Have you always wanted to be a chef?
I had two career aspirations when I was a young kid, becoming a vet was one of them, and being a chef was the second. My dad said I was too thick to be a vet, as I wasn’t very academic, even if you failed almost everything at school but got enough qualifications, you could get into catering college. And that was it, from the age of about nine or ten years old, I wanted to be a chef.

You were offered jobs by a host of high profile chefs, why did you go with Anthony Worrall-Thompson?
At that particular time Queens Gate in West London was a buzzing place. It was known about even as far north as we were, 350 miles away. It was kind of an instant decision, but the right one. It was the place to go and work at that particular time.

What was it like moving to London after growing up in the country?
I’d been to London probably twice in my life, so realistically being stood on a train on my way to the Big Smoke with just a bag in my hand was pretty daunting! Though at that age it didn’t matter because it was a new experience, it was exciting and I wanted to work. Most importantly I wanted to work in great kitchens and I felt that the only way to do that was to travel, because of where we were in Yorkshire. It’s different now, but then there was only one choice and that was to go to London.

How did you find starting work as a chef?
I think it’s a shock for anybody really. Even now it’s a shock to a lot of the students now finishing college and universities that want to be chefs. It’s quite a rude awakening! However, I know it sounds daft, people always say the same clichés but now it’s not like when I was a kid. The hours aren’t as bad because they’re much more regimented, and you can’t get away with the stuff that they got away with back then. But at that particular time in the late eighties and early nineties London was a buzzing place, a lot of French chefs were coming over to train and it was on the fringe of a big movement changing the country from being known for Yorkshire puddings and chicken kievs to doing something really serious with serious chefs.

By the time you were 22 you were head chef, how did you find success at such a young age?
That was the most successful time of my career. Success isn’t financial, success is what you believe is your most successful time, and my most successful time was when I became head chef for the Hotel Du Vin [in Winchester]. It wasn’t by any means financial, but I had achieved a life goal, at that particular time I had achieved everything I wanted to achieve. All through my life I’ve had to prove myself; it’s about pushing yourself into a situation that you either excel at or you go tits up at. And if you tits up then you divert around it. Whereas a lot of people just stumble at the first hurdle, I always want more and more.

What do you it was in your character that set you apart?
The path I made back then was obviously the right one at that particular time. But I also made sacrifices, to be a successful chef you have to make so many. But I’ve always said successful people are the people that do more than anyone else when it comes to work. A lot of people are quite happy to disappear off on Friday night and go to the pub at 6 o’clock, but there are others that want to stay around, until 11 or 12 at night and finish their work. They’re the ones that are going to be successful.I think people should always strive on challenges, I’ve always had goals in my life and each goal is a year. I think that work ethic you get nought for nought has stood by. If you’ve done well treat yourself, if you don’t then you save up to do well. It’s as simple as that. It’s always been that way for me, if you want something, you can achieve it, but you’ve just got to work had at it, but now I’ve achieved opportunities I never thought I would. Even now my head chef and I sometimes sit down and pinch ourselves.

You were on Ready Steady Cook for 8 years, how was that experience?
It was good at the time, it was the right move to do, other chefs were getting other bits and pieces, Jamie [Oliver] was doing his thing, Rick [Stein] was doing his, I was just happy to be having a roof over my head. I’m glad I did it. Then the BBC sat me down and said we want to offer you Saturday Kitchen because Anthony is leaving. That was a huge decision for me; to give up the stability of Ready Steady Cook and go up against my ex boss. It’s one of those things that you either do or you don’t, and I decided to do it and see what happened.

How do you find fronting such a successful show?
I love it, out of all the shows that I do Saturday Kitchen and probably The National Lottery are the great ones because they’re live. I’m not nervous, it’s adrenalin, and nerves and adrenalin are two different things. You’ve got the adrenalin going and it’s pretty daunting, the red light comes on and there’s two million people watching. When I did the Strictly [Come Dancing] tour this year and I got to the O2, I walked out and there’s 20,000 people screaming and shouting and it’s just you out there on the dance floor on your own. You look up and think, ‘Jesus, look at all those people’, but then when you times it by 100 or 1000 that’s how many people are tuning in on Saturday, and that’s just in the UK. It’s frightening, but I love it.

Who’s been your favourite guest?
We’ve had several really, Jackie Collins wrote to me afterwards to say thank you very much, she was probably one of the nicest. Justin Lee Collins was great, he was a good laugh, but they’ve all been great in their own way.

Have you ever done the omelette challenge yourself?
No I’m not allowed to, it’s in my BBC contract. It says no dangerous sports, scuba diving, bungee jumping all that sort of stuff and then it says… make an omelette! The problem is when you’re doing it in demos and stuff it would just go everywhere, especially with YouTube.

Has anyone particularly inspired you along your culinary career?
There are several people, Michel Roux, inspires me probably more than anybody. He’s a legend, an absolute legend, what he’s achieved in his life, you can’t help but be in awe. Whatever’s in your job there’s always somebody that you’d hopefully aspire to, and for me that’s probably him. But there are others, Ken Allison, he was my lecturer at college and Pierre Chevillard, who was head chef of Chewton Glen.