James Martin quits Saturday kitchen

Martin, who has presented the series since 2006, will leave the stove at the end of March to concentrate on other projects. Guest presenters will instead front the programme from April.

The former Yorkshire Coast College student said: “I would like to personally thank all the viewers for turning Saturday Kitchen into a three million-plus smash hit. I could not have done it without them. I would also like to thank the BBC and Saturday Kitchen for the great opportunity they gave me. It has been an amazing journey and I have been privileged to work with some of the world’s greatest chefs and some of the greatest names in showbiz. I wish the new chefs every success. I am looking forward to getting stuck into my new projects and to lots of lie-ins on a Saturday morning.”

Dan McGolpin, the BBC's daytime controller, added: “On behalf of our viewers, I'd like to thank James for the last 10 years in which he has given up his Saturday mornings and more to help make Saturday Kitchen into the much-loved institution that it is today. James works extremely hard, not just on TV but across all of the other things that he does, I can understand his decision to concentrate on other things and I think we'll see him back on the BBC before long.

"Saturday Kitchen will continue to ease millions of viewers into their weekends and this represents an exciting opportunity to see some other talented chefs present the show, working alongside the very dedicated production team at Cactus TV."

The one morsel of good news for Martin fans is that he will continue to be seen on Saturday Kitchen Best Bites on BBC2 on Sunday mornings.

Martin left his role at Malton's Talbot Hotel last year.