Chef Revelations – James Tanner, Chef-Owner, Tanners restaurant, Plymouth

What was your first job? Peeling veg and washing up at the Bush Blackbird and Thrush pub in Kent when I was 12 years old

What's your favourite restaurant? Mine! I also like Arbutus in Soho and Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park

What is your favourite drink? I'm quite partial to the odd spiced rum and coke with a squeeze of lime and loads of ice

What is your favourite cuisine? I love most Asian dishes

What flavour combinations do you detest? Chocolate and tobacco makes me want to chuck up

Which ingredient do you hate the most? Persimmons quite simply are the devil's food

Which person in catering have you most admired? Not one but two and their names end in Roux

Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?
Martin Blunos

Who would play you in a film about your life? Err… Brad Pitt (why not?!)

Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take? Beer and sun cream

What daily newspaper/website do you read?The Times

If not yourself, who would you rather have been? Richard Branson

If you hadn't gone into catering, where do you think you'd be now? Racing fast cars for a living

What would be your last supper? A big fresh crab, a big steak, a big chocolate and praline dessert and loads of beer and fine wines to wash it all down

Tell us a secret… I played the lead role in a student film called Valentine's Day, which won a Bafta when I was 17

Who would be in your fantasy brigade? Sat Bains and Michael Caines on sauce; Mark Poynton (Alimentum) and Martin Compton (Tanners restaurant) on larder; William Curley and Paul Ainsworth (Restaurant No 6) on pastry; Rick Stein and Nathan Outlaw on fish; Chris Tanner on the pass