Essential ingredients: Good flours, yeast, butter and a well-stocked herb garden.

First kitchen worked in: I come from a large farming family so definitely the first kitchen I was set to work in would be my grandma Robinson’s, probably at the age of about seven or eight years old (or as soon as I could peel potatoes!).

I could not imagine doing anything else so as soon as I was old enough, I started work in the kitchens at the Hark to Bounty in Slaidburn, but then my career took off front of house.

First dish I prepared: Apple crumble. I was around 11 years old and it was at my grandma’s farm in Dunsop Bridge. It had to be huge to feed all the men working on the farm as they were gathering sheep on the fells. I will never forget it as my uncle and brother made up a rather unflattering song about my effort which still haunts me till this day!

Signature dish: I don’t think I have one particular dish although I do love my lemon and lime tart.

Food philosophy: Enjoy it! The whole experience from sourcing and buying the ingredients - the best you can afford - to preparing them to the final delivery. Over thinking a dish never works for me.

Biggest kitchen disaster: Really, too numerous to mention though part and parcel of cooking is to be able to deal with disasters and resolve them swiftly. However, if you asked my uncle and brother they would probably say that first apple crumble!

My favourite chef: If it was a celebrity chef it would be Rick Stein becasue he is so enthusiastic about food and seems to be genuinely interested in all the people producing it. David Kirkpatrick - former head chef of the Majestic, Harrogate - is my real favourite chef. And he is not only a great chef but a real gentleman too.

My biggest influence: My mother. She has an amazing aptitude for turning basic ingredients into the best thing you will ever taste. All my early childhood memories are of spending time with all my aunts, nana, grandma and my great grandma Beck, preparing or eating food.

I can still smell the chocolate and damsons that were synonymous with my nana Miller. The apple pies and crumbles with my grandma, and the gorgeous glossy meringues that my great grandma Beck made us every time we went to visit.

My favourite meal: Sunday lunch. I just love our chef Ed’s blade of beef with Yorkshire pud, followed by ‘My Mum’s Lemon Meringue Pie’ which is my great grandma Beck’s recipe, of course!