FOOD TVRicky Groves

Ex-EastEnder and former chef Ricky Groves tells about his passion for food and uncovers the best British produce in a new cookery contest

Long before he was fixing cars in Albert Square, or tripping the light fantastic on Strictly Come Dancing, actor Ricky Groves was a pretty mean cook. In fact, the former EastEnder trained as a chef before turning to acting, working for none other than Raymond Blanc.

"I’ve always been interested in food," says Ricky, who played mechanic Garry Hobbs for almost a decade before leaving the soap last year. "I was a kitchen porter at 12 and offered an apprenticeship at 16 and it all went from there.

"I worked in five-star restaurants, the Ritz in Paris and ended up at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, but 10 years on I’d fallen out of love with cooking. The heat and pressure was too much, so I decided to go to drama school. I still love food though."

Which is why he jumped at the chance to take part in Ten Mile Menus, ITV1’s new cooking competition which teams professional chefs with celebrities including Ricky, Phil Tufnell, Linda Robson and Sherrie Hewson, to race against each other gathering ingredients for a high-pressure cook-off. The catch is, wherever they are in the UK, they can only use produce sourced within a 10-mile radius.

"This is the first foodie show I’ve done since coming out of EastEnders and it’s nice to be on one that champions local ingredients," he says. "Without having a go at the supermarkets, they’ve got the monopoly on food and if we’re not careful we’ll lose our local fishmongers, butchers and greengrocers."

Ricky’s teamed with chef Galton Blackiston and goes head-to-head with his former Strictly Come Dancing rival, actress Ali Bastian.

"I suppose with my chef-ing experience I did have a head start over Ali," grins Ricky, who had to find ingredients in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, for a cook-off to feed Hitchin’s Brass Band, who then scored the dishes.

"We found a guy who reared organic Shorthorn cattle and cooked a classic fillet steak," says Ricky, who shares the recipe below. "And we picked wild garlic and organic veg from a local watercress farm. It was fantastic, but no, I’m not telling you who won!"

Given that Ricky could have been the chef paired with the celebrity if he’d stuck to his first career, he’s happy with his acting choice.

"I do miss the camaraderie of cooking," he says. "But I’d rather concentrate on my acting and look good in contests like this!"

FOOD TVRecipe

Full Recipe: Ricky Groves' shorthorn beef with watercress and garlic puree