If you have seen any of the episodes of Ready, Steady, Cook or Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook you will be familiar with Lesley Waters. She is a chef with an incredible passion for what she does, and her enthusiasm is infectious. Any contestant that ended up on her team would be smiling all the way through their cooking experience and she would often have the presenters like Fern Britton and Ainsley Harriott enthralled by what she was doing and giggling at some of her comments. She became an essential part of the show as the audience looked forward to the sight of Lesley bounding across the set ready to whip some culinary masterpiece out of the few ingredients that the members of the public had brought in.
She started her culinary training off by studying French cuisine at Ealing College where she probably spent long hours cooking over an early version of a Medium Duty 6 Burner Gas Range Oven like the ones you can find at https://www.247cateringsupplies.co.uk/catering-appliances/commercial-ovens-and-ranges/commercial-ranges/lincat-lmr9-medium-duty-6-burner-gas-range-oven. From there she went on in 1978 to work at Prue Leith’s restaurant where it didn’t take her long to advance to the role of senior chef. This was a vital part of her education learning form the established master Prue whose cooking tutelage is regarded as second to know in the world of catering and food.She went on to work with Prue again as a tutor at Leith’s School of Food and Wine and again worked her way to Head Tutor. This was a great honour as it is a highly regarded position and anyone rising tothis position is seen as being an absolute expert in the field
Waters opened her own cookery school in 2006 in Dorset called Abbotts Hill. Despite the extra work and the mammoth amount of time this takes to be a part of Lesley ensures that she is out there meeting the public and promoting good food and good eating. For example She has also appeared at numerous food festivals throughout the country including the 2015 Be:Fit London festival.
As well as her work at Abbotts Hill and her guest appearances on programs like This Morning she has written over twenty cookery books including:
- Deliciously Dairy Free
- The Essential Pasta Book
- Juice Up Your Energy Levels
- Simple Skills and recipes for Fabulous Food
The common thread throughout her entire career has been to eat healthy, where possible, seasonal food and to create easy to replicate recipes that even novice home cooks can follow and enjoy. It’s certainly a positive cooking message much like the lady herself.
