Celebrated chef James Martin has opened up about his challenging school days, revealing he was often reduced to tears. Speaking on the Spooning podcast with Mark Wogan earlier this year, the 52-year-old TV chef admitted he struggled academically and "hated" large parts of his school experience. He also shared insights into his life at school and how he spent his spare time and holidays.
The host of ITV's Saturday Morning , James expressed his passion for cooking, a career he had aspired to since he was eight years old. Reflecting on his school days, James confessed: "I hated it. I failed all my exams at school.
I didn't enjoy it. I loved the cooking side of it but I couldn't do it academically because..
.you had to pass things these full exams and I would never pass an exam in my life. "I left school with no qualifications.
I'm not proud of it but I used to hate Wednesdays. Wednesday [was a] spelling test. I'd be in tears on a Wednesday night, I'd have 20,000 words to write because I knew that I would get every single one of them wrong.
"[I was a] massive dyslexic, never read a book in my life apart from I think Peter and Jane level B2 was probably the last one I read when I was at primary school. I just longed to be cooking and so hand in hand with being at school I was working every weekend. James shared: "In the summer holidays when everybody would just chill out, I used to go France and I was working at two-star Michelin places and chateaus and places like that.
All I ever.