You had to work tremendously hard. You had to have that commitment to training, you had to have that innate ability. It's similar in my profession as….

A great cook is made from having a great sense of hospitality and trying to make people happy. Then there's natural talent. Perhaps you have a feel f….

Being a sport star and a chef both require passion, commitment, work and natural ability..

There's a layer of satisfaction that I get from cooking that is more than the work itself. I think when you're too competitive sometimes you can lose….

There are many different types of people that end up coming to me and saying 'Yeah I want to cook.' Some of them successful, some not. There's no one….

Sometimes I think you can lose the joy in what you do. It becomes a sense of 'I've got to beat him, I've got to beat him,' and you lose your own sens….

The work element comes into it as well - how much you train and how much work you put into your craft, in the same way a carpenter would perhaps work….

Chef means boss and in France you get an office chef and you get a chef on a building site, etc. So I'm a chef de cuisine, chef of the kitchen, and t….

This is wonderful for a young person, no matter what profession they're in. When you can see something and you can feel this attraction to it, then i….

I wrote a mad, passionate letter to the best restaurant in the UK, Le Gavroche in London, and asked if I could work for them. They gave me a job as a….

In cooking I found my mentor in this great chef, Albert Roux. I think this is a very important thing in life, to find someone who can steer you becau….

What often separates the good from the great is a layer of innate ability, a gift, so it's partly that. There's many people with great gifts who don'….

You need good energy and you need to be fit because it's very tiring. A lot of the work is quite heavy and quite smelly. That's why girls drift out o….

Part of being a great restaurant chef is having an ability to bring all those people together, rather like a captain on a rugby field or a coach. It'….

Some people who see cooking as a job. They got into cooking at some stage and they're sort of ticking along trying to get the money together to buy t….

Sometimes someone coming in doesn't have the natural passion for it, but they find it through the coaching or mentoring I give them. I'm sort of open….

The thing that gave me most pride about it was to see the smiles and the pride on my staff's faces, because a restaurant is a team thing, and for the….

One of the great awards from a chef's point of view are Michelin stars. The ultimate is three Michelin stars. For example, Gordon Ramsey has three Mi….

It depends as there's many different types of chefs, some who cook for awards and others who cook to make their restaurant a great business. There ar….

It really helps if you've got something like cycling, walking, running or swimming that can let your body release all that tension and keep your musc….

We [chefs] are competitive, although I think you need to be careful with competitiveness as it can become quite negative..