Dave Mooney

Dave Mooney has been very busy since leaving Knutsford’s Belle Epoque and the Duke of Portland last year. He has also lost 12 Stone in weight in 12 months. The new, slimline celebrity chef will be doing what he does best this weekend, creating mouthwatering recipes and entertaining an audience.

Dave Mooney crossed the Pennines in his teens from Yorkshire to combine study in Cheshire, with work in top restaurants in Normandy, France. Aged 19, he trained under Raymond Blanc then Marco Pierre White. Here, Dave learnt about teamwork, taste and temperaments. Former Chef Patron of the Belle Époque Brasserie for many years, latterly the Duke of Portland and the George & Dragon, Dave left in 2009 to concentrate on other things.

Not content to have any spare time from catering consultancy and launching ‘Which Sandwich’ in the North West, Dave is also a media star. This builds on his enthusiasm for good food, his entertaining, approachable style and his desire for everyone to enjoy and share his passion in life. Imagine Chris Moyles cooking like Gordon Ramsay. Dave claims he can even teach Victoria Beckham and Katie Price to cook. Dave can cook AND amuse!

As the original ‘hairy biker’ Dave travelled on his motorbike searching for the best produce in the North West, then cooking in various locations. This 10 part series for North West regional TV ‘Food Hunter’ ran for two years. Dave was particularly pleased to be so involved with the BBC2 series ‘Hairy Bikers Food Tour of Britain’ and appear in the  Sept’09 programme representing Cheshire.

Dave clocked up over 200 appearances as the ‘Granada Tonight’ resident Chef over two years with a live slot twice a week & many pre recorded inserts and live outside broadcasts. He has also worked on live magazine formats for Granada Satellite and UKTV Food and the Shopping Channel, demonstrating & selling various cookware lines.

From BBC Manchester he has completed live & pre-recorded segments for the Morning magazine programme, to include viewer advice on budgeting & food preparation. Radio work is too numerous to mention, cumulating in guest spots on food for on BBC Radio Five Live.

The challenge of live cooking demonstrations is never far away from demos at schools and colleges to the BBC Good Food Show Birmingham, Bristol Slow Food Festival, Cheshire County Show, Chester Food & Drink, Food Lovers Fair Tatton, Manchester Food & Drink Festival, Nantwich Food Show and the Real Food from Lancashire Show amongst others.

He is currently working on a book for next Summer, merging old and new styles of cooking and launching a chain of sandwich shops in the North West ‘Wich’ is keeping him too busy. This, in addition to the flambé of his media career!