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When I first started cooking, I was very much an intuitive cook when it came to taste, but that didn't mean I didn't want to know why some things worked and why others did not. My interest took me to culinary school.

I was always behind in class. There was people in my class who was amazing at art, amazing at maths, amazing at English, but I wasn't clever with anything, even though I tried my hardest.

I actually struggled through teaching myself to cook because I'm completely ignorant in the kitchen. So I did really macho things like trying to make my own curry. Really hardcore stuff.

I studied cooking all through high school.

I was good at math and science, and I got lots of degrees in lots of things, but in a parallel universe, I probably became a chef.

I did an O-level in domestic science when I was at school, but on the day of the practical exam, it was a cookery nightmare.

The one reason why I got into cooking was because I wasn't good at anything else - not that I was good at it, but it was considered honest work.

In my bachelor days, the priority wasn't learning to cook.

I started culinary school at a very young age, and really I wanted to be out working, cooking, more than I wanted to be in a classroom. You could say I wasn't a very good student - I wanted to be a student of life and experience.