User:Lucas Gerrard/sandbox

Lucas "Luke" James Gerrard (born December 24th 1987) is a British chef and television personality who won the BBC TV cookery competition "Masterchef" in 2005, aged just 17.

His television career continued when he joined "Ready Steady Cook", appearing as a chef on the show for two years. In 2009, he moved to ITV and became the head chef for the fourth series of their celebrity cooking show "Hell's Kitchen". He would quit the show after his first series, signing a two year exclusive deal with Channel 4.

His first Channel 4 show was a cookery competition called "The Chopping Block" which aired 16 episodes across two series in 2010. He appeared in 100 episodes of the daytime show "Luke's 15 Minutes Meals" before signing a new deal. His new show on the channel was "Fifteen", a documentary series which followed fifteen apprentice chefs at his flagship Formby restaurant for a year. In 2013, a new six part series entitled "Fifteen Revisited" showed the apprentices, now fully trained and employed in their own restaurant.

Gerrard also owns the 'Warehouse' restaurant chain which he launced in 2007 with sites in Formby, Aintree and Salford. As of May 2014, he owns four restaurants in Merseyside, three in Manchester, one in Chester, one in Birmingham and four in London. He will open two new restaurants, one in both Manchester and Newcastle in 2014. He also owns the hotel 'The Rocco Forte' in Formby, where the apprentices from the "Fifteen" TV show have their restaurants. The hotel in Formby opened in January 2014.