Industry heavyweight

I'm not an early bird, particularly if I didn't get to bed until 4am - something that normally happens once or twice a month. It's usually because I'm with friends and there's always so much to talk about. I'm good at shutting off from the early morning clatter around me and have developed an ability to sleep through doors banging, toast burning and coffee percolating. I can even sleep for 10 minutes during a meeting if I feel I need it.

I eventually surface just before 8am, by which time Sally is just leaving to take our 11-year-old daughter Lily to school. I get to spend about an hour or so with our younger daughter Bertie, who is 10.

I always have breakfast, although it's only some coffee and a piece of toast, or a croissant if we've got any. It's the one meal of the day that I don't drink a glass of wine with. I find it impossible to eat lunch or dinner without wine. Even if I don't drink very much of it, it's important the wine is in front of me.

I'm usually in my office by 9am - it's just underneath where we live. Work varies enormously and can continue until 9pm. I might be dealing with the guidebooks, liaising via e-mail and fax with the guys who are inspecting establishments in France, Italy and Spain, and sorting through photos that come into the office (we now have a library of some 10,000 photos of food, chefs and restaurants).

The next minute I may be working on contractual details relating to a new restaurant outsourcing project with Nick Scade, one of my partners in the Restaurant Factory.

Other times I'll be advising restaurateurs on new projects or trying to help them out of a sticky patch when things go wrong. I'm a great advocate of innovation and change - and admire anyone who has a go - but there's always a dichotomy in this business of balancing the creative with the business side. I encourage people to have a bit of both, or a partner who specialises in one or the other.

I normally eat lunch out three times a week and dinner probably four times a week. Half of those occasions may be business and the rest social. Paris is still the city in which to eat the best French food, but for variety London is the place. I don't dislike any food and will pick a French, Italian or Indian according to my mood or the occasion. I have no trouble keeping to a fighting weight of 18 stone.

Nearly every other week I'm abroad, working on a consultancy project, or launching a guide such as our recent Cafés of Europe Guide 2000/2001. Consultancies have recently taken me to Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Russia and Australia, where I've been advising on a catering project for the Olympic Games. Recently I was in Mauritius, where I was compering a food event linked to the Wedgwood Chef & Potter competition. The winner, Nigel Haworth, and judges Brian Turner, Rick Stein and Nick Nairn cooked a number of dinners and did food demonstrations, while I linked the whole thing together. We had a hysterical time - it was the best "working holiday" I've ever been on.

If it's the school holidays, I try to take the family with me when I'm travelling. The girls have probably eaten in more starred restaurants than I ever did in the whole of my 30s. But they're not at all phased by it.

If they decide to go into the industry, I'd encourage them all the way. The biggest opportunities at the moment are for women - particularly at the top. Where are the female Steins and Nairns?

I thought as I got older I would have more time on my hands, but I seem to have less than ever. And there are still so many places I want to visit and restaurants I want to eat in. There are really no limits or barriers in this industry. No one who comes into it should ever be without a job. I certainly think I'm going to have one for a long time to come.

Interview by Janet Harmer