Martin Frickel: Sous chef at the Forest Side Hotel, Grasmere

Essential ingredients = Essential ingredients for me have to be great produce, salt, pepper and lemon.

First kitchen worked in = The first kitchen I worked in was at Trinity House, Training Academy, Ulverston, part of the Lakeside Hotel at Newby Bridge. I was working under head chef Duncan Collinge who gave me a great insight into working in kitchens. I soon enough signed up to do an apprenticeship that year.

First dish I prepared = I used to love spending the weekend with my mum in the kitchen as a young boy doing some home baking. We used to make a cracking flapjack and great home made jams with the fruit from our allotment.

Signature dish = My signature dish is beef rib, BBQ onions, hen of the woods and damsons.

Food philosophy = Sourcing the best quality ingredients, allowing the quality to shine with a little cooking technique and match with some great flavour combinations.

Biggest kitchen disaster = This would have to be when I was doing my apprenticeship. I was helping on the pass on a busy Saturday and one of the team came up behind me with a boiling hot pan of butternut squash soup. Not knowing he was there I turned and it went straight down the inside of my arm. It hurt a little but we managed to get through service!

My favourite chef = From very early in my career I admired the late American chef and restaurateur Charlie Trotter. In my view he had the best food philosophy. I was lucky enough to dine at his restaurant in Chicago and he is very much missed in the culinary world.

My biggest influence = I have had some great mentors in my career but I have definitely got to hand a lot of praise to Justin Woods at the Castle Green Hotel, Kendal, for supporting me through the early years of my career. I also take a lot of influence from Peter Gilmore, Grant Achatz and Thomas Keller.

My favourite meal = As far as dining experiences, go one of my favourite meals to date has to be at Noma, in Copenhagen. It really is well worth both the trip and the wait (it's always booked up) to get a table and eat there.