Richard’s first book published this summer

Celebrity baker Richard Burr (OE 1987-1994) is having his first book published. BIY – Bake It Yourself is out at the end of August.

“I now have all my favourite recipes in one place, rather than on scraps of paper all over the kitchen,” Richard wrote on his blog. “It’s turned out really well. I can’t wait until people are able to get their own copies to see what recipes appeal to people the most.”

Richard is also appearing alongside chefs including Jamie Oliver and Raymond Blanc at The Big Feastival – a weekend in late August of music, food and ‘fun for all the family’ set at the Cotswold farm of author, cheesemaker and Blur bassist, Alex James.

Richard, who lives in Mill Hill, was a finalist on series 5 of The Great British Bake Off in 2014, having won the programme’s ‘star baker’ accolade a record five times during the series. He has recently been filmed for a Bake Off Class of 2014 programme about the series’ contestants one year on.

He has regularly been in front of the cameras for the Scoff video food channel, where he is seen preparing his own recipes, and he appeared on a celebrity edition of the BBC’s Pointless TV quiz show with Frances Quinn, winner of The Great British Bake Off 2013. 

More locally, he was a judge at the Great Bushey Bake Off and he revealed on his blog that he has been elected a parent governor at the school attended by his six-year-old daughter.

Richard himself went to St Paul’s C of E Primary School in Mill Hill – where he opened this year’s summer fair – before coming to QE when Eamonn Harris was Headmaster.

He is the fourth generation to work in his family’s building business and is a member of the Federation of Master Builders. He traces his love of baking back to the time he spent baking with his mother as a small child. Then he had a Saturday job washing up in a local bakery as a teenager, which further fired his enthusiasm.

Married with two daughters, he does most of the family cooking and enjoys baking with his wife, Sarah. He especially enjoys bread and pastry-making, while making the girls’ birthday cakes are highlights of the family’s year.

Richard told the School last year that he is proud of the first-class BSc degree in Biodiversity and Conservation that he gained in 2012 from Birkbeck College, London, studying part-time.