I was born in 1975 and straight into the business. My dad ran a lovely pub-restaurant, in Clavering, Essex. I remember it was a cool place, everyone worked together to make that lovely food and laughed while doing it.
By the time I was 11, I wasn't bad at preparing the meals. Many boys at school thought that cooking was a girl's thing. I didn't really care, as I could buy the coolest trainers with the money I earned from working at the weekend.
When I was 16, I didn't really have the results to continue at school and I knew by then that I wanted to be a chef. So I went to Westminster Catering College and then spent some time in France, learning as much as I could, before coming back to London to work as Head Pastry Chef for Antonio Carluccio at The Neal Street Restaurant where I worked for five years.
It was there that I first got in front of a TV camera. A documentary about the restaurant was being filmed and the editors decided to show a friendly man who really liked cooking. The day after the programme was shown; I got calls from five different production companies to talk about a possible show.
The result was “The Naked Chef” programme and that's where it all started. Right now I've never been busier in my life! The only thing is that I would like to have more time for my family - my three lovely girls.
