Going back even further, the young Chris had aspirations to be an author of fiction, something he feels he may still achieve somewhere along the line. In the meantime he’s satisfied his writing itch with cookbooks such as Good Food Sorted and Fakeaway , which provides cheaper, healthier and tastier takeaway-inspired recipes to cook at home.
Born in 1980, Chris’s life-long passion for fresh, seasonal produce can almost certainly be traced back to his Surrey childhood, during which time his father turned over part of the family garden to producing fruit and vegetables.
“Although we lived in a slightly more urban area, it was quite a rural upbringing in the sense that it was a bit Good Life-esque; I think my father fancied himself as the Richard Briers character,” he jokes.
“I always enjoyed cooking too.
“I wasn’t overly academic and started selling flowers by chance really and fell in love with the wonderful world of horticulture. I really enjoyed going to markets.”
Chris’s early life and subsequent exposure to fruit and vegetables have led to become a passionate champion quality food and drink. He’s concerned over the decline in the teaching of cookery in schools, our lack of understanding as to where our food comes from and our ever-growing reliance on ready meals and takeaways. He believes these things lie at the root of many problems in our society today.
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“This is my second Malvern Autumn Show. I take part in quite a few food festivals and I especially love the one at Malvern because it mixes the wonderful worlds of horticulture and food. It’s brilliant.
“Also, I love coming up to the Malvern Hills. There’s a lot of history in the hills and something quite magic and spiritual.”
Eating healthily and supporting small artisan producers is something that’s especially important to father-of-three Chris, who has been a presence on our TV screens since 2013.
He cut his broadcasting teeth on the BBC’s Eat Well for Less, going on to do eight series of the show, and he’s presented programmes such as Tomorrow’s Food, The Truth About Meat, Food: Truth or Scare and Shop Well for the Planet.
He’s been the face of two series of Britian in Bloom, is regularly involved in the BBC’s coverage of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, was a judge and the resident fruit and veg expert on Best Home Cook and continues to be a regular reporter on The One Show.
Life as a TV presenter is a big jump from Chris’s early career working with growers supplying wholesale markets, first with flowers and plants and then moving to fruit and vegetables.
The knowledge he picked up during this time led him to found ‘The Naked Grocer’, one of the first zero packaging and no plastic retail businesses, and he went on to run his shop for nine years. During this time he won the ‘National Independent Retailer of the Year’ award twice and the subsequent coverage put him on the radars of TV producers.
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“Coming from the world of fresh produce gives me an understanding of how amazing fruit and vegetables are, particularly in terms of health benefits,” he says.
“I think we have lost the art of cooking from scratch to some extent.
“We’re much more aware of our gut biome, healthier fats and how bad ultra-processed foods are for us, but despite this, we’re consistently and almost consciously eating things that aren’t good for us.
“The country is facing a large problem with obesity and various chronic illnesses that are linked to bad diets.
INTERVIEW CHRIS BAVIN
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