Loyd Grossman - Biography

Loyd Daniel Gilman Grossman, OBE, FSA (born 16 September 1950) is an American-British television presenter, chef and musician who has mainly worked in the UK.

1 Early life, education and honours
2 Career
3 Personal life
4 External links

Early life, education and honours

Grossman was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts. His father was Jewish and worked as an antiques dealer. He graduated from Boston University (B.A. History) before going to the United Kingdom in 1975 to study at the London School of Economics (M.Sc.EconHist), where he is currently a member of the Council and the Court of Governors. He became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2003. On 9 November 2007, he became an Honorary Graduand of the University of Chester where he was presented for admission to the degree of Doctor of Letters, honoris causa. In September 2008 he took up a place at Magdalene College, Cambridge, to read for a Master's degree in History of Art. He was granted armorial bearings by letters patent of the English College of Arms on the 5 March 2004.

Career

Grossman had a short-lived career as a singer with punk band Jet Bronx And The Forbidden, who reached number 49 in the UK singles chart in December 1977 with "Ain't Doin' Nothing". He relived this period of his life in 2008. Following a guest appearance playing "Ain't Doin Nothin" with the Pork Dukes at the Vienna Rebellion punk festival on 27 April 2008, he played with his new band Jet Bronx and the New Forbidden at the 2008 Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, UK.

Grossman went on to become a restaurant reviewer for Harpers & Queen and The Sunday Times.

He has since presented Through the Keyhole (1987 to 2003), a television programme examining the homes of public figures, MasterChef (1990 to 2000), a competitive cooking programme, the History of British Sculpture (2003), and cookery show Step up to the Plate (2008) with Anton du Beke in which 3 amateur chefs competed against 2 professionals to produce the best three course meal.

In 2000 he was appointed to head the £40 million project to improve the quality of food served in British NHS hospitals and visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in December 2002 to raise awareness of the Better Hospital Foods project. His name has been lent to a number of cookery goods, particularly pasta and curry sauces, manufactured by Premier Foods. An advertisement campaign for his range of sauces began in the UK in April 2008.

Grossman is also involved in charity work. He is particularly associated with the work of museums in the UK, being chairman of the Blue Plaques Panel, the Churches Conservation Trust, the Campaign for Museums, the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, National Museums Liverpool, the vice-chair of the Liverpool Culture Company and a trustee of St Deiniol's Library. In 2007 he was appointed Chairman of the Churches Conservation Trust by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

He won an edition of the BBC's "Celebrity Mastermind" on 27 December 2009. His specialist subject was 18th century art and artists.

On 11th May 2011 he also made a guest appearance on the infamous Egg Monroe Radio Show on Surge (radio station). Critics claim it is his best radio appearance to date.

Personal life

He was married to Deborah Puttnam, the daughter of movie producer David Puttnam, and has two daughters. The couple divorced in 2004. His current partner is British aristocrat Lady Jane Wellesley, a daughter of the 8th Duke of Wellington.

His Mid-Atlantic accent reflects his Boston origins as well as the many years he has spent in the UK. It sounds strange to many Britons and Americans. It is often the subject of parody, including in ads for his own sauces, where home cooks imitate his speech as they use sauces that are promoted as having a "distinctive voice."

He was parodied by Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer in The Smell Of Reeves And Mortimer in a Masterchef sketch.