James Martin was once pelted with butter by an adoring fan.
The 45-year-old television chef has racked up a legion of followers thanks to the 10 years he spent presenting ‘Saturday Kitchen’, his northern charm and his piercing blue eyes, but he has admitted he’s yet to have any saucy lingerie thrown at him by his female admirers and, instead, was once left covered in the greasy dairy product while he was rustling up one of his delicious dishes live on stage.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror newspaper, he said: "Someone chucked butter once, but that was about it. It’s not all women. Paul Hollywood and Gino D’Acampo get all that. My audience is half men, like my TV demographic."
But not all of his live tours have ended up in a sticky mess as the culinary heartthrob was over the moon when he hit the road for ‘Planes, Mates and Automobiles’ – a reference to his love of fast cars, bikes and flying – in 2016 and sold 135,000 tickets.
He explained: "The first tour was mega. I’d never seen anything like it in my life. We sold 135,000 tickets and played to 4,400 people at Hammersmith Apollo – 3,000 at Birmingham Symphony Hall. Other chefs have done tours – but this was insane. And it wasn’t just cooking – that’s the easy bit."
James even taught himself how to play the guitar so that he could treat his fans to something a bit different when it came to the grand finale.
He said: "I’d never played an instrument but wanted to do something special. I thought of learning the piano but the bloke in the music shop persuaded me to get a guitar. My secretary found me a teacher and I had lessons and trained five hours a day for weeks. My fingers were wrecked. And on the first night in Glasgow in front of 2,800 people I was so nervous – all I could think about was the song at the end.
"But I did it OK and when I finished the entire audience went mental. It was amazing."
James Martin had butter thrown at him by fans
