The Fat Duck’s Heston Blumenthal is thought to be turning his back on the BBC to join fellow celebrity chefs Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall over at Channel 4.
The three-Michelin-starred chef, who most recently presented the BBC’s In Search of Perfection, is understood to be in talks to sign a two-year deal with Channel 4 that could be worth up to £1m.
It’s said the BBC was keen to keep Heston, offering him a two-year deal for around £500,000 but Channel 4 is understood to have trumped the contract, offering him around £300,000 a year for a recipe development deal alone, with extra cash for presenting duties on top of that.
Needless to say, the move would make Channel 4’s line up of celebrity chefs rather impressive, leaving the Beeb with a brigade of somewhat less prominent TV chefs. But I guess there are always domestic queens Delia Smith and Nigella Lawson to keep the BBC's viewers on the edge of their seats.