Jon Watts was sentenced to six years in prison, where he learned to cook. Now, at 35, he has legions of loyal fans, more than a million followers on social media and is about to publish his second cookbook
A year or two ago, he isn’t quite sure which, Jon Watts’s father came to him with a well-intentioned suggestion. Watts, a social media star and private chef – with a popular debut cookbook already under his belt – had settled into a sustained period of professional success. “Dad said to me: maybe it’s now time to stop chatting about all that stuff from your youth; to leave it in the past.” Watts junior found the prospect tempting. “It’s really not easy to talk about it all,” he says, with a deep exhale. “And I’m in two minds about a shameful history being part of my identity for ever.”
Today, Watts is 35. The experiences he’s about to share – of a violent conviction, years in a young offenders’ prison, learning to cook and coming out the other side – take us back to his late teenage years. Watts could quite easily draw a line and move on: focus on his regular catering work, his second recipe book, published later this month, and his sprawling online following. He has more than 800,000 Instagram followers to tend and 600,000-plus on TikTok, too. His uploads clock up views in the millions.
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