Chef Revelations – Jason Atherton

What was your best subject at school?
Believe it or not, home economics!

What was your first job?
Donkey boy on Skeggy beach, taking kids for donkey rides

What was your first job in catering?
Cooking at the County Hotel in Skegness

What do you normally have for breakfast?
Coffee and pain au chocolat

What do you do to relax?
Play golf and read cookbooks

What is your favourite restaurant?
London's Ledbury for fine dining and Barrafina for tapas

What is your favourite drink?
Mojito

What is your favourite food/cuisine?
Asian cuisine - it's so varied and colourful

Who in catering have you most admired?
Ferran Adrià

Who gave you the greatest inspiration?
The whole El Bulli team and Spain in general - I get a lot of pleasure from that country

If not yourself, who would you rather have been? Antonin Carême

Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take? I would take some books, I can't live without them, and some Spam

What daily newspaper/website do you read?
Caterersearch.com, haha!

What irritates you most about the industry?
I hate people moaning about things. Get off your arse and do something about it!

What's your favourite film? The Beach If you had not gone into catering, where would you be now? I would have liked to have been a banker, but I didn't listen at school	!](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/7A3DcBT9RQCiDtT5Tpla)

Tell us a secret… I used to bunk off school to go fishing ![What is your favourite prepared product? Pizza Express pizzas from the supermarket Describe your ultimate nightmare Failure to fulfil my burning ambitions Name your fantasy brigade Jason Atherton on pass with Sat Bains; Simon Rogan with Claude Bosi in the development kitchen - some crazy stuff would come out of that; Steve Terry on cold larder (love his food); meat section, Pierre "the Bear" (Koffmann); fish section, Nathan Outlaw; pastry section, Pierre Hermé; hot larder, Tom Kitchin