Chef revelations – Toby Stuart, head chef, Roux at Parliament Square
What was your best subject at school?
Design and technology
What's your favourite drink? Red wine
What was your first job in catering? Kitchen assistant at the White Hart Hotel carvery, Mildenhall, Suffolk
What do you normally have for breakfast? Yakult, on my way out the door!
What's your favourite restaurant? The Ledbury
What's your favourite hotel? Cliveden
What's your favourite cuisine? Japanese
Which ingredient do you hate the most? Okra
Are there any foods/ingredients that you refuse to cook with?
What flavour combinations do you detest? Kiwi fruit and fish
Which person in catering have you most admired? Chris Galvin
What's your favourite prepared product? Smoked peppered mackerel fillets
Which person gave you the greatest inspiration? Philip Howard
Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take? Dark rum, lime and ginger beer
If you had more time, what would you do? Buy a boat and relearn to sail
If not yourself, who would you rather have been? Captain James Cook
If you hadn't gone into catering, where do you think you'd be now? If I had listened to my careers advisor, designing signposts
Tell us a secret… Life is beautiful - contrary to what we are bombarded with by the media
What irritates you most about the industry? Our inability to change old-fashioned habits and portray our profession as it should be
Who would be in your fantasy brigade? Philip Howard; Chris Galvin; Michel Bras; Pascal Barbot; Fernand Point; JoÁ«l Robuchon
