TV chefs to showcase their skills at Southport Flower Show.

Great British Bake Off star Lizzie Acker, MasterChef star Gabriella Margiotta and Platinum Pudding Competition winner Jemma Melvin will all be appearing at this year’s show.

Lizzie Acker is most well known for being an extremely popular contestant on Channel 4’s ‘Great British Bake Off’ 2021. She is an amateur baker from Liverpool with a huge personality who proved she has the talent and consistency by reaching the quarter-finals. She is very open about having ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia and keen to work to raise awareness of the conditions. Lizzie continues her baking journey and showcases her talent through demonstrations, television, social media and digital campaigns.

Gabriella Margiotta is a Chef, cooking in her family run, Italian restaurant in the tranquil suburbs of South Liverpool. Growing up in a vibrant, Italian Scottish family, food was forever at the forefront of childhood activities. Gabriella, or Gabi, wasted no time in jumping straight into professional kitchens, exploring and developing knowledge on cuisines from around the globe whilst on her travels. She has used these experiences to create her own culinary identity, so visible to all of her regular restaurant guests. Gabi believes that cooking should be fun, enjoyable and most importantly…never a chore! Her dishes are based around food memories, lovingly created with times spent with her Mamma and focus on simple recipes, bursting with flavour. Following from her recent success in the 2022 series of Masterchef: The Professionals, Gabi’s passion for cooking is thriving more than ever and she can’t wait to share some of her gorgeous recipes with you!

Jemma Melvin from Southport is the winner of Fortnum and Mason's Platinum Pudding Competition and the creator of the Platinum Jubilee Trifle. Her Lemon swiss roll and amaretti creation beat thousands of entries to become the official pudding of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, a dessert that will now go down in history alongside the likes of Victoria Sponge and Coronation Chicken. The competition was aired on the BBC and the judging panel was chaired by Dame Mary Berry. Jemma has appeared on This Morning, Good Morning Britain, The One Show and world wide television such as Good Morning America and TF1 France.

Since the competition Jemma has taken the historic trifle recipe up and down the country and demoed the bake to crowds of excited people, including at The Cake & Bake Show held at the London ExCel and Bake International at the NEC in Birmingham. Jemma also teamed up with Macmillan Cancer Support on their biggest campaign of the year, The Coffee Morning Campaign and created a special Macmillan Trifle recipe which was made available for hosts across the country to make for their events. 

Now Jemma creates original recipes on her Instagram page @icedbyjem and is a regular contributor on BBC's Morning Live where she shares fun, easy and cost effective recipes for all occasions.

Alan Adams, General Manager said “Lizzie, Gabriella and Jemma will join John Torode MBE, Lisa Faulkner and Phil Vickery at this year’s show. We have a great line-up for this year’s Cookery Theatre and visitors are in for a real treat. We have Gabriella and Jemma attending Thursday 17th, Lizzie Friday 18th, John and Lisa 19th and Phil Vickery Sunday 20th. Come and join us for 4 amazing days out this summer.”

They will join Frances Tophill (Gardeners’ World and Love Your Garden), Lee Burkhill (The Garden Ninja), Jason Williams (The Cloud Gardener), Keith Brymer Jones (The Great Pottery Throw Down), Daisy Desire (The Drag Queen Gardener), James Wong (Botanist, Broadcaster and Best-Selling Author), Justin Fletcher (CBeebies Children’s Entertainer), Phil Vickery (ITV This Morning), Katie Rushworth (Love Your Garden), Lee Connelly (Skinny Jean Gardener), John Torode MBE and Lisa Faulkner (celebrity chefs) confirmed to date with one more big announcement next week!

Plans for this year’s show are well underway and the combination of garden and floral displays, cookery demonstrations, shopping village, arena entertainment, live music and much more makes Southport Flower Show a great day outdoors for the whole family this summer.

Southport Flower Show is a registered charity (charity number 1000698) and the largest independent flower show in the country attracting over 55,000 visitors across 4 days. Early bird tickets now on sale for £23.00 until the end of May. Children under 16 go free.

Southport Flower Show, Thursday 17th – Sunday 20th August 2023.
www.southportflowershow.co.uk.