An athletic approach

If I'm not on the early shift, I'll drop my children off at school and the childminder's before coming in on the train to Victoria for about 9.30am. If I'm doing breakfast, I'll be up at 4.15am and always make sure I eat. It's the most important meal of the day and all chefs should make time for it. I eat four Weetabix and a banana and I'll drink juice. I won't normally eat anything again until the evening, I'll only take fluids.

I leave the house at 5am and either run to the station at Streatham or drive there. With the ongoing rail disruption, I've been taking the car into central London and am using a secret parking space, the whereabouts of which I'm not going to reveal!

Then it's my job to oversee the breakfast preparations. The Japanese are the first in, at 6.30am, and they always want the full English. The Americans never seem to get as much as they think they should, but I reckon they overload their plates in the USA and it actually puts me off eating there.

When I've been triple jumping, it has been a simple routine of food, training and food again. But if anyone exercises regularly, they should eat what they want. Life's too short to worry about diets, anyway.

Fish, especially sea bass, and chicken are my favourite foods. I used to hate things such as marzipan and beetroot, but now I've grown to like them. Two things I still really don't like are cauliflower and Marmite.

Through breakfast and lunch, I'm checking everyone and helping them out. In the afternoon, I'll deal with the deliveries, reports and talk with suppliers.

We opened in September and now business is starting to pick up. AA Gill was in with three children and praised the crab cakes. We haven't seen Fay Maschler yet, although we're really confident about what we're doing in the kitchen.

I've heard that Lenny Henry based his character in Chef! on me, which was very flattering. I don't know if it's true. I'm certainly really into detail and, yes, I do swear in the kitchen, but as soon as I come out of it I never do. Ask anyone, my wife or my mother.

If I'm on an early shift, I'll go home at 5pm and have supper with my kids before going to Crystal Palace to coach or train. Otherwise, I could be here until midnight and won't normally go to bed until about 2am. I often survive on just three hours' sleep.

My ambition is to get Christopher's on the road. Eventually, I'd like to move into consultancy, or I'd love to set up my own catering college - I love teaching people and seeing their progress. n

interview by David Tarpey