I understood why he’s so highly regarded. Everything he was telling us to do made complete sense.
Can you talk me through the inspiration behind your dishes?
The first dish, ‘Old is Gold’, was all about celebrating old school media, tape recorders, magnetic cassettes, the gramophone and celebrating the time in the fifties and sixties when Britain established authority on good music.
I took inspiration from devils’ scallops and made a dish with chilli and ginger to add a hint of spice.
The second one was called 'Curry and Wok', and the reason behind that was that I had a chance to teach Mr Nick Mason, Pink Floyd's drummer, how to cook.
It was quite amazing: we were doing an Indian Street Food course and I gave him chopsticks for kebabs and the way he held them and turned them in his hand – it was so cool.
He was the definition of cool for me, I’ve never seen a celebrity of such a high status who’s achieved so much and was totally cool about it.
He was telling me that the rock bands survived on tour around the US eating curry, they would track down the spiciest curries and they had a chart of honour for the person who could eat them. He said Fleetwood Mac was one of them.
That inspired my salmon dish, cooked slowly in a water bath served with spicy tomato and an aubergine masala.
The third course was Kendall Calling - to honour music festivals in Britain. They’re integral to British music and this one supports small musicians that aren’t household names, different charities; it’s more like a hospitality industry event.
It takes place in Lowther Deer Park; it’s beautiful, there’s a castle around it with deer roaming free, eating all the food, so I decided to use venison. The idea was that a band is a minimum of four people. One is a guitarist, a drummer, a bassist and a person on the keyboard, so my main course had four elements.
The last one was called ‘And the Winner is’. I took inspiration from the Beatles song ‘Let it Be’. The idea was, whatever the difficulties in your life, you have to let it be.
The way I constructed that pudding was like a trophy. The winner is the support staff, the dancers, they are all the winners in this industry, so it was based on a chocolate dessert; chocolate leaves, peanut parfait and raspberry flavours; lots of tiny musical notes and a trophy.
Image: The Gilpin Hotel and Lake House, Windermere, Lake District
Which of your dishes did you most want to take the the banquet when you started in the competition?
Probably the pudding. There were 13 different elements involved. The chef did say that I was biting off more than I could chew, but there were a lot of skill elements in it.
Overall, would you say GBM is a competition worth taking part in?
Yes, it is. It showcases your skills as a chef, but it also depends on how much you want to tell the nation who you are, where you work and the sort of food you like to cook. Ideally, a chef should be able to decide when they take part, they should be ready for it rather than take part just for the sake of it.
It was your first time on GBM wasn’t it? What did you think?
