Lucinda Horne

**Lucinda Horne** (born 22nd February 1979) is an esteemed English culinary professional, celebrated for her role as the President Judge on the renowned cooking competition, "LegendaryChef". With a career spanning over two decades, she has made her mark as the longest-serving judge on the program, beginning with Series 27 in 2023. Her illustrious career also includes proprietorship of the acclaimed two Michelin-Starred establishment, "SweetExtreme".

## Early Life

Horne was born in Manchester, Rochdale, in 1979. At the age of 16 (1995), she had a big interest in cookery and decided that school was stopping her dream becoming a Chef. She decided to leave school in which she started her career in SweetExtreme.

## Career

At age 16 (1995), after leaving school, she became the Junior Chef of SweetExtreme. At age 18 (1997), she became the Sous Chef quickly moving up the restaurant hierarchy. At age 22 (2001) she became the Executive Chef, showcasing her excellent cooking skills after only working at the restaurant for a few years.

#### Early LegendaryChef Career

At age 24 (2003), with only the experience she earned at SweetExtreme, she became a Junior Judge on the well known cooking competition programme, LegendaryChef joining during the 7th Series. The following year, at age 25 (2004), the President Judge, Billy Knightly was extremely impressed with her and she was quickly promoted to Judge during the 8th Series.

At age 26 (2005), she was now into her third series in the programme and had quickly moved up the ranks, mirroring her restaurant, SweetExtreme. She was once again promoted, to Senior Judge during Series 9 which she held until Series 10 (2006).

At age 28 (2007), she was promoted to a senior judging position of the programme which is the third highest judge position. She held Assistant Head Judge from Series 11 (2007) till series 12 (2008), age 29.

#### Mid LegendaryChef Career

After only holding the Assistant Head Judge position for 2 years, she had once again moved up to a higher position. At age 30 (2009), which marked the beginning of her 7th series and Series 13 of the programme, the President Judge, Billy Knightly decided that it was time to give her extra duties and powers as she had been a fantastic judge. She was promoted to the 2nd highest judging rank, Head Judge. She held Head Judge all the way from Series 13 (2009) to Series 20 (2016) which she held until age 37.

#### Later LegendaryChef Career

At age 38 (2017), the President Judge (Billy Knightly) resigned from President Judge during Series 20. As she was already Head Judge, the Executive Producer believed she was fit for the position as was promoted to the top judge position, President Judge. She remained as the President Judge through Series 21 (2017) until Series 30 (2026), aged 47.

At the end of her career in LegendaryChef, she had spent nearly the same amount of years before joining as a Judge to then leaving, with being aged 24 before joining and leaving at age 47 making her having spent nearly the same amount of time before and during as a Judge in LegendaryChef.

During the last series she was President Judge (Series 30), she went against the Winner & Runner-Up. Series 30 was an Anniversary Series, which meant only previous winners from other series joined. The results were that she got 5's in every single judging category, which also had much harder and more judging categories for this special round.

#### LegendaryChef Legacy

Following her resignation at age 47, during Series 30, she still remains the overall longest running Judge and has held the title since Series 27 (2023).

#### Post LegendaryChef

As the 40th LegendaryChef anniversary series is coming up, it's only likely that previous judges may potentially be returning as Guest Judges but she has yet to announce or provide a statement whether she will be returning. It may not happen, knowing that the 50th anniversary special is also coming up which is the 2nd Jubilee Series to occur on the show, which she may be waiting for that moment.