First kitchen worked in: My parents owned the Lamplighter before me and my brother took over a few years ago.

My dad was also the chef so I started helping him when I was only about 12 years old.

First dish prepared: It was most probably a traditional prawn cocktail. They tended to cook quite classical, traditional British food, and it would have been a dish of the era.

Essential ingredients: Cornish sea salt, black pepper, lemon zest and fresh herbs. They all finish dishes and bring out the flavour – they are simple ingredients but are all essential seasoning.

Signature dish: Either the giant fish or the giant Yorkshire puddings that we serve here. All the fish comes fresh from Fleetwood and we serve it on the bone, which gives it a lot more flavour.

It is a bit more adventurous, offers a wow factor and is a great basis for a sharing meal.

The Yorkshire puddings are an important part of our unique Sunday lunch experience, and are pretty much the size of the plate!

Food philosophy: All the most important days of our lives include a celebration meal.

Biggest kitchen disaster: There have been some burns and broken ovens, but when you are in a kitchen there is no choice but to make it work somehow.

Being a chef involves a lot of solving problems so disasters are always resolved quickly.

Favourite chef: My father, because I loved watching him cook as a child. He handled the food so beautifully. I found it quite inspiring and it is the reason I became a chef.

In terms of celebrities I would have to say Rick Stein, because you can see that he is totally passionate about what he does and he makes it look so simple.

I have always been interested in seafood and fish too, and he cooks a lot of that.

Biggest influence: Again my father, because he taught me everything. I was cooking on my own in the restaurant by the time I was 16, and had my first head chef job at 21.

Even though that was young, I had already learned so much by that time.

Favourite meal: Sunday lunches are my best memories of great days in my life - with my family, great food, wine and company.

It is the reason why we started doing the Sunday lunches the way we do at Lamplighter.

We let people order their cut of meat in advance and then serve it whole to the table with the accompaniments in dishes. It is all about getting everybody together.