Graham Kerr

1934 -

Graham Kerr (born 22 January 1934) is an English cooking personality who is best known for his television cooking show The Galloping Gourmet from December 30, 1968 to September 14, 1973.

Kerr was born in Brondesbury, London.[1] His Scottish parents were established hoteliers.[1] As a result, much of his childhood was spent among European chefs. On the pronunciation of his family name, Kerr wrote in The Graham Kerr Cookbook that "my name is pronounced "care" — not "cur" or "car" as in the case of Bill Kerr and Deborah Kerr.

As a youth, he attended Michael Hall School, a Waldorf (Rudolf Steiner education) school situated at Kidbrooke Park in Forest Row, East Sussex.[1] Although he dropped out of school at age 14 and began training in kitchens, he returned years later and attended the independent school Brighton Technical College and another school in Devon.[1]

Kerr became trainee manager at the Roebuck Hotel in Forest Row, East Sussex, England, when he was 15 years old. After five years in the British Army as catering adviser, he became general manager of the Royal Ascot Hotel.[citation needed] He moved to New Zealand in 1958, becoming chief catering adviser for the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

Kerr moved into television in New Zealand when being recruited by NZBC producer Shirley Maddock. In 1959, he began hosting the television show Entertaining with Kerr, in which he appeared dressed in military uniform.[1] His recipes were also delivered on radio and in magazines, and the first edition of a related book, Entertaining with Kerr, was sold out in eight days. During these early years Kerr won a Penguin Award as 'Personality of the Year'.

Shortly after the NZTV series was launched, promoter Anthony Hollows introduced Kerr to his business partner, rising New Zealand entertainment promoter and artist manager Harry M. Miller. Miller was at first sceptical of taking Kerr on, having just lost heavily on a disastrous promotion of a folk music concert, but Hollows was insistent, and after seeing Kerr in action, Miller immediately saw his potential. Miller (who was well established across the Tasman Sea as a concert promoter) was confident that he could launch Kerr in Australia. Kerr signed on as Miller's first management client, and the relationship proved enormously important and financially rewarding to both men. Miller was instrumental in launching Kerr in Australia, and Kerr's breakthrough in turn laid the foundation for Miller's own success as a leading player in the Australian and New Zealand entertainment industry over the next 20 years.[2]

In 1964 Kerr moved to Sydney,[1] and through his Australian contacts, Miller was soon able to sign Kerr to present a regular cooking show on Channel 10, also called Entertaining with Kerr, as part of the TEN Network, Australia's recently established third commercial television outlet. Although Kerr's initial fee was modest, Miller wisely balanced that against the value of the exposure, certain that Kerr would make an impact. The show quickly became a huge national success, leading to daily radio spots, newspaper and magazine columns, personal appearances, and lucrative product endorsements. Miller also cited winemaker and critic Len Evans as being especially helpful to Kerr in these early days. Miller soon scored another coup when he signed the multinational food company Nestlé as Kerr's first major sponsor.

At some point, Kerr's television ratings took a dive, and the series was cancelled. However, his radio show continued. On the recommendation of the wife of a board member, who listened to Kerr's radio show, the Australian Dairy Board signed Kerr to what Miller described as an endorsement contract "of staggering proportions," and Kerr was soon back on national television.[2]

In his autobiography, My Story, Miller recounted that "the sweetest contract I offered Graham was one he refused to sign." In the mid-1960s Union Carbide, the manufacturers of Glad Wrap approached Miller with a lucrative offer for Kerr to become its national endorser. All Kerr had to do was make a few commercials, pose for a few photos, and use the product on his cooking show. Sensing the huge potential of the new product, Miller cannily negotiated for a multiyear contract in which Kerr was to receive a royalty of about 0.5c on every unit sold instead of a flat fee. To Miller's astonishment, however, Kerr was unimpressed by Glad Wrap, and despite Miller's strenuous effort to demonstrate its enormous usefulness, Kerr remained unconvinced.[2]

Miller and Kerr parted ways in the late-1960s after Kerr received a lucrative offer from Fremantle of Canada. Although his management contract with Miller still had several years to run, Kerr and Miller agreed to a negotiated buy-out; the two parted ways amicably, and remained good friends.

