COULD cookery be the new rock'n'roll?

Comedy once had that tag, in the early Nineties' days of Baddiel and Newman filling Wembley Arena, but look at the proliferation of shows built around cooking, live on stage.

York Barbican has played host to the pan power of Paul Hollywood and Gino D'Acampo, while The Hairy Bikers worked with writer/director Will Brenton for their Larger Than Live tour, a scripted night of "cooking, singing, dancing, escapology and cross dressing” that visited the Grand Opera House in January 2013.

Now, North Yorkshire celebrity chef James Martin is serving up quickfire cuisine, no-nonsense humour, banter and, yes, a rock'n'roll finale in a show where he combines the showmanship of a lead singer and lead guitarist, mixed in with the dexterity of a DJ spinning discs on Ibiza.

Martin has to set the alarm for only four more Saturday Kitchens for the Beeb before he begins to spin new plates after 20 years on the box. He wasn't revealing more details on Sunday night, however, beyond saying he would love to re-trace the culinary steps of the late Keith Floyd's TV shows now that he had acquired the bon vivant's Deux Chevaux, with its unmistakeable back-seat aroma of wine.

Martin was on home (surf and) turf, selling out Sunday's show and well on the way to matching that tonight, and he was welcomed like a home-coming hero, as popular with his fellow Yorkshiremen in the audience as the women.

Born only 15 miles away in Coneysthorpe, he trained from age 16 at Scarborough Technological College and has never knowingly not mentioned the influence of his grandmother on his cooking. Keeping it in the family, his mother and sister were among the full house, and Martin so enjoyed himself that the show ran for 20 minutes longer than at Harrogate the night before, in response to the more lively atmosphere.

Working in tandem with his right-hand man for the past 20 years, commis chef Chris Start, they played a knowing variation on Fanny Cradock bossing husband Johnnie as Martin made his way with flair, dexterity, loadsabutter and punk kitchen hygiene through five dishes in the first half and four more in the second on a set design with a live camera, crowded work surfaces and two stage hands dressed as if from an old Tetleys tea advert.

From his two decades in TV, Martin has an unflappable confidence in working to timings, while bantering with those around him, in this case a vociferous home crowd more than keen to join in with quips and advice and to contribute to a question-and-answer session too.

Pick of the plates was a gin-and-tonic battered fish supper, wrapped in Saturday's edition of The Press as Martin re-enacted the familiar Whitby battle with the elements and dive-bombing seagulls attacks, a piece of pier-end slapstick to end the first half on a high.

Plates dominate over the mates (no guest stars, but recorded intros by Johnny Vegas) and the automobiles (only photos, video footage and a toy car), but Martin's personality carries all before him.

He even lives the rock'n'roll dream at the end, performing a raucous Live Forever with his guitar tutor and a video wall of chefs and friends on guitar, topped off by Mary Berry, looking as angelic as novice nun Julie Andrews in The Sound Of Music. Hail Mary, and hail James Martin, showman chef, Yorkshireman, top bloke.

James Martin, Plates, Mates And Automobiles, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm; Bridlington Spa Centre, Tuesday, 7.30pm. Box office, York, 0844 854 2757 or yorkbarbican.co.uk; Bridlington, 01262 678258 or thespabridlington.com