Chef Revelations – David Everitt-Matthias

David Everitt-Matthias, chef-proprietor at Le Champignon Sauvage, talks about Guinness, Pierre Koffmann, cricket and Marmite…

What was your first job?
Apprentice at the five-star Inn On the Park (now the Four Seasons London Park Lane)

What was your first job in catering?
Preparing six crates of spinach

What do you normally have for breakfast?
Poached egg, chicken, pink grapefruit

What do you do to relax?
Read, listen to music and forage

Which is your favourite restaurant?
Pierre Gagnaire, Paris

What's your favourite hotel?
Michel Trama in Puymirol

What is your favourite drink?
Guinness

Which ingredient do you hate the most?
Kiwi fruit

What do you always carry with you?
My wits

Which person in catering have you most admired?
Ramon Pajares

Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?
Pierre Koffmann

Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take?
A Laguiole hunting knife

What daily newspaper/website do you read?
The BBC website

If you had not gone into catering, where do you think you would be now?
I would either have played cricket or become a money broker

If a film was made about your life, who would you get to play you?
With the silver hair it would have to be either Richard Gere or George Clooney

When and where was your last holiday?
Michel Bras, Laguiole

What irritates you most about the industry?
The bullshit and pomposity

When did you last eat a hamburger?
Two years ago at the Chunnel

What's your favourite film?
It's a Wonderful Life

What's your favourite book?
Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo

What is your favourite prepared product?
Marmite

Who would be in your "fantasy" brigade?
Phil Howard, the Square; Pierre Gagnaire, Restaurant Pierre Gagnaire; Glynn Purnell, Purnell's Restaurant; Brett Graham, the Ledbury; and some of my chefs, George Blogg, Le Champignon Sauvage; Sam Miller, Noma; Clive Dixon; Gary Pearce, In de Wulf, Belgium; Lisa Allen, Northcote; Anthony Rush, private household, formally Per Se

If you had more time, what you do?
Paint and write more