Kerr's new series for Fremantle, The Galloping Gourmet (December 30, 1968–September 14, 1973) was named for his onscreen persona. It was recorded in Ottawa at CJOH-TV and produced by his wife Treena Kerr. The origin of his Galloping Gourmet persona stemmed from The Galloping Gourmets, a 1967 book he co-authored with wine expert Len Evans. The nickname was the result of a 35-day worldwide trek to the finest restaurants around the globe. The show was taped in front of a live audience. The title was echoed in the opening of each episode, where Kerr entered the stage area by running in and leaping over a chair in the dining room set (a stunt conceived by Treena).[3] Many episodes featured a prerecorded segment with Kerr in a part of the world wherein that episode's dish originated.[3]

The series was known for its lighthearted humour, tomfoolery, and the copious use of clarified butter, cream, and fat. A famous line of Kerr's on the show was his response to someone's criticism of his cooking: "Madam, you could go outside and get run over by a bus, and just think what you would have missed!" He also liberally featured wine, serving it with most meals, using it in his dishes, and waxing poetic about its virtues. He would also raise a glass of wine to his lips (to which he referred as a "Short Slurp") [4] as a cue to the director to cut to commercials, then would bring it back up to his lips right before the show came back on. This gave the impression to some viewers that he was drinking heavily during the taping. In reality he drank very little.[3]

In an ongoing feature of the show, Kerr would make his way into the audience as the closing credits began and select an audience member (usually female) whom he would invite onstage with him to enjoy whatever dish he had just prepared. Another recurring feature at the end of each show would be a close-up of Kerr as he sampled the dish he had just cooked. To "oohs and ahs" from the audience, he would pull a face as though he was in ecstasy from tasting his latest creation.

The Galloping Gourmet was a hit, and earned two Emmy Award nominations. During its run, Kerr became a worldwide sensation and wrote an abundance of cookbooks. However, he was pilloried by many of the elite of the food world of the time, including influential food writer Michael Field, who called Kerr "the Liberace of the food world," and James Beard, who wrote that Kerr "has very little respect for food."[3]

The show was dubbed in French and aired on Télévision de Radio-Canada starting September 6, 1971, under the title Le Gourmet farfelu.[5]. From 1969 to 1972 Kerr also made guest appearances on Monitor, a long-running NBC radio variety programme.[6]

Some near-tragedies caused Kerr to suspend his television career, thus ending the show. In April 1971, Kerr and his wife Treena were involved in a car crash in California. As a result of the accident, he suffered a dislocated spine and a weakened left arm. As therapy, Kerr wore a 1 lb (0.45 kg) bracelet to strengthen the weakened arm. In January 1972, Treena was at first diagnosed with lung cancer. That diagnosis turned out to be incorrect; it was later determined she had tuberculosis. Although a part of a lung was removed, she made a full recovery. However, she became addicted to painkillers as well as several other medications.[7]

In 1975, Treena became a born-again Christian after being encouraged by an employee; Kerr also became religious at the same time.[8]

Kerr returned to television in 1975 with a daily syndicated five-minute series, Take Kerr, which featured a particular recipe for each show. This programme reflected his newfound embrace of both Christianity and healthful eating, with lighter-calorie recipes and Christian elements, including the use of the hymn "This Is the Day the Lord Has Made" as a theme song.[8] The programme lasted four series. One Christian element on the show, an inclusion of a passage from the Bible in the closing credits, was strongly resisted by one of the stations on which the show aired, and indirectly caused Kerr to lose millions of dollars in potential revenue owing to his unwillingness to compromise.[9] This series was later repeated on CNN during its first year or two.

In a 1975 interview publicizing Take Kerr, Kerr renounced the show The Galloping Gourmet, saying that "What I did wasn't art, it was a crime," given the increasing rate of obesity in the United States. He also apologized for two of his trademarks on that show, his wine drinking and his double entendres.[8] He stated that he was trying to convince TV stations to remove reruns of the show from syndication.[8]

After his wife Treena's stroke, then heart attack in 1986, Kerr was prompted to create a new style of cooking that he dubbed "Minimax". This new method of food preparation minimized ("Mini-") fat and cholesterol while it maximized ("-max") aroma, colour, texture, and taste. Minimax led to The Graham Kerr Show, originally produced at KING-TV in Seattle and later syndicated to local stations during the 1990–91 season, followed by a run on the Discovery Channel. From 1992 to 1995, Kerr starred on the PBS show Graham Kerr's Kitchen, which again embraced the low-fat, "minimax" approach.

Minimax also led to three successful cookbooks: Graham Kerr's Smart Cooking, Graham Kerr's Minimax Cookbook, and Graham Kerr's Creative Choices (A Minimax Book) along with corresponding series on public television: Graham Kerr's Kitchen, Graham Kerr's Swifty Seasoned, and The Best of Graham Kerr.

Graham Kerr is currently distributed by MTM Enterprises.