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The UK has numerous famous master cooks, complete with their own television shows and cookery books. A report by Money.co.uk has ranked the nation's most successful celebrity chefs in terms of their net worth, published cookbooks, restaurants, Michelin stars, TV appearances, social media influence and TV career length.
- Gordon Ramsay
It's no surprise that larger-than-life Scotsman Gordon Ramsay, of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares fame, took the number one spot. The Johnstone-born father-of-five has an estimated worth of £171 million and has published 102 cookbooks. He owns 35 restaurants and has a 22-year career in broadcasting so far.
Famous for his fiery temper, blunt honesty and frequent use of profanities, his career has included multiple TV appearances in numerous different series such as Hell's Kitchen, Masterchef and The F-Word, which won a BAFTA Award in 2005 for Best Feature.
- Jamie Oliver
Coming in at number two is Jamie Oliver, 46, who has published 118 cookbooks and has an estimated net worth of £233 million. Despite having amassed more wealth than his rival Ramsay, the latter scored more points, mainly thanks to the number of TV appearances he has made and his massive social media following.
Born in Essex, Oliver has a more laidback approach to cuisine. His most famous TV show was The Naked Chef. His Feed Me Better campaign, aimed at introducing schoolchildren to healthy foods, has been backed by the government.
- Tom Kerridge
Tom Kerridge, 48, is a Michelin-starred chef who has worked at a number of prestigious restaurants. His pub, The Hand and Flowers, in Marlow, earned a Michelin star within a year of opening in 2005 and a second star in 2012 - the first pub ever to do so. With a net worth of £3.8 million, his third place is largely due to his Michelin stars, as his second pub in Marlow, The Coach, has also earned a star.
Born in Salisbury, Kerridge has hosted many TV programmes including How to Lose Weight For Good and Top of the Shop for the BBC. He has also appeared on Great British Menu, Saturday Kitchen and Masterchef.
- James Martin
Born in Malton, Yorkshire, James Martin presented the BBC cookery series, Saturday Kitchen, for a decade from 2006 to 2016. The 49-year-old has also hosted James Martin's American Adventure, James Martin's French Adventure and Saturday Morning with James Martin, his current ITV cookery series.
With an estimated net worth of £3.6 million, he has written more than 20 best-selling cookery books and has six different business, covering all aspects of his work, including restaurants and cookware.
- Marcus Wareing
Michelin-starred chef Marcus Wareing, 51, owns the famous restaurant Marcus, in fashionable Knightsbridge. He has been a judge on Masterchef since 2014 and has won multiple awards including the Restaurant Association Young Chef of the Year, the Tatler Restaurateur of the Year, the Catey Awards Chef of the Year and GQ Chef of the Year.
Born in Southport, he has published nine best-selling cookbooks. He has an estimated net worth of £11 million, but his lack of TV shows pushes him to fifth place.
So there you have the top 5 celebrity chefs in the UK, based on many different factors. Perhaps surprisingly, Nigella Lawson is only the 12th ranked top UK chef and the highest-placed woman. The 62-year-old Wandsworth-born chef has amassed a net worth of £7 million through her own cookware range, Living Kitchen. She has sold more than eight million cookbooks all over the world and has appeared on TV shows in the UK and US such as Nigella Bites, Nigella's Christmas Kitchen and Nigella Feasts.
Fellow female celebrity chefs Mary Berry and Delia Smith made the top 25, but there were no female chefs in the top ten.
In order to excel as either a professional or domestic chef, make sure you have the right tools of the trade, such as airtight food storage boxes from Solent Plastics.