Ready Steady Cook’s Brian Turner reveals stroke caused him to stutter

Celebrity chef Brian Turner revealed a stroke caused him to stutter.

The 76-year-old TV personality, best known as a chef on BBC Ready Steady Cook, revealed his condition while thanking staff at a London hospital for looking after him.

He told James Martin’s Saturday Morning on ITV: “Unfortunately I had a stroke last June and the people at the London hospital were wonderful and helpful.

“Sorry if I stutter sometimes.”

Martin said, “It’s okay, I love you. So a round of applause to everyone who cares about you.

“It’s nice to have you back, you’re welcome anytime.”

They then cook a meal featuring lamb’s neck and scones that Martin says resembles a “cobbler”.

After the show aired, Martin wrote on Twitter: “Well what can we both say when Brian is on the phone, we’re both in tears at the amazing messages and support from all of you…he wanted me to tell you all there ‘thanks for all of them!’”

Turner said on the ITV show that he started as a TV chef after he and restaurateur Antony Worrall Thompson made an eight-minute movie on a ship on the “high seas” about cooking.

He said he was then invited to be on This Morning, which was at the time presented by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, and this led him to audition for Ready Steady Cook.

“The people of This Morning said, Richard and Judy said, ‘we have to have these guys on the show,'” Turner said.

He has also starred in cooking segments on This Morning with Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield in recent years as well as Saturday Kitchen.

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Martin ended the segment on his cooking show by hugging Turner and saying, “Brian Turner, I love you.”

Turner regularly participates in the Ready Steady Cook show where a chef is challenged to make the best possible dish from a bag of ingredients selected by a member of the public.

The show ran from 1994 to 2010 and was then refurbished in 2020.

Turner has also appeared on Ainsley’s Food We Love, Daily Cooks and hosted his own BBC show A Taste Of Britain, where he explores delicious UK food with Janet Street-Porter.

He opened his own restaurant, Turner’s, in Chelsea, London, in 1986 and 15 years later, restaurants in Birmingham and Slough.

He also has locations at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair and Butlins, Bognor Regis.

In June 2002, Turner became CBE for her services to travel and food industry training in honor of the Queen’s Birthday.