What was your first job in catering?
Doing pastry at La Petite Marquise, aged 15
What do you normally have for breakfast?
Hot water with ginger
What are your favourite restaurants?
The Fat Duck, El Bulli and Michel Bras
What is your favourite drink?
Juice from green and yellow lemons with ginger and sparkling water
What do you do to relax?
Listen to classical music
Which ingredient do you hate the most?
Tripe
What is your favourite cuisine?
Japanese street food
What flavour combinations do you detest?
Milk and coffee
What do you always carry with you?
Ginger and lemon
Which person in catering have you most admired?
Alain Chapel
Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?
Inspiration doesn't come from a person but from all around you. I find noise distracting so to find inspiration I go to a church, temple or synagogue, where it's quiet
Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take?
I have a hand-made leather bag that I carry everywhere
If not yourself, who would you rather have been?
General Douglas MacArthur
If you had not gone into catering, where do you think you'd be now?
I would probably have stayed in the military - I liked the adventure and travel
Tell us a secret...
When I was very young I was the lover of my mother's friend
What irritates you most about the industry?
People forget the true sense of hospitality - customers are considered to be credit cards
Describe your ultimate nightmare
Being deprived of chocolate
When did you last eat a hamburger?
Three months ago in New York
What's your favourite film?
The Samurai Trilogy
What's your favourite book?
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
What's your favourite prepared product?
Sardines
Who would be in your fantasy brigade?
Paul Bocuse, Heston Blumenthal, Ferran Adrià, Davide Scabin, Fulvio Pierangelini, Michel Bras
Thierry Marx, executive chef and director of F&B, Mandarin Oriental Paris