Stefan Gates

Stefan Gates (born 19 September 1967) is a British television presenter, author, broadcaster and live-show performer. He has written books about food, cooking and science. He has presented over 20 TV series,[1] mostly for the BBC, including Cooking in the Danger Zone about unusual food from the world's more dangerous and difficult places. He develops half of these TV series himself,[2] including the CBBC children's food adventure series Gastronuts[3] and Incredible Edibles.[4]

Stefan Nicholas Gates
Born
Stefan Nicholas Gates

(1967-09-19) 19 September 1967
London, England
Occupation(s)Television presenter, food writer
Years active1990 – present

Gates presented BBC One's Food Factory.[5] He wrote and presented the BBC Two series E Numbers: An Edible Adventure,[6] Full on Food[7] and the BBC Four series Feasts.[8]

Gates has also written and presented two BBC Four documentaries: Calf's Head and Coffee: The Golden Age of English Food[9] on food history, and Can Eating Insects Save the World?[10] on entomophagy. He appears as a guest on TV and radio programmes including Newsnight, Loose Ends, BBC Breakfast, Sunday Brunch, The Wright Stuff, Iron Chef, Blue Peter, The Alan Titchmarsh Show and This Morning. Gates is a panellist on BBC Radio 4's Kitchen Cabinet[11] and has made two radio documentaries. He also performs live shows and lectures, many at science and food festivals.

Early life

Gates was born in London. As a child, along with his sister Samantha, was photographed for knitwear patterns and appeared separately in commercials and TV dramas, including Poldark. They were the child models on the cover of English rock band Led Zeppelin's album Houses of the Holy (1973).[12]

Education

Gates was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford,[13] in the 1980s, where he took a degree in English.

TV career

After leaving Oxford University, Gates spent the first 16 years of his working life in film and TV – the jobs were varied and included: Assistant director, scriptwriter, director and producer, finally ending up in BBC Comedy as a development producer. Due to his fascination with unusual foods he started writing about them, and this led to him becoming a presenter and co-writer on the BBC Two series Full on Food[14] in the winter of 2004.

Cooking in the Danger Zone

Gates presents food programmes including three series of Cooking in the Danger Zone, which has been shown in 25 countries, as well as broadcast globally on BBC World News. In each episode of the series he visits a dangerous part of the world such as Afghanistan, Chernobyl, Haiti and Burma where the living is not easy and the food is unusual. This has gained him a reputation for travelling to difficult or extreme places[15] and eating unusual or shocking food.[16][17] The series won the Slow Food award for best TV series at the 2008 Slow Food on Film Festival in Bologna and was nominated for the 2009 Guild of Food Writers Food and Travel award.

Other TV and radio programmes

Gates presents a children's TV series, based on his Gastronaut concept, called gastronauts. produced by Objective Productions. The series was nominated for the 2009 Guild of Food Writers Broadcast of the Year award. He wrote and presented Feasts, broadcast on BBC Four in 2009 – it consists of three episodes filmed in Japan, Mexico and India. In 2010 he presented a three-part series on food additives for BBC Two, E Numbers: An Edible Adventure. In 2012, he took over the role of presenting of Food Factory on BBC One, after former presenter Jimmy Doherty left the BBC to join Channel 4.[18]

He also appears regularly on Five's The Wright Stuff and BBC Two's Something for the Weekend the Good Food Channel's Market Kitchen. In 2010 he presented a documentary for Radio 4, Stefan Gates' Cover Story, concerning his part in the Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy photoshoot.

Writing

Gates writes articles for newspapers and magazines including New Scientist and BBC Food[19] and has written eight books. His first children's book Incredible Edibles[20] (2012) won the 2013 Information Book Award. His first book was Gastronaut: Adventures in Food for the Romantic, the Foolhardy, and the Brave, winner of the 2005 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards Best Food Literature Book. In 2008 a companion to the TV series Cooking in the Danger Zone was published by BBC Books titled In the Danger Zone. He has also written 101 Dishes to Eat Before You Die, Stefan Gates on E Numbers, which is a companion to the TV series E Numbers: An Edible Adventure and The Extraordinary Cookbook[21] (Kyle Books 2010).

TV

YouTube

Since 2015 Gates has operated the YouTube channel Gastronaut TV. The channel has over 50 videos and over 3,000 subscribers. Videos include recipes, science, things to try at home, and clips from his TV series.

Radio

Books
  • Gastronaut (2005), ISBN 978-0-563-52272-0
  • In The Danger Zone (2008), ISBN 978-1-84607-264-2
  • 101 Dishes to Eat Before You Die (2009), ISBN 978-1-4075-6441-8
  • Stefan Gates on E Numbers (2010), ISBN 978-1-84091-561-7
  • The Extraordinary Cookbook (2010), ISBN 978-1856269216
  • Incredible Edibles (2012), ISBN 978-1406339062
  • Insects: An Edible Field Guide (2017), ISBN 9781785035258
  • Fartology: The Extraordinary Science Behind the Humble Fart (2018) ISBN 9781849499682
  • Catology: The Weird and Wonderful Science of Cats (2021), ISBN 9781787136328

Live shows

Gates performs "food stunt shows",[25] mostly at science festivals such as Cambridge Science Festival,[26] Cheltenham Science Festival, The Big Bang Fair[27] and also at schools, theatres and food festivals including the BBC Good Food Show[28] and the Ideal Home Show.

Personal life

Gates is married to food photographer Georgia Glynn Smith. They have two children.

References
  1. "TV".
  2. "About Stefan". thegastronaut.com. Archived from the original on 6 October 2008.
  3. "BBC – CBBC – Gastronuts". Archived from the original on 7 January 2015. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  4. "BBC – CBBC – Incredible Edibles: Gutbusters". Archived from the original on 4 September 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  5. Heritage, Stuart (26 June 2012). "Can a change of presenter ever improve a show?". The Guardian. London.
  6. "BBC Two – e Numbers: An Edible Adventure – Episode guide".
  7. "BBC Two – Full on Food".
  8. "BBC Four – Feasts – Episode guide".
  9. "BBC Four – Calf's Head and Coffee: The Golden Age of English Food".
  10. "BBC – Media Centre – BBC Four announces raft of new commissions". BBC. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012.
  11. "BBC Radio 4 – the Kitchen Cabinet, Series 1".
  12. "See the 'Houses of the Holy' Cover Child Models All Grown Up". Ultimate Classic Rock. 27 March 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  13. Stefan Gates autobiographical details
  14. "BBC Two – Full on Food".
  15. Independent Travel interview
  16. Me and my travels The Observer, Sunday 9 July 2006
  17. Pass the igunaq! – that's rotten, frozen walrus to you Independent Newspaper interview
  18. BBC One – Food Factory – Episode guide
  19. "BBC – BBC Food blog".
  20. "Walker Books – Incredible Edibles". Archived from the original on 22 July 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  21. "Kyle Books". Hachette UK. 18 July 2019. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  22. Stefan's recipes on UKTV Good Food Channel web site
  23. "BBC – Stefan Gates on E-Numbers". Archived from the original on 12 August 2010. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  24. "BBC Radio 4 Extra – What Would Jesus Eat?".
  25. "Live shows". thegastronaut.com. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011.
  26. "Cambridge Festival".
  27. "The Big Bang Fair". Archived from the original on 13 January 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  28. "BBC Good Food Show – Food Festivals". BBC Good Food Show. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
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