BBC Saturday Kitchen star dies aged 57 and leaves wife £1.4 million in will

BBC Saturday Kitchen star Russell Norman left a HUGE sum to his wife after his tragic death aged just 57. The BBC chef left an eye-watering £1,437,000 including business and personal assets before he tragically died last November.

The will, signed in 2013, ordered the estate be passed to his estranged wife Jules Norman, whom he wed in 2004 but separated from before he died. Norman wrote four cookbooks after shooting to fame on beloved BBC staple Saturday Kitchen.

Russell is survived by his partner, Dr Genevieve Verdigel, an art historian specialising in the Italian Renaissance, and three children. Norman and Verdigel were due to travel to Venice on Tuesday for a celebratory trip after the publication of his new book Brutto.

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“It was the book he was most proud of,” she said. “He’s been so happy since it came out, so full of life. That book is testimony to how much he loved Italy and its spirit, and how he and his photographer Jenny Zarins could capture that.

“He loved seeking the offbeat place; the places frequented by the locals and in which you feel like you are escaping from the conventional worldview.” Stefan Chomka, a friend and the editor of Restaurant magazine, led the tributes to the chef.

Stefan said: “He loved restaurants that were like him: that had lots of charm and great character." Marina O’Loughlin, the writer and restaurant critic, said: “Hospitality is in total shock. Russell was one of the rare characters in the industry who could genuinely be said to have changed the way we ate in restaurants.

“Travel the length of the country and in almost every town, there’s a chic little trattoria or osteria that owes a debt to Norman’s vision. To lose him when Brutto has been gaining plaudit after plaudit and he’s just launched his latest book is little short of tragic. He – and his irreplaceable warmth and welcome – will be so missed.”