Restaurant winner back serving troops in Helmand

Medal: Jeremy Hooper
Tony Bonnici12 April 2012

A Royal Marine whose culinary skills on BBC show The Restaurant persuaded Raymond Blanc to offer him a gastropub has quit and is now working in Afghanistan.

Jeremy Hooper, 37, and his wife Jane opened Eight at The Thatch, in Thame, Oxfordshire, after being chosen by the French chef in 2007.

At the time he was a corporal with the Commando Logistic Regiment at RMB Chivenor.

The couple quit the pub after eight months following disagreements over its direction.

After a stint as a catering consultant Mr Hooper returned to the services. He now serves up to 150 meals a day to personnel in Helmand.

"I just try and be as creative as possible with what I've got," he said.

The Beef Wellington he cooked for US Army VIPs at Camp Bastion earned him a medal.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in