Morel support

You're well known for your passion for fungi. What's your current favourite wine match?

I do this ragoût of girolles and morels as a starter, then pair it with a manzanilla from La Guita. It sets off the dish perfectly. I add a splash of manzanilla to the ragoût just to bring the flavours together.

So you're a sherry fan, then?

I love it. I have 15 different sherries on my list, all served by the glass. Another favourite match is very old, sweet oloroso and sticky toffee pudding. The dates in it make this a really good marriage. PX [Pedro Ximénez] and chocolate is another good pairing. PX is as good as Banyuls is with chocolate - the richer and darker the better. I do a chocolate truffle cake and offer a glass of PX with it. Customers love it.

You're a self-taught chef. Did you teach yourself about wine, too, or were you brought up with it? My father was an alcoholic, so that has always put me off strong alcohol. I lived in Singapore as a child, as my father was in the RAF there. He introduced me to beer. I didn't start to learn anything about wine until I became a waiter at the age of 15. It was more of a steakhouse than a restaurant, with wines such as Mateus Ros‚, Barsac and Piesporter, but you still pick up stuff. I didn't begin to really enjoy wine until I worked as a restaurant manager at Le Chanticlere, in Cadnam, Hampshire. The owner, Jean-Claude Denat, loved his wine and it rubbed off on me. Through the restaurant I met Bill Baker of Reid Wines. He influenced me a lot in the early days.

What was the first serious bottle you bought? It was in 1982. I had just been made redundant from a restaurant in Winchester and I blew the redundancy pay on a meal at Le Gavroche. At the time, it was the only three-star restaurant in Britain. There's always a catalyst, and this was it for me. The meal was amazing. It cost me £185 and I was only earning £160 a week then. And I'd have gone back the next day and done it all over again if I could - that's how much it meant to me. Anyway, the sommelier pulled out this stunning bottle of Gevrey-Chambertin.

What are your favourite buys? Old French wines, especially claret. I adore Margaux - who doesn't? I list nearly all the first growths, and I try to get older vintages. I buy through Corney & Barrow's brokering system, both for myself and for the restaurant. I do the wine list with our sommelier, Jerome Debris. There are over 600 bins on there and I've tasted every one of them. It has grown up over the years, since opening Le Poussin 17 years ago.

I do go through fads, though. At the moment I'm mad about a Mâcon (1989 Emilian Gillet) from T&W Wines. It's so rich and fat, and made from slightly botrytised grapes. It tastes just like a Chassagne-Montrachet. I pair it with my turbot dish, with baby spinach, confit of potatoes and truffles, and a sauce made from chicken stock, thyme and girolles. It goes really well.

Your list is dominated by France. What about other French favourites? I love Alsace - Riesling in particular. My favourite is Trimbach's Clos Sainte Hune. We offer a wines-by-the-glass menu alongside every dish on the à la carte menu and Alsace Riesling makes a frequent appearance. About 30% of our customers opt for this selection. Prices range from £3 to £11.50, and we keep the wine fresh with a Verre de Vin preservation system. Another 50% of customers leave the wine selection up to Jerome, as 600 bins can be rather daunting.

What wine is in your fridge at home? A Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire (Domaine de la Gourmandières). It's a classic Sauvignon Blanc: crisp, dry, gooseberry fruit. We buy it direct. In fact, we buy over 30 of our wines direct from the grower, and Jerome takes care of that. I want to visit more vineyards in the future. I've been a bit of recluse in the kitchen over the past five years, but I'm getting to the stage now when I can start to take some time off.

What about outside France?

I don't find the same level of complexity outside France. I've yet to find anything exciting in South Africa, for example, as it's still very commercial, supermarket wine. I don't get to see the good stuff.

Australia? I had a great Jasper Hills Shiraz the other day. I bought a few cases to stash away before it goes on the list, although I prefer to buy wines to sell. Obviously, if I am offered DRC [Domaine de la Romanée-Conti] or Pétrus, I buy it - you would be a fool not to. I'm rather excited about Spain at the moment and Albari¤o in particular. They're great food wines, so aromatic. At the moment I'm pairing Albariño with a nage of seafood, flavoured with star anise, lemon balm and olive oil. It's 50% fish stock and 50% olive oil, so you need something to cut through and stand up, and this does.

Food and wine matching is very important to you, isn't it? Yes. If you enjoy food, great. If you enjoy wine, fantastic. But if you can marry the two together - change the taste of both the food and the wine - it brings a third dimension to dining.