Kevin Thornton is widely regarded as Ireland's best chef and the great philosopher of Irish food. Co-owner, with his partner Muriel, of Dublin's iconic Thornton's Restaurant for 26 years, Kevin's passion, his understanding and his drive for excellence makes him Ireland's highest achieving chef as the first Irish chef ever to have received 2 Michelin stars. Thornton's is the only Irish restaurant ever to have featured in the prestigious World's 50 Best Restaurants (ranked no 25). Kevin and Muriel's new venture Kooks allows the couple and their guests to explore limitless food experiences beyond the walls of the restaurant.

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Kevin is also an experienced lecturer in culinary arts having taught for many years with DIT, Cathal Brugha Street. He is an avid food and nature photographer and his book 'Food for Life' is (according to Food and Wine Magazine) "unparalleled in its beauty by any other food publication in Ireland". Kevin has developed an expression of this work into a performance entitled Food for Life and originally created for the Dublin Fringe Festival.  This work is a visual and audio representation of his love of food. Another of Kevin's passions is the people and food of Ethiopia and his charity work there led him to publish a second limited edition book entitled 'Ethiopian Portraits'. A separate art project - a spoken word vinyl album entitled 25x4 - Autumn was released by Kevin in 2015 to celebrate 25 years of Thornton's Restaurant.

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Kevin has been a food writer for many publications including The Sunday Business Post and The Gloss Magazine. His TV work includes No Experience Required (RTE), Guerrilla Gourmet (RTE) and two series of the very popular Heat (RTE). International TV includes Masterchef South Africa and Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern (Travel Channel).  Kevin's radio experience includes co-presenting Foodtalk - a six part series on Newstalk 106. He is also a regular contributor to The Food Show on 4fm.

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