Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Acclaimed British chef and restaurateur, two Michelin stars, best-selling author, MasterChef: The Professionals judge.
On the island
Eight records
My first disc is Tainted Love by Socelle and there wasn't a massive amount of music in our house. Radio was never on, but I remember my eldest brother buying Mark Coleman's uh L P. I used to play it over and over again'cause I just loved the beat of it and Mark Collman was from Southport.
It's by Dexi's Midnight Runners, and it's a track called Come On Eileen. And this is old fond memories for me because my mum is called Eileen. And as growing up, when this song came out, my mum used to do a lot of baking. When I went to catering college, I learnt all of the things that the mistakes that my mum was making, and I tried to correct them for her. And of course, she was always a better baker than me, or she told me she was. But as when I went to Catering College, I learnt all the tricks. She used to get in the audience me telling her: Come on, Eileen. It's like you don't call your mum Eileen. And then she'd come back at me, and then I'd start singing this track to her. And she just couldn't, you couldn't help but end up laughing. And then the family, then we'd all do it. And it was because it was the name of my mum. We just sang it to her just to annoy her.
When I left home after caging college, the only person that took me to the train station was my dad, and that was on a Sunday uh evening to come back to London. And the only cassette he had in the car was a Roy Alberson cassette, and we just played it. And for that hour from Southport to Liverpool Lime Street station, my dad and I didn't speak a word to each other. I didn't want to go to London, he didn't want to let me go, and it was really tough. And it was a track called In Dreams. It was a track that was at the start of this LP, and the whole LP reminds me of that hour journey.
My brother and I were big boxing fans and the reason why I took up boxing because my brother, I was an individual, I was never a team player, I hated relying on anyone at anything. So boxing where I was in the ring on my own, I didn't have to rely on anyone by myself. And at that time, the boxer that I admired the most at that particular time was Chris Eubanks. And he had this track. It was by Tina Turner and it was simply the best. And the reason why I chose it was that this was a fighter who was an individual who, every step of his journey, of every fight, was about his immaculate training, his approach to the ring. His title was I am simply the best. And he stood on the rim of the ring every time he entered it and stood there showing himself to the crowd with his eight pack. Not six pack, eight pack. Proud guy. But I think this track just summed him up as an individual and that single-mindedness that reminds me so much of being a cook.
When I was in Paris, I felt very lonely, even though my girlfriend was with me, who is Jane, my wife now. I found Paris very difficult because it was almost like starting back in London again. I was in a new city, and the language barrier, I didn't crack that. And this film came out, Braveheart. I was just fixed by this movie and the coldness of it, and the loneliness of it. And the track, A Gift of a Thistle for me, was a track that I hear in my head, and it was a very lonely part of the movie where Mel Gibson's sort of wife dies. But it's a point of his life where he then becomes this man, and the next step of his life becomes the journey of William Wallace. And that's when I left Paris and came back to London. For me, it was the beginning of my head chef's hat being put on, and for me, that track was the beginning of what came next.
How Deep Is Your LoveFavourite
I've chosen Bee Gee's How Deep Is Your Love and I was transfixed by this movie, Saturday Night Fever. I remember watching the movie and John Travolta strutting his stuff and they saw it very next day. Everybody, all the men were walking a little bit different back in those days after we'd watched that movie. But it was a great movie and I loved the tracks, I loved all of the music that ran through the movie. And we chose How Deep Is Your Love as our first song on our wedding day.
When I finally became a restaurateur on my own and I broke away, we'd holidayed in the UK for quite a number of years because we were saving our money up and we were biting a leadle case. And eventually we a couple of years later, we went down to south of France and we had a villa and for two weeks we just used to hang out. And Jane found this C D in the collection of the people that owned the house and it was a Burt Bacharach C D and it was all of his greatest hits and we just played this C D over and over again until my kids were screaming at us for not to do it anymore. We fell in love with it. Doors wide open, pool, cooking, all together, swimming and it was this song called Blue on Blue that was sung by Bobby Vinton.
I love Bond movies. There's something about the modern day Bond movie, even the olden days, the ones that I grew up with, and I love the character, I like the way it's developed, and I love Daniel Craig. And I think that my next track has to be It's Adele and It's Skyful, it's just absolutely magical piece of work written and sung by an amazing, amazing singer.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:53You knew at an early age that you wanted to work with food. Why? What was the appeal?
My father was in food, and my eldest brother Brian was a chef. I think it was the working with basic produce, going to the farmers' markets, going to Liverpool Market in Preston, and dealing with basic produce that my father bought and sold into school meals, services, but also into kitchens and restaurants and hotels. So, as a young boy, I used to be a delivery boy with my dad's firm, and it was a place that I really enjoyed going to. It was a time where I could spend quite a time with my father, but also work incredibly hard. My father wasn't teaching me about food, he was teaching me a work ethic. Really, that was as basic as it was. And I didn't know it at the time, but when I reflect back on that time, that's what he was teaching us: work hard, get your head down, but also be very accurate in what you do. My father was a stickler for precision in every single thing that he did.
Presenter asks
4:31You're at the very top end of the market in fine dining. How vulnerable is that to recession?
