I wasn't the brightest button in the class at school, but I enjoyed cooking and baking. I wasn't clever enough at Maths O-level to get onto the cookery teaching course I really wanted to do, so I did a catering course instead.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
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.
I cook a little - I've never taken classes or anything - but enough to get by.