It’s no wonder cooking live on TV doesn’t faze Saturday Kitchen’s Matt Tebbutt.
The presenter has told how he was once targeted by Bornean pirates armed with machine guns who plotted to kidnap him and hold him to ransom.
The “scary” near miss sparked panic with armed military deployed on the ground and in helicopters drafted to hunt the gang.
Chef Matt, who also hosts Food Unwrapped, was filming Kings of the Wild for the Discovery channel on a remote island off the coast of Borneo.
It was then when “proper nasty pirates with machine guns” were tipped off he and his film crew were nearby.
“We were in our hammocks one night, and this boat creeps down the waterways shining a torch slowly into the bushes,” recalls Matt, 45.
“They’d heard the Discovery crew were in the area and they’d come to get us."
He added: “They can hold you to ransom because they think Discovery equals pots of money."
Thankfully, the pirates didn’t manage to locate them that evening, and the team were able to raise the alarm.
“The next thing you know choppers were out looking for them, and the military were turning up with guns,” says Matt, chatting on the A Glass With podcast.
Matt's episode on A Glass With... podcast can be found here.
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