Hey, good looking, what ya got cooking... MAXINE GORDON pins down North Yorkshire's pin-up chef, James Martin

He's even better looking in real life. That's what I overhear a woman say to her friend as they watch TV chef James Martin hosting a cookery demonstration in York.

It's a comment the Malton-raised chef - celebrated as much for his trademark bandana and blond, himbo looks as his culinary skills - has heard countless times before.

When I ask him about the 'pin-up' tag, he explains it all stems from when he was named by Company magazine as one of Britain's most eligible bachelors. But push him further on the heart-throb issue - "You play up to it, though, don't you?" - and he gets ever-so-slightly exasperated.

"If people go through life and think I just happen to be where I am because of what I look like, well, that's their opinion.

"But my friends and family understand all the hard work I've done, working long hours, seven days a week for £20 a week. I started working in a kitchen when I was ten years old and I've worked in the hardest kitchens in London, France and Italy. The restaurant I ran in Winchester was so busy there was an eight-week waiting list for a table at the weekend..."

Message delivered, James lightens up again.

"I find it funny," he says with his still-broad Yorkshire accent. "How I look is the last thing on my mind as I'm trying to cook a souffl or a dessert in 20 minutes."

From his culinary CV, it's clear that James has been a boy wonder in the world of cuisine. Brought up in a North Yorkshire farmhouse, his father Ian ran the kitchens at Castle Howard, where the young master Martin cooked for the Queen Mum at the tender age of 12.

At Scarborough Technical College (now Yorkshire Coast College), he was named top student three times.

Spotted by top chef Antony Worral Thompson, James was brought to London where his culinary career took off. By 22, he was running his own restaurant in Winchester. Two years later, he was a regular on the cook-against-the-clock TV show, Ready Steady Cook.

Today, James, 27, is still based in Winchester, where he runs three businesses: a deli, bakery and clothes store.

He is justifiably proud of his achievements - the latest of which is a new book of recipes based on food from the deli counter - and they amount to an impressive catalogue. And yet in the past year, James has been overshadowed by the newest kid on the chopping block, Jamie Oliver. What does James The First make of the Naked Chef?

"Fantastic," he enthuses, pointing to a lack of chefs under 40 on telly. "I've been doing this for three years and he achieved more in three weeks than I did in my three years! Whether he can sustain it..." he tails off, wondering perhaps what might have been.

So is he a little bit jealous of the Essex boy, what with Jamie's own TV cookery show, two best-selling cook books and his ad campaign for Sainsbury's?

"No. If you go through life like that, it's sad. I do my thing and he's very clever at what he does."

James is reluctant to 'do a Delia' and join in the bash-a-chef brigade in publicly criticising other TV cooks. "I just stand well back and keep my mouth shut," he says, displaying a level-headedness which is admirable. He admits his Yorkshire roots have helped him keep his feet firmly on the ground.

"All the graft I've done throughout my career, I look at what I've achieved and what I've got and it makes you appreciate it. It is my background: I was brought up by my mum and dad to work for what you get."

One achievement which continues to elude James is a steady girlfriend. Speculation was rife after he was spotted in Helmsley with TV presenter Alice Beer.

"We're just good mates, the press blew it up," he says, adding that reading about his private life in the papers comes with the territory.

"I'm a single guy and if I'm seen out with someone, they think I'm getting married. I just laugh it off."

And so it is that James Martin remains as one of the country's most eligible bachelors. And since he is just as good looking in real life, it looks as if he's stuck with the pin-up tag for a while at least.

The Deli Cookbook, by James Martin (Mitchell Beazley £16.99) is out on Monday