Celebrity Chef, BBC Ready Steady Cook Regular, Michelin Star Restaurateur, Cookbook Author, Food Product Entrepreneur

Paul Rankin is an award winning celebrity chef, known for his regular appearances in BBC’s Ready Steady Cook.  He also, has a range of food and cookery products that are sold in major supermarkets all over the UK.

Up until early 2013 Paul and his former wife Jeanne had been running the very popular neighbourhood restaurant, Cayenne in Belfast. The restaurant had been running for over 10 years but the recent economic downturn in the area finally forced Paul to close.

Previously, Paul and his wife Jeanne ran the very successful Roscoff restaurant in Belfast, which was voted Restaurant of the Year in the BBC Good Food Magazine’s 1996 Awards.

In 1994 Paul and Jeanne presented the 15 part network BBC1 TV series Gourmet Ireland – showcasing the best of Irish ingredients plus their own distinctive cookery talents. The third series was transmitted during 1996 and BBC Books published two cookery books linked to the series. Gourmet Ireland was transmitted on the Public Broadcasting Service in the USA and the accompanying book was published by KQED (USA). The series has also been sold to SBS in Australia, TVB in Hong Kong, TVNZ Pacific and TV2 in New Zealand, and to CBET Windsor in Canada.

Paul and Jeanne Rankin have an easy style and an unpretentious attitude to food. In 1980 Paul left his native Belfast to travel the world, and a chance introduction to Jeanne in Greece led him towards his passion for cooking. They continued to travel together, working in kitchens when the funds ran out. In Sydney they realised that they wanted to learn to cook seriously – and that meant returning to Europe.

In 1984, now married, they arrived in London and signed up at Le Gavroche, Paul washing dishes and Jeanne waitressing. Within months they were elevated to the kitchens. During the next two and a half years they gained a classical grounding and the ability to be organised under pressure. They cooked in Canada and then Napa Valley before returning to Belfast in 1989 to open Roscoff.

Roscoff’s combination of ridiculously low-priced set meals, jazz music and laid back atmosphere fuelled its popularity. In 1991 Paul and Jeanne were awarded Northern Ireland’s first Michelin star and subsequently Roscoff was named the Courvoisier Restaurant of the Year.

Their second restaurant Cayenne opened to much anticipation. The name illustrates the food they serve, spicy vibrant and most of all fun. Since then additions to Paul and Jeanne’s restaurant empire are two Rain City Caf Grills and six Caf Paul Rankin. In the new Time Out Guide to Great Britain and Ireland Cayenne is rated the No 8 restaurant overall, and No1 in Ireland.

Paul has appeared on Masterchef, Who’ll Do The Pudding? and The Good Food Show and in 1996 Paul was the featured chef in BBC series Techno Food aimed at making older school children aware of good eating habits, which was awarded the Glenfiddich Award for Television Programme of the Year and the coveted Glenfiddich Trophy for 1996. Paul has also filmed his own series for BBC Northern Ireland called The Rankin Challenge, which was broadcast during summer ’98, with a second series broadcast during spring ’99, and a celebrity edition broadcast in 2000. Paul and Jeanne had their own special cookery strand on GMTV in ’96. Paul continues as a member of the regular team on Ready Steady Cook,and is a frequent guest on Saturday Kitchen.

BBC Books published New Irish Cookery in September 2003 and St Patrick’s Day 2004 saw Paul on the prestigious Today Show in New York cooking Irish dishes live to an audience of 14 million.

Paul was appointed International Ambassador for Bushmills Whiskey. He has his own range of Irish breads with Irwins Bakery available in major supermarkets throughout the UK. He has his own range of white tableware with Ulster Ceramics and has developed a range of cookware with Ultimate Cookware.

In 2005 he was asked to overhaul the menus at a Belfast Care Home for the elderly and his enthusiasm for this cause has led to him addressing conferences and events for care industry professionals and this in turn triggered a Trevor McDonald special programme on the subject for ITV in which Paul featured.

Paul made an appearance on Celebrity X Factor (ITV1) where he along with Aldo Zilli, Ross Burden and Jean-Christophe Novelli wowed the audiences with their songs in Italian, French and English. They proved enormously popular, making it through to the last stages of the competition.

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