Chef Revelations – Eibhear Coyle

What was your best subject at school?
Home economics - cooking and sewing. I was the only lad in a class of 30 girls; I quite enjoyed that bit!

What was your first job in catering?
Baker boy and butcher boy at 14

What's your favourite restaurant?
La Capoule, Paris

What's your favourite hotel?
One & Only Ocean Club, Bahamas

What's your favourite drink?
Dark & Stormy

What's your favourite cuisine?
South east Asian

Which ingredient do you hate the most?
Quince paste

What was your first job?
Picking potatoes in North Dublin at the age of 12

Are there any foods/ingredients that you refuse to cook with?
Shark fin - it's just not ethical

Which person in catering have you most admired?
Nobu Matsuhisa - I opened a restaurant for him

Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?
Anton Edelmann - I was his No.2 at the Savoy for four years

What flavour combinations do you detest?
Berries and game

If not yourself, who would you rather have been?
Bob Marley

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

Describe your ultimate nightmare
Being in a resort with 15,000 people inside it, and a hurricane on the way, and keeping them fed and watered for five days - I've done it!

Where was your last holiday?
Carlton House just outside Dublin - the Irish rugby team were at the pool when I was teaching my four-month-old to swim

What's your favourite prepared product?
Nutella - simply perfect

What irritates you most about the industry?
People thinking they can run before they can walk

What's your favourite film?
Goodfellas

What's your favourite book?
Down and Out in Paris and London

Who would be in your fantasy brigade?
John Robinson (Lancaster London) on garde manger; Martin Nisbet (Angelus) and Darren Marshall (Lancaster London) on sauce; Will Leigh (Vinoteca) on veg; Paul Hayward (Atlantis, the Bahamas) on pastry

Eibhear Coyle, executive chef and director of catering, Lancaster London