After leaving school at 16 to play cricket, he was encouraged by his mother to set up a market stall selling homemade baked goods, "Galton's Goodies".

His first job in a restaurant was at John Tovey's Miller Howe country hotel in Windermere, the Lake District.

[1][2][3] Blackiston represented the Midlands and East of England in the BBC's Great British Menu,[4] knocking out celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson to gain a place in the final.

[6] He has also appeared on Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is, Country Show Cook Off,[7] and Saturday Kitchen.

[9] Blackiston has published four books on cookery, with the fourth arriving in October 2017.