me put the music together for
Caribbean Kitchen.
...THOSE ELOCUTION LESSONS
CAME IN HANDY. While I was at
Lord’s, in the early 1990s, a Radio 5
producer asked me to appear on a
cookery show, More Nosh, Less Dosh.
After that, I joined Good Morning with
Anne and Nick on BBC1. It was live
TV and, to begin with, I was
incredibly nervous. But I just
remembered primary school, Mr
Mallett and “the tip of the tongue, the
teeth and the lips”.
...BEING THE ODD ONE OUT ON
READY STEADY COOK, when I first
appeared on the programme in 1994.
I hadn’t had a successful restaurant
like a lot of the other chefs. But it
was great being able to compete
against them.
I don’t think there had ever been
anything like that on television
before. Fern Britton thought it would
only last a month, but she was host
for seven years [1994 to 2000] and I
did another ten years after that....TRAVELLING THE WORLD
CHANGED MY MINDSET AS
A CHEF. In the 1990s I started visiting
places I’d only dreamt of for
programmes like Ainsley’s Barbecue
Bible. As a chef in a restaurant, you’d
be working all the time so you didn’t
get much opportunity to experience
different things. On your day off, you
might just want fish and chips. ButAUGUST 2019 • 35READER’S DIGEST