My parents both chefs split up when I was young and I grew up with mum and stepdad in Mitcham until mum moved us to Cornwall when I was 12 or so. It was the best thing she did because it got me away from my friends who spoke like wannabe-gangsters and wanted to smoke and drink at the weekend. It's not good to be around people who don't want to make anything of themselves.
My mother is a stickler for tidiness and that has come in handy. She didn't like me in her kitchen, but at weekends I spent time with my dad and grandfather and we'd watch cooking programmes and Dad let me cook anything I wanted with him. I knew at 9 or 10 that I wanted to be a chef. Dad and granddad took me to Taste of London when I was 11. In my little autograph book are Gary Rhodes, Antony Worrall Thompson and Angela Hartnett.
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