What was your first job?
Helping in a pastry shop at the age of 12 for around £5 a week
What is your favourite restaurant?
At the moment I love Viajante by Nuno Mendes. I also love a small family-run Thai restaurant near my home in Brixton - they make the best tom yam soup
What is your favourite hotel?
Villa Julia in Buenos Aires
What is your favourite drink?
I have three - mojito, rum and Coke, and red wine
What is your favourite cuisine?
Japanese - I could eat sushi every day
Which ingredient do you hate the most?
Palm hearts
If you had not gone into catering, where do you think you'd be now?
In architectural house design
What flavour combinations do you detest?
Mint and chocolate
How would you describe your desk?
Messy but technologically advanced
Which person in catering have you most admired?
Keith Floyd was a natural chef who presented with huge enthusiasm and wine glass in hand
Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?
My grandfather, for his passion and respect for food
Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take?
A few bottles of Gevrey Chambertin and a computer
What daily newspaper/website do you read?
The Guardian, the Sun and the London Evening Standard
If not yourself, who would you rather have been?
Jacques Cousteau
When and where was your last holiday?
In August we went to Tuscany - the weather was bad but the tomatoes from the garden were just perfect
Tell us a secret...
I always look at my wife's Elle magazine (shhhhhhhhhh!)
When did you last eat a hamburger?
Last week I had a delicious burger from the Avalon in Clapham
What's your favourite film?
Big Night by Stanley Tucci
What's your favourite book?
Ripailles by Stéphane Reynaud
What is your favourite prepared product?
Crème caramel from the supermarket
Who would be in your fantasy brigade?
Pass - Marco Pierre White; larder - Gualtiero Marchesi and Peter Gordon; meat - John Torode and Fergus Henderson; fish - Mark Hix; pastry - Claire Clark
Massimo Tebaldi, executive chef, Renaissance Pubs