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A TV show on Canadian television in the 1960’s and 1970’s featuring Graham Kerr. Photo by Ross Dunn- Wikimedia commons

Top 10 Intriguing Facts about Graham Kerr

Graham Kerr, who was born in England, was New Zealand’s first celebrity chef. Originally serving as the RNZAF’s Chief Catering Adviser, he eventually found himself on television in a vibrant character widely recognized as the Galloping Gourmet.

He has since produced over 1,800 programs around the world however, conversion to Christianity and family illness have significantly reduced his overall quality of work and recipes in later years.

1.Graham’s early upbringing and family background

Graham Victor Kerr was born in London, England on January 22, 1934. Kerr attended Brighton College and Rudolf Steiner School in Sussex.

Kerr’s parents were well-known hoteliers, and he spent considerable time with chefs growing up around his parents’ businesses.

2.Kerr’s introduction to the cooking industry as a professional chef

Kerr began working as an intern manager at the Roebuck Hotel in Forest Row, East Sussex, England, at the age of 15. He then became lead supervisor of the Royal Ascot Hotel after five years as a food service consultant in the British Army.

3.He was the main host of a television show in 1958 when he moved back to New Zealand

Graham Kerr of the Galloping Gourmet visits the Green Valley Restaurant on Prince of Wales Drive. Photo by Ross Dunn- Wikimedia commons

Kerr moved to New Zealand in 1958 to become the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s chief food service consultant.

He entered the television industry in New Zealand after being hired by NZBC producer Shirley Maddock. He started presenting the television show Entertaining with Kerr in 1959, dressed in army uniform.

His recipes were also broadcast on the radio and published in magazines, and the first edition of a companion book, Entertaining with Kerr, sold out in eight days. During her early years, Kerr received a Penguin Award for ‘Personality of the Year.’

4.After the success of the cooking show, Kerr was offered an amazing contract deal by an American broadcast

Graham Kerr became a familiar personality on the television as an outcome of the popularity of the cooking show, making guest appearances on radio and television and writing for magazines. Miller also secured some lucrative sponsorship deals for Kerr.

Kerr was approached by an American television company near the end of the 1960s. Miller and Kerr reached an amicable agreement to end their contract. They remained close friends over the years.

5.His very first introduction to cooking was from a very young age

Graham Kerr was born in London to parents who worked as hotel managers. His first cooking lesson came at the age of six, when a chef attempted to teach him how to make puff pastry. It was a disaster, and was in no way a foreshadowing of things to come, but it taught Kerr that he lacked “pastry hands.”

6.Kerr’s big break as a television host happened in 1968 while he was in Canada

Graham Kerr – Galloping Gourmet. Photo by Ross Dunn- Wikimedia commons

The Galloping Gourmet aired from December 30, 1968 to September 14, 1973, Kerr’s new Fremantle show, was named after his onscreen character. It was shot at CJOH-TV in Ottawa and produced by his wife Treena Kerr.

The Galloping Gourmets, a 1967 book he co-authored with wine maker Len Evans, inspired his Galloping Gourmet character. The moniker was earned after a 35-day journey around the world to the best restaurants. The show was recorded live in front of an audience.

The tagline was repeated at the beginning of each episode, when Kerr ran into the stage area and leapt over a chair in the dining room set. Numerous episodes included a pre-recorded snippet with Kerr in the country where the episode’s dish originally came from.

The show was known for its silly banter, buffoonery, and liberal use of clarified butter, cream, and fat. Kerr’s reaction to someone criticizing his cooking was a classic phrase from the show: “Madam, you could go outside and get run over by a bus, and just think what you would have missed!” He also used wine generously, serving it with most meals, incorporating it into his dishes, and waxing poetic about its qualities.

He would also raise a glass of wine to his lips (a “Short Slurp”) as a signal to the filmmaker to break to advertisements, then bring it back up to his lips just before the show resumed. Some viewers were led to believe that he was drinking excessively during the taping. He actually drank very little.

In an ongoing element of the show, Kerr would enter the viewers as the end credits began and choose a member of the audience (usually a female) to join him onstage to relish whatever meal he had just cooked.

A close-up of Kerr as he tested the dish he had just cooked was yet another regular theme at the end of each show. To the audience’s “oohs and ahs,” he would make a face as if he was in euphoric from tasting his newest project.

7.The incredible show ‘The Galloping Gourmet’ was nominated for two Emmy awards

The Galloping Gourmet was a smash hit, earning two Emmy nominations. During the show’s run, Kerr became a global hit and wrote a slew of cookbooks. Several of the food world’s finest, such as prominent food critic Michael Field, who called Kerr “the Liberace of the food world,” and James Beard, who wrote that Kerr “has very little respect for food,” vilified him.

Starting on September 6, 1971, the show was dubbed in French and was broadcasted on Télévision de Radio-Canada under the title Le Gourmet farfelu.

Kerr also appeared as a guest on Monitor, a long-running NBC radio variety show, from 1969 to 1972.

8.Kerr’s private life away from the cameras and his family

On September 22, 1955, Kerr married Treena Van Doorne, an English actress. They met for the first time when they were both 11 years old. Tessa (born 1956), Andrew (born 1960), and Kareena (born 1961) were their three children (born 1968).

Treena Kerr died on September 17, 2015, just five days before their 60th wedding anniversary. Treena, his wife, had a stroke and then a heart attack.

Kerr invented a new style of cooking known as Minimax. He quickly returned to television with a new show, The Graham Kerr Show. From 1990 to 1995, the show was broadcast nationally. Kerr spent many years in Mount Vernon, Washington.

9.Kerr was involved in a life threating accident that changed the course of his life

A TV show on Canadian television in the 1960’s and 1970’s featuring Graham Kerr.  Photo by Ross Dunn- Wikimedia commons

Kerr and his wife were in for even significant improvement. A severe car accident in 1971 caused them to reconsider their lifestyles and priorities, and they embraced Christianity in 1974.

For many years, his programs included a passage from the Bible and a devotional song (often edited out by broadcasters). By 1975, he told the Listener that he was “tired of the chugging of wine and the dirty jokes” and that the “Galloping Gourmet had been an excessive human being.”

10.He was so good at what he did, he eventually won quite a number of rewards

The Galloping Gourmet accorded Kerr a gold medal at the Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1965, for The Graham Kerr Cookbook.

Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, bestowed upon him a honours degree in culinary arts and nutrition in 2003. Kerr was also named an Honorary Life Member of the American Dietetic Association in 2003.