James Martin reveals towering fire at seven-bedroom home after cooking 'disaster'
As an experienced chef, James Martin will no doubt have had his fair share of cooking disasters, and on Saturday he spoke of one that ended up in a spectacular explosion at his home.
Speaking to Sunday Brunch star Simon Rimmer on his Grilling podcast, the duo shared stories about their incidents with barbecues. Sharing the anecdote with Simon, James revealed how his homemade Italian pizza oven had resulted in his biggest calamity.
"I set my side of my house on fire," he told Simon. "That was a good one because... I mean, I love builders and particularly... a certain group of Irish builders, who are fantastic, that decided to build an Italian pizza oven roof.
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"Instead of having metal, [they] built it out of wood, which is quite handy. And I think the best one of all was my dad... we're DIY people. My dad was hopeless at DIY. He built himself a barbecue back home at the house, on the farmhouse, and it was basically four like concrete blocks on one side, four concrete blocks on the other one... and we had some York stone."
However, during a barbecue, there was total disaster. James continued: "Next minute, there was an almighty bang. It was like, honestly, it was [a] huge explosion, and you get bits of lamb chops, pork chops, sausages flying over the top of this house. It was massive."
"There was an air gap in the brickwork, and it basically overheated and exploded - the whole thing - with my dad stood next to it. The image that I've got is just chops going about 20-30 feet in the air. It was hilarious."
Thankfully, no one was injured during the situation, with James even joking that the family then scrambled to pick the food up off the ground in order to continue with their party.
The chef lives in a stunning Hampshire country home and the property, which is where James films his popular cooking show, sits on 1.5 acres of land and boasts seven bedrooms, an outdoor kitchen and a greenhouse.
James has previously shown off the space which houses the pizza oven which blew its top. The space contains a huge island in the middle topped with tiles – perfect for preparing food and chopping. To the left, there's also more surface space for the chef to utilise, with lamps hanging above for lighting and extra warmth.
Speaking about a sentimental part of his home, James shared: "When I bought this house the very first thing I built was that greenhouse to remind me of my grandparents.
"My grandad was an amazing veg producer together with my uncle and that's why I fell in love with food I think. I've still got tomatoes; I grow them every year to varying degrees of success."
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