Tommy Banks (born 3 June 1989) is a British Michelin Star head chef.^[1][2] He owns Michelin-starred The Black Swan at Oldstead, Roots in York, The Abbey Inn at Byland and a food box business, Made In Oldstead.

Banks was born and grew up in the North Yorkshire village of Oldstead. He comes from a farming background, with the Banks family farming in and around Oldstead for five generations.^{[citation needed]} The Banks family also ran a B&B from their family home before buying their local pub, The Black Swan, in 2006.

In 2006, when he was 17, Banks's parents bought the pub and restaurant The Black Swan at Oldstead, and he became involved in the running of the business. He worked in the kitchen and started to learn to cook.^[3] He had no formal training as chef, but worked several unpaid stages in Michelin-starred restaurants including a week in Raymond Blanc's restaurant in Oxfordshire, Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons.^[4][5]

The restaurant at The Black Swan first won a Michelin Star in 2012 with Adam Jackson as chef.^[6] When Jackson left to set up his own restaurant in June 2013, Banks took over as head chef at The Black Swan.^[7] At the age of 24, Banks was one of the youngest chefs to receive a Michelin Star when the restaurant retained its Michelin Star that year.^[8][9]

On 5 April 2018 Banks's first cookbook, Roots, was published by The Orion Publishing Group. It was the UK winner of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in the Chef category 2018.^{[citation needed]}

On 15 September 2018 Banks and his friend and business partner Matthew Lockwood opened the Bankses' second restaurant, Roots, in the centre of York.

In March 2020 Banks and Lockwood set up Made In Oldstead, a food delivery service. This was launched primarily to help pay suppliers and staff unable to be furloughed after the temporary closure of their restaurants due to COVID-19. In July 2020, the company said that they would continue the service.^{[citation needed]}

In 2016, Banks took part in Great British Menu.^[4] In the final, he won the fish course with a dish called "Preserving The Future".^[10] He also appeared in the programme in 2017 and again won with his fish course of turbot with strawberries and cream.^[3]

Banks was co-host of The Big Family Cooking Showdown with Angellica Bell in 2018. He regularly appears on Saturday Kitchen and Sunday Brunch as a guest chef. Since 2019, Banks has been a guest judge for Great British Menu. In 2019 he judged the Northern Ireland heats, and in 2020 the London and South East heats.

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