Who is Marianne Lumb? MasterChef: The Professionals Festive Special star

MARIANNE Lumb is competing in the festival special of MasterChef: The Professionals.

Who is Marianne Lumb?

Marianne Lumb is a chef from Leicestershire.

She began cooking as a child and was inspired by her dad, Steve, who worked as a village butcher until he died in 1979.

She said making pigs in blankets with cheese and potato pie are fond childhood memories.

“We always had an unlimited quantity of beautiful meat. The bus used to stop right outside the shop after school, and I’d go in and get butter, cheese, ham – whatever we wanted – and cook it at home,” she said to Leicester Mercury.

Though she went to university to study architecture, she realised while skiing in Austria that she enjoyed cooking for others and wanted to make that her career instead.

She has her own cooking book, Kitchen Knife Skills and has taught at Leith’s School of Food and Wine.

Where has Marianne Lumb worked?

At the age of 21 she started training at The Olde Stocks restaurant in Grimston.

Next she worked for six months at Sonny’s in Nottingham, then spent a year at the Michelin-starred Gravetye Manor which is based in Sussex.

From 2013 to 2018 she worked in her own self-named restaurant, a small Notting Hill eatery that seated 14 people.

It attracted celebrities such as Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Jude Law.

She now focuses her work on dinner parties as a private chef.

She's cooked for a mix of high clientele, including the Bamford, Sainsbury and Soros families as well as Sir Elton John, Lulu and Joanna Lumley.

Marianne also works as a consultant for restaurant menus.

When did she appear on MasterChef: The Professionals?

Marianne was a finalist in MasterChef: The Professionals in 2009.

She finished in third place.

She will now be back on the show for its festive special which concludes TONIGHT (December 30) on BBC One.

ZBlogW