Paul Hollywood

Paul Hollywood
Born	Paul John Hollywood (1966-03-01) 1 March 1966 Wallasey, Merseyside, England
Spouse	Alexandra Hollywood
Children	Josh Hollywood
Culinary career
Cooking style	Baking
Television show(s) Paul Hollywood's Pies and Puds The Great British Bake Off The American Baking Competition Use Your Loaf Paul Hollywood's Bread
Award(s) won Gourmand World Cookbook Awards Top Bread and Pastry Book (2005)
Website	paulhollywood.com

Paul John Hollywood (born 1 March 1966) is an English baker, celebrity chef and is best known for being a judge on the BBC One's The Great British Bake Off since 2010.

He has worked as a baker since taking up the career at his father's bakery as a teenager and has gone on to become head baker at a number of hotels around Britain. After returning from working in Cyprus, Hollywood began appearing in guest spots on a number of British television programmes on both BBC and ITV.

Biography

Paul John Hollywood was born in 1966 in Wallasey, Wirral, the son of bakery proprietor, John F. Hollywood and Gillian M. Harman. He was a pupil at The Mosslands School. Hollywood studied sculpture at the Wallasey School of Art, but quit the course to start work as a baker. He first worked in his father's bakery in York (the headquarters of a chain called Bread Winner which eventually stretched all the way down the east coast from Aberdeen to Lincolnshire) and then in other bakeries on Merseyside. He eventually went on to become head baker at a number of hotels, including The Dorchester, Chester Grosvenor and Spa and the Cliveden Hotel. He then left the UK for Cyprus, where he worked at two resorts.

Hollywood has appeared in guest spots on a number of television programmes, including BBC One's The Generation Game, The Heaven and Earth Show and ITV's This Morning and The Alan Titchmarsh Show. Since the show launched in 2010, Hollywood has been a judge on the BBC2 programme The Great British Bake Off. In this capacity, he has been described as the "antidote" to judges such as Len Goodman or Simon Cowell in other reality TV programmes, on account of his straightforward and honest manner and because his judging is restricted purely to the finished product. His partnership with Mary Berry has been described in The Guardian as being the "secret weapon" of the show and potentially one of the best judging combinations to have appeared on reality TV. Hollywood ran his own artisanal baking business based in Aylesham, Kent, which supplied stores such as Harrods and Waitrose but closed this in 2013 due to his increasing media commitments. The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards named his 2005 book 100 Great Breads as the "Top Bread and Pastry Book" for that year.

In 2008, Hollywood created an almond and roquefort sourdough recipe that was said to be the most expensive bread in Britain. The roquefort is supplied from a specialist in France at £15 per kilo, while the flour for the bread is made by a miller in Wiltshire. Hollywood describes it as a "Rolls-Royce of loaves". Hollywood is a guest speaker at several food festivals, including the Cumbrian Food Festival, and the BBC Good Food Show and the Cake and Bake Show, both in London. In May 2013, Hollywood began appearing as a judge on The American Baking Competition on CBS.

Hollywood has also starred in Sadie J, a children's television programme. In 2013, he presented "Paul Hollywood's Bread" on BBC Two, in which he gave advice on recipes for different types of bread; however, also featured on the series were recipes for some cakes such as the Danish pastry. He also presented in Paul Hollywood's Pies and Puds, a cookery television series on BBC One.

In August 2015 Hollywood was featured on the BBC genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?. The programme revealed that his grandfather Norman Harman, who served in the army during World War II, saw action in the Tunisia Campaign and at the Battle of Anzio and that his great-great-grandfather, Kenneth MacKenzie, had been a policeman in the City of Glasgow Police in the 1850s. Hollywood's great-great-great-grandfather, Donald MacKenzie, had been a crofter in Poolewe, Wester Ross. Donald had also been the post-runner between Poolewe and Dingwall, where he delivered post on foot over a distance of 60 miles (97 km). He covered this distance every week, during his forties, on foot for over a decade. He lived into his 80s.

Personal life

Hollywood is married to Alexandra and they have a son. In 2013, Hollywood's affair with fellow The American Baking Competition judge Marcela Valladolid was made public. His wife was considering filing for divorce, but the couple have since reconciled. Hollywood expressed his remorse on The Jonathan Ross Show.

Baking runs in Hollywood's family. In addition to his father's baking empire, his grandfather was head baker at The Adelphi Hotel.

Paul’s parents' marriage took place in Wallasey, Cheshire in 1965

He lives in Wingham, a village near Canterbury in Kent.

In 2015 Hollywood began his racing career, making his debut in the Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT4. Hollywood raced with Andrew Howard, founder of Beechdean Dairies. The pair qualified second in the Britcar Trophy Championship's first round at Silverstone taking second in class in both races

Bibliography

• 100 Great Breads (2004) Cassell, London ISBN 978-1-8440-3700-1
• The Great British Bake Off (2010)
• How to Bake (2012) Bloomsbury ISBN 978-1-4088-1949-4
• Paul Hollywood's Bread (2013) Bloomsbury, London ISBN 978-1-4088-4069-6
• American Baking Competition (2013)
• Paul Hollywood's British Baking (2014) Bloomsbury USA ISBN 1408846489 ISBN 978-1408846483

External links

• Official website
• Paul Hollywood at IMDb