The factory workers and drivers may have taken more notice had they known that their grub was being prepared by a youngster who, one day, would grow up to become one of the country s most sought-after chefs. Those early days did influence me a lot. I was brought up around good, honest, earthy, food. It showed me that food doesn t have to be poncey or pretty to make it interesting. We cooked all sorts of things like eggy bread and dripping - things that we still cook today but with posh names , and charge a fortune for it.
Today there s a huge amount of interest in everything to do with cookery and how people cook.
But in those days there was no such thing as celebrity chefs and cookery just wasn t thought of in the same way. I was surrounded by food as a youngster. But although stuff like that takes longer to cook I still think that they can be the most delicious cuts and the ones you can get the tastiest flavours from. Although I ve lived down South for a long time now, about 35 years, I still think of myself very much as a northern lad and try to get up there as much as I can. I m a Yorkshireman through and through.