Chef Revelations – Sat Bains
What was your first job?
Paper boy at 13 - I got tricked into it by my dad, but it taught me the work ethic required in the catering industry
What do you normally have for breakfast?
A six-egg-white omelette
What is your favourite drink?
Gin and tonic - Sipsmith and No. 209 are very good gins
What is your favourite restaurant?
elBulli - still the most amazing food experience I've ever had
What is your favourite hotel?
La Plantacion del Sur in Tenerife
What is your favourite cuisine?
Japanese
Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take?
Some eggs, I love them, and a sharp knife and whetstone, and a small kitchen, very well equipped oh, and a small brigade of chefs
Which ingredient do you hate the most?
Fermented ovaries of sea cucumber - I had it in Japan and thought I was being possessed by an alien for three days
Which person in catering have you most admired?
Heston Blumenthal for his vision, determination and resilience
Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?
Mick "Murphy" Walton - a legend on the cooking scene when I came to Nottingham in the 1990s - and Marco Pierre White
Tell us a secret
I have a trainer fetish - I keep buying them
If not yourself, who would you rather have been?
Rick James
Describe your ultimate nightmare
Not having a restaurant, not having customers and not being in control
When and where was your last holiday?
New York last September for Le Fooding
If you had to choose your last supper, what would it be?
Steak and chips every time. I had the best ever at Keens in New York
What is your favourite prepared product?
Fish fingers
Who would play you in a film?
Remy the rat in Ratatouille - I love all that classic stuff; it reminds me of why I got into the industry
What's your favourite book?
White Heat by Marco Pierre White
Who would be in your fantasy brigade?
Claude Bosi, Hibiscus, staff welfare; Michel Bras, veg section; James "Jocky" Petrie, Fat Duck Lab, barman; Jason Atherton, on the pass and after-dinner entertainment; Albert Adrià, Tickets Barcelona, on pastry; Wylie Dufresne, WD50, research and development; David Chang on storytelling, Ramen and pork section; Daniel Patterson on anything deep and philosophical; Mauro Colagreco, foie gras section as he looks like one, but I don't think he was ever forced, just greedy
Sat Bains, chef-patron, Restaurant Sat Bains With Room
