Barry Lewis (cook)
| Barry Lewis | |
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Lewis Cooking at Foodies Festival
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| Born | Barry Conrad Lewis 15 July 1982 Bristol, England |
| Occupation | Cook, author |
| Spouse(s) | Rebecca Gardner (?-present) |
| Children | Phoebe Jane Lewis Chloe Anne Lewis |
| Website | MyVirginKitchen.com |
Barry Lewis (born 15 July 1982) is a British cook, author and founder of the website MyVirginKitchen.com
A self-taught cook, Lewis began filming recipe attempts online from his home in Weston Super Mare in 2010 when he saw Jamie Oliver on a television show. After being signed up by Oliver to appear on his YouTube channel [1] Lewis attracted media coverage. His cookbook, entitled Dinner's On, was published in May 2014.
Career
Lewis set up MyVirginKitchen as a way to inspire himself to learn to cook. He was working at the time as a quantity surveyor for Wates Group and would make recipe videos in the evenings in an attempt to gain confidence in the kitchen.
Each video consists of Lewis cooking a recipe for the first time to inspire others to do the same; hence the name 'virgin kitchen.' Over time his reluctance to cook slowly began to turn into a passion; and a broad range of cooking videos were being uploaded including simple dinners, cooking with kids and stunts such as cooking using hair straighteners. Eventually, Lewis was discovered online by the man who originally inspired him, Jamie Oliver.[2] Lewis decided to take a sabbatical from his surveying job to push his cooking passion further as a career.
Lewis also started making videos with fellow YouTube personality Stuart Ashen, with most videos being Ashen's Food Specials, which are either reviewing foods of certain themes, or looking at (and sometimes eating) out of date food. As of February 2016 Stuart & Barry have created a joint channel called Barshens.
Lewis has written a cookery book, and has appeared on a variety of television shows including Channel 5's Gadget Show testing barbecues[3] & ABC's Nightline,[4] as well as appearances at food festivals.
Bibliography
- Dinner's On, HarperCollins, 2014 ISBN 9780007544592
Personal life
Lewis has two daughters and lives with his wife Rebecca in North Somerset
