Revelations: Tam Storrar, chef-director, Blanchette, London

What was your first job?
I sold tents and sleeping bags at the Famous Army Stores

What was your first job in catering?
Working in a carvery

What is your favourite cuisine?
It varies from month to month, but this month I am into Indian. Nothing beats a hot, comforting daal when the weather gets chilly

If you had not gone into catering, where do you think you would be now?
Prison

What do you always carry with you?
Somebody else's cloth. A regular complaint from my team is "chef, you have taken my cloth"

Who would be in your "fantasy" brigade?
William Alexander, Blanchette Soho's head chef; Phil Smith at the Albert Arms, Southwark; Andreas Engberg from Olympic Studios in Barnes, London; Jamie Younger from the Palmerston, in London's East Dulwich; and Jay Scrimshaw of Cambridge's Guerilla Kitchen. I think we wouldn't get a lot of work done

What's your favourite film?
Gladiator

Who would play "you" in a film about your life?
Tom Hiddleston

Which is your favourite restaurant?

Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take?
A Big Green Egg barbecue

If not yourself, who would you rather have been?
David Bowie

Describe your ultimate nightmare
I have a reoccurring dream: I am trying to finish a dish, but each time I get to the last element, there is something wrong with the first. Infinite loop of stress

When and where was your last holiday?
I did a quick trip to America in September, starting in Miami and finishing in New York

What's your favourite book?
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

If you had more time, what would you do?
Be more active, go bouldering, longboarding, exercising!

Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?
My second head chef