Essential ingredients: Salt, black pepper and extra virgin olive oil - all simple but you can make anything taste good with those.

First kitchen worked in: The very first time was as a kitchen porter at The Strickland Arms at Sizergh when I was still at school. I did the washing up and sandwiches! It was actually the chef there that told me to become one too. One day we were short staffed so it was just me and the head chef. He said after service he couldn't believe how calm I was and that I had a good temperament to be a chef!

My first chef job was a commis at the Beech Hill Hotel, Windermere. I went there on work experience at school then full time when I left. That was my first of three stints there.

First dish I prepared: The earliest one I can remember is a key lime pie I made in food technology at school. It's made with a biscuit base and a topping of condensed milk, cream and lime juice and zest. Got marked 20 out of 20 too!

Signature dish: I wouldn't say I have an all time signature dish but it would always involve duck or lamb. Currently it would be confit duck leg, slow roasted root vegetables and chestnuts, marmalade glaze and grain mustard dauphinoise.

Food philosophy: A mixture of French and English dishes. Combining traditional with the odd modern twist. Always keep it seasonal, local and fresh.

Biggest kitchen disaster: Probably setting a solid top on fire when I was a commis chef. The senior chefs as a challenge asked me to put it on the stove by myself, I took the challenge on, so I was lifting a stock pot onto the solid top but it was so big I couldn't see where I was going and clipped the edge of the stove. The fat from the top of the stock spilt on the solid top and burst into flames. It took a fire extinguisher to put it out.

My favourite chef: Probably Tom Aikens and Raymond Blanc - chefs that cook with the raw ingredients. I'm not into all these chemicals and industrial apparatus.

My biggest influence: Chris Davies, the current executive chef at the Beech Hill Hotel. I worked with him for around 15 years - three separate times in three different places - the last being for more than 10 years.

My favourite meal: I would always choose duck or lamb - fatty meats but my favourites. For dessert it would either be lemon tart, creme brûlée or an assiete of some sort. Of meals I've actually had it would be at the Holbeck Ghyll, Windermere, a number of years ago. I had rabbit rillette, lamb cannon and strawberry assiette.