People think that rich people eat in fine dining restaurants and they do and they don't. The majority of fine dining restaurants are full of everybody and anybody who wants to have a great time, maybe a celebration of a birthday or an anniversary or so many different reasons to eating in fine dining. The way I look at it is it's like going to a really great shop and everything is really expensive, but you feel very special once you've bought one item in that shop and you've had that shopping experience. Fine dining is very much like that at the moment and so there's not a great deal of us out there. So the choice is limited so we have to make sure that we get it right.
The keepsakes
The book
I know I'd need it. I'm creative, but when it comes to sort of staying alive, I might just need a bit of help.
The luxury
the knife, it's the only way I could survive. I could cut wood, I could chop things up, I could fill it the fish, I could do lots of things with a knife.
Presenter asks
5:12You're also a judge on MasterChef the Professionals. Has that changed your outlook on what is a great plate of food?
I don't think it's changed my outlook on a great player food. What I think it has done is changed my outlook on how I approach chefs and how I talk to chefs. Because prior to going to my chef, I'm just filming my sixth series right now and I go to my job and I go to my place of work and I talk to everyone like they know everything that I'm discussing. So I talk to a team of chefs. I expect them to understand what I'm talking about. So I'm short, I'm sharp and to the point. When I went onto Master Chef, I'm asked to explain in great detail what it is I'm thinking, what I'm tasting, why I like it, why I don't. But also, I may be talking to the chef standing in front of me, but I'm actually communicating to the viewer watching the TV. So I'm using the chef as a channel to explain to the viewer why I like it and why I don't. So it makes me break down things in a lot more detail. Hence, when I go back to my kitchen, I go and I talk to my chefs in a little bit more detail. So I'm actually giving them more information because I think I was taking them for granted. And that actually took away the swearing and aggression, if I have to be honest with you.
Presenter asks
25:33You were once quoted as saying the two biggest turning points in my life were meeting and breaking with Gordon Ramsay. Tell me about the second. You had been great friends, but after you parted ways professionally there was an acrimonious legal battle. What did you learn from that experience?
It was hard, really hard. You know, a good friend to me, and I wouldn't be sitting here right here right now if it wasn't for being part of his life and me being part of his life. We were very close and we worked together tirelessly to try and be successful in our own rights. And Gordon, you know, gave me a stage to perform on, but I'd also helped him perform on his own stage, you know, the Obi Gim. We needed another person in sort of the business life, which was his father-in-law, who helped us build or helped him build this company, which I was part of. I think, long story short, was that you grow up and you want to spread your own wings. And I'd worked with Gordon for so long. I think, you know, it's natural to want to step out of the shadow. Unfortunately, we had to fall out to do that because there was never a way which you could say to him that, you know, I want out, I'm done. He'd invested everything into us. And the third person in the relationship, that's what broke it down. You know, there was never anything between me and Gordon that was between me and the business side of things that I wasn't sort of happy with. And I decided to go my separate way and sort of pick a fight. And it ended up splitting and going our separate ways. But it was very, very hard, and it was probably the toughest three years of my life because I put so much at risk. I put everything on the line: my family, my children's schooling, my house, everything to fight to secure my future. But that is the sort of person that I am.
Presenter asks
28:53We love cookbooks and cookery programmes here in the UK, yet last year British people spent more on ready meals than any other country in Europe. How do you explain that paradox?
I sort of blame social media, I have to be honest with you, because we spend so much time wasting time on our phones that we actually lose a lot of time by doing this social activity and this communications connection, this wanting to connect to so many people, that I think we lose a lot of time, which then means something has to give. And unfortunately, going to supermarket and picking up a ready meal is probably one of the easiest things you can do. It's lazy and we need to slow it down because it's not good for the waistline either.
Presenter asks
30:05What would you rustle up for your last meal, before you went, if you could only have one thing?
Oh so many things, but I just I'm going to go with roast beef on the bone, river beef, triple cooked chips, Bernay sauce, and a serious bottle of Bordeaux, and some lots of vegetables.
“My father wasn't teaching me about food, he was teaching me a work ethic. Really, that was as basic as it was. And I didn't know it at the time, but when I reflect back on that time, that's what he was teaching us: work hard, get your head down, but also be very accurate in what you do. My father was a stickler for precision in every single thing that he did.”
“I think we're seeing a bit of a crisis on the high street full stop. I think the level or the point of uncertainty in our economy in Brexit is such a cloud that sits above us. I think it's sort of worrying and quite scary.”
“I absolutely fell in love with fear and worry and scared and hated it, loved it, and I just had every emotion you could ever imagine being a boy from a seaside town that never really wandered outside of Southport apart from every one once a year going on holiday.”
“I still work seven days a week in my head, but I now do what my father didn't do, was actually spend any time with his children. When my father retired eventually because his business collapsed, his children were adults and had left home and he'd never ever spent any time with them apart from at work. It's the one thing I made an agreement with myself, more to myself than Jane actually, was that if I'm going to ever have a family, I really want to be part of it.”
“I put everything on the line: my family, my children's schooling, my house, everything to fight to secure my future. But that is the sort of person that I am.”