and personality, but health-wise it was something I needed to recognise in myself and change for the better.”

What Kerridge decided on was a low-carb diet regime that, three years later, has resulted in over 11st of weight lost. This ‘Dopamine Diet’, as he terms it in his new book, was crafted specially to give readers the chance to get fit while still eating food that not only tastes fantastic but makes you feel great as well.

“It’s a personal story; I’ve already been there and done it, so it’s little tips on how I did it myself,” Kerridge says. “It’s the difference between being told not to do it and being shown how not to do it by someone who has already lost 11st and has done it the right way – the way that worked for me, at least. If just one person buys into it then the book has been worth doing, because it means it has helped that one person change their life.”