As far as filming for TV goes, I like to go where the food is definitely of interest to British people.
I regard Chinese seafood cookery as among the best in the world.
If a recipe is good, I’m not going to mess with it, but they are recipes I’ve spent quite a bit of time getting right. You can use the internet. I use it as well, I keep forgetting, for example, how many eggs are in a Yorkshire pudding.
My childhood was idyllic to begin with. We lived on a farm in Oxfordshire and my mum used its produce in the kitchen. She made plain, English-style food, cooked exceptionally – it’s what I’ve based my career on.
I guess its the same with all children really, they have this sort of pathetic longing to be like their parents were.
Cream is actually tiny globules of fat held inside delicate membranes suspended in water – just like milk, only there are more globules.
There is something wonderful about the way you glaze a fruit cake, nonchalantly drop some orange on as a topping, dust the sugar on top of a sponge cake or fan the apples on a tart.
Ive been lucky with my stepkids. They were little when we met so theyve always accepted me. Having a stepfamily is so much more common these days and its nice to report I dont have a lot of problems.
In the early 70s I was offered a job on a newspaper. At the last minute the offer was withdrawn because there was a strike on. I bought a nightclub and turned it into a restaurant instead.
As a child, I was embarrassed by my dads effusive episodes, but I suppose I got used to living with someone who was intermittently sad.
My wife is always telling me that because we zip across the globe so much, we cant really keep a dog. But if youre a dog lover, its a pretty essential part of your life.
Wherever I go I’m always looking for recipes and ideas.
I eat out a lot, so being at home is just great. I usually make a chicken rice recipe that I picked up in Thailand years ago. The chicken has to be boiled before adding in chillies, ginger, soy and white pepper. Then you make a kind of pilaf. Its delicious.
I would quite like to do something on Ireland about the culture, James Joyce, Yeats, persuade Seamus Heaney to have a chat and do some cooking.
Its such a diverse culture with Chinese, Indian, Malay Eurasian and all points in between so wherever you go in Malaysia youve got fascinating food.
I always had a slight problem in that my older brother is extremely bright. He’s a neurophysiologist and a don at Magdalen College, and I always felt I was stupid because I couldn’t get anything like the same results as him.
Most of the telly I do only has one camera and the reason you have to cook it twice is you have a close-up, so you see what is happening really close up and then you have a wide shot, which is like standing back so you see the whole fish and the kitchen and, like it or not, you have to do it twice.
On the whole, my dad was a hero, its just that it got really difficult in his depressive phases, very introspective. And I think he took it out on me really.
I like to have fish and salad – mackerel, Dover sole or gurnard, and I usually pan-fry it or use the barbecue. I make salad with avocados, tomato, lettuce and spring onions, with an olive oil and red wine dressing.
Cooking in Japan is regarded as an art, like music or painting. Every dish has a reason, including the garnishes. This is cuisine with philosophy, and the apparent simplicity belies centuries of culture.
I always had a slight problem in that my older brother is extremely bright. He’s a neurophysiologist and a don at Magdalen College, and I always felt I was stupid because I couldn’t get anything like the same results as him.
Food is a great thing to be enthusiastic about, its not hurting anybody.
Once youve got a name, whatever you do is news. If your marriage breaks up of course its big news but even if you have a row with the planners it makes the nationals.
On the whole Im a good companion, I like travelling, I dont mind airports or planes, I quite like it – theres always a sense of excitement.
Naturally, as a little boy, I did lots of naughty things. With Les, the son of the farm manager, I was always climbing on high roofs, then tumbling off, or building dangerous networks of tunnels in the hay bales.
I left England when I was 19 for two years travelling on my own and since then I’ve always had an urge to go abroad.
It’s no surprise that cream gives pleasure. It feels great when you eat it, and it makes you feel great, too. I read somewhere that cream increases the amount of serotonin you produce in your brain – serotonin being the chemical that makes you feel warm and comfortable inside.
People want to go out and eat, theres no question about that. Its not something thats just going to go because of Covid. Its heartening the way people have come back to restaurants.
South-east Asian salads are a great balance of salty, sweet-sour and spicy. Its important to have both pork and seafood, but you can vary the seafood from prawns and squid to crab meat or even small pieces of firm fish such as monkfish, John Dory or gurnard.
I think human beings thrive on communication, and pubs and restaurants are a great way of communicating, a great way of enjoying each other.
Its challenging getting people to pay the right money to eat really good food and finding great people to work for you.
People feel very strongly about restaurants if theyre involved in them. It tends to take over your life for good and bad.
A lot of my customers wouldnt go to a McDonalds but we are all after the same thing in this business: pleasing the customer. I dont know why people get so aerated about it. I like McDonalds.
I fished with my dad and my mum was a great cook, although I didnt help out in the kitchen. It was similar with my three boys and my ex-wife Jill.
Ive definitely got a sense of not being very good at stuff. Its sort of absurd because, you know, Ive done really quite well for myself, but I still really doubt myself. Its just the way I am.
My wife is always telling me that because we zip across the globe so much, we cant really keep a dog. But if youre a dog lover, its a pretty essential part of your life.
My father Eric had a magnetic presence. He was about 6ft 4in, with dark hair and pale blue eyes – and very attractive to women.
My work spaces are the cookery school and all the restaurant kitchens. I eat in the restaurants a lot.
People want to go out and eat, theres no question about that. Its not something thats just going to go because of Covid. Its heartening the way people have come back to restaurants.
Going to Goa was a rite of passage for me, because it’s where I learnt that you could mix fish with really strong flavours.
Writing doesn’t come easily to me.
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