Marlow-based celebrity chef Tom Kerridge has spoken openly about the ‘huge responsibility’ he has in the spotlight.

The 50-year-old, who owns the Michelin Star restaurant, the Hand and Flowers in the town, also hopes his message to use British produce will be echoed across the country.

This comes as his new TV show, ‘Tom Kerridge Cooks Britain’, is due to hit our screens next month on ITV1.

The programme will see Kerridge travel the length and breadth of the country in a 1950s food truck, meeting different suppliers along the way and cooking up dishes from their produce.

He told the PA News Agency: “As a chef, you’re the person that takes care of the end result.

“If someone has taken ages to produce and grow carrots and beetroot, or whether it’s animal husbandry, free-range chickens, cattle farming – all of that takes a huge amount of time and focus.

“The one thing I’ve always been focused on for 32 years being a chef – I’ve always been about produce, and produce-led.

“We’ve done cookbooks before that focus on dishes and dish styles, and The Hand & Flowers [Cookbook, published in 2020] was all about The Hand and Flowers dishes, which is also focused on British produce.

“But actually, that’s a very complex cookbook with some Michelin-star-level cookery.

“So this is a real opportunity to visit producers and suppliers up and down the UK, and showcase what they do and make those ingredients the hero dishes.”

The TV show is also the same name as his 12th cookbook which also looks at dishes from south as Cornwall to meals crossing the Scottish border.

He continued: “When you become a chef, you realise that you become the last touch point between them and the guests – and that’s a huge responsibility.

“So when you go into a kitchen, the moment we recognise that then there’s an awful lot more at stake because we know we have a huge responsibility here.

“But it’s still very, very difficult as we’ve had some high-profile closures (most notably, celebrity chef Monica Galetti, who recently announced the closure of her London restaurant Mere).

“These are high-profile chefs that are struggling, and if they’re struggling to work, then there’s a lot more people behind the scenes as well – like just your local restaurants.

“I think the issue is a mountain, it feels like everything’s getting squeezed.”

Tom Kerridge Cooks Britain by Tom Kerridge is published by Bloomsbury Absolute, and is available in shops at £25.