If I think back to the eighties, my methods weren't conventional, but they got results.

I don't believe I've ever truly been in love because I don't believe that I've known myself well enough in the past to allow someone to love me.

If I did one thing, I made cooking rock n' roll: I made it sexy. I made young kids from rich backgrounds want to come into my world.

I was brought up on a council estate. I know what it's like to be poor.

I came from a hard, working-class world which, since my mother's death, had been dominated by men. I hadn't been encouraged to talk about the burden of grief, and because I was severely underdeveloped when it came to sharing my emotions, I mustn't have been the most communicative husband.

Life is an emotional rollercoaster. It really is.

I like my mind being stimulated. I like discovering new concepts.

I love working. I love doing things. I don't like sitting.

I take so much from my life. I have my shooting and my fishing. I have my working life. I have my relationship with my children.

In 1990 at Harveys, when I was 28 years old, I became the youngest chef to win two Michelin stars. It was a huge achievement.

'Wall Street' was the big movie of 1987, the year in which Harveys opened. It was a film about greed and self-indulgence, about hunger for success, and Michael Douglas's line, 'breakfast is for wimps,' became a mantra for anyone who wanted to get to the top.

I love the countryside, which is where I live and feel most comfortable, and hate being surrounded by herds of people.

I'm a great fan of farmed products, as long as it's done properly, because it allows people to be able to afford them. If it wasn't for farmed products, a lot of people wouldn't eat so well.

A cookery book should be there for inspiration. Recipes should be a guideline, and they shouldn't be cast in stone.

I came from the most humble side of society, and I know what it's like to be poor, really poor, and I was brought up in the '60s and '70s very poor, and I'm very happy flying the flag for the working man.

I am not the sort of person who gives up.

You can't be a chef and appear on television all the time. It's impossible. At least when I earned my stars, I was always behind my stove.

I discovered that the world of the finest restaurants was something akin to the world of the Mafia.

Dad was diagnosed with lung cancer when I was a lad. From then on, he lived in fear that death was just around the corner, and he set about programming me to work hard and bring in some cash.

I was brought up to respect my father and not to love him.

I was racially discriminated against for years as a child in Leeds because I was an Italian.

My pet hate, with customers, is those that think it's all about wallets.

I like a nice cross section of society in my restaurants - the stars, the toffs, the working guy.

Nine out of 10 English chefs have their names on their chests. Who do they think they are? They're dreamers. They're jokes.