James Morton (baker)

In the first Summer of his medical degree at the University of Glasgow, Morton worked washing dishes at a small Glasgow deli. A keen bread baker already, here he was exposed to the wide variation of bread production and results. From then on, he studied baking as a science rather than a craft, often preferring to read peer-review cereal journals than cookbooks. He watched The Great British Bake Off (Series 2) during 2011 and decided to apply after pressure from his university friends.[2]

During Morton's subsequent appearance on the show, he reached the final with bakes such as an "oak-framed Gingerbread Barn" and "double Paris-Brest Choux pastry Bicycle," eventually losing out to winner John Whaite.

Morton participated in the Bake Off's 2016 Xmas Special show, leading for much of the show but losing out to Chetna Makan after a series of errors in the showstopper round.

Morton has amassed a large following on Twitter and founded a popular baking blog. He began writing a regular column in the "7 Days" supplement of the Sunday Mail newspaper in early 2013. He regularly composes comment and recipes for a wide variety of online and print publications.[3] He has been a guest celebrity on numerous television shows, including Sunday Brunch and Big Fat Quiz of the Year.[4] In October 2013, he was a guest presenter on RBS: Finding Scotland’s Real Heroes and he tours Scotland with his bread demonstration shows "James Morton Kneads to Raise Some Dough" and "James Morton’s Stollen Christmas", taking them to large festivals such as Dundee Flower and Food Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

He released his first book, Brilliant Bread, in August 2013, published by Ebury Publishing. It received a nomination for the best cookbook at the 2013 André Simon Awards[5] and winning the Guild of Food Writers Award 2014 for best cookbook.[6] His second book, How Baking Works (and what to do when it doesn't), was released on 12 March 2015. In 2019, he wrote another book on baking Super Sourdough.[7]

Morton also wrote books outside of baking. Brew: The Foolproof Guide to Making World-Class Beer at Home which is about beer-making was published in 2016.[8] He had been interested in brewing and entered his Oatmeal Extra Pale for the National Home Brewing Awards in 2014.[9] In 2019, he wrote Shetland: Cooking on the Edge of the World, a book about the food and life on the Scottish island he grew up in. However, the book has been criticised by the locals over what they perceived as negative portrayal of the people.[10][11]