TV Ainsley’s racism battle ‘we don’t want a black chef’ | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV
British-born Ainsley, whose parents are Jamaican, has since sold two million books, performed on Strictly Come Dancing and in 2020 got an MBE for services to broadcasting and the culinary arts. The Londoner, 64, learnt his trade at Westminster College. He worked at the Strand Palace Hotel, in the capital, before moving to Sausalito, California. On returning to the UK, he went looking for jobs. He revealed: “There was one particular place, I won’t name it, that said, ‘We really don’t want a black head chef fronting our restaurant’, which I kind of respected in a way.
“I thought it was really good that they were able just to tell me straight as opposed to putting a load of nonsense in there or just say, ‘You’re not quite what were looking for’.” He added: “It got to the stage where in five minutes I knew, ‘I ain’t gonna get this gig’.”
Ainsley went on to present More Nosh, Less Dosh on BBC Radio 5 Live before being spotted for TV work, becoming the resident chef on Good Morning with Anne and Nick.
From there he ended up fronting 21 series of daytime favourite Ready Steady Cook.
He said he was determined to bring a lightness to broadcasting that hadn’t been there previously.
He added: “There wasn’t much humour in cooking.
“You always felt like you were having a school lesson.
“If you make people feel good…it naturally all just stays with you.
“That’s where the love of food, the love of cooking, comes from.”
