Chef Revelations – Adam Gray

What was your first job in catering?
Washing pots at the Red Lion (the pub I now own!)

What do you normally have for breakfast?
A cup of tea and a bowl of Shreddies

What do you do to relax?
Swimming, krav maga and clay pigeon shooting

What's your favourite restaurant?
The Hawksmoor

What's your favourite hotel?
St Pancras Renaissance London hotel

What's your favourite cuisine?
Indian

Which ingredient do you hate the most?
Physalis (cape gooseberry)

Who in catering have you most admired?
Ramon Pajares and Marco Pierre White

Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?
Bruno Loubet

Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take?
A Leatherman multi-tool and a big box of matches!

If not yourself, who would you rather have been?
David Stirling, founder of the SAS

If you hadn't gone into catering, where do you think you'd be now?
In the military

What irritates you most about the industry?
Young chefs being promoted too quickly due to the lack of staff in the industry

What's your favourite film?
The Bourne Ultimatum

What's your favourite book?
White Heat by Marco Pierre White

What is your favourite prepared product?
Farrington's Mellow Yellow Rapeseed oil mayonnaise and Heinz Tomato Ketchup

What would be your last supper?
Pierre Koffmann's stuffed pig's trotters

Who would be in your fantasy brigade?
Bruno Loubet (Bistrot Bruno Loubet at the Zetter); Raymond Blanc; Shaun and Valerie Whatling (executive chef at the Berkeley hotel and his fantastic pastry chef wife); Clive Fretwell (executive chef, Brasserie Blanc); Gary Rhodes; Michel Roux Jnr; Marco Pierre White; Pierre Koffmann

Adam Gray, chef-owner, the Red Lion, East Haddon, Northamptonshire