Chef Revelations – Trevor Blyth

What was your best subject at school?
Art

What's your favourite restaurant?
The Waterside Inn

What's your favourite hotel?
Michel Guérard's Les Prés d'Eugénie in Eugénie-les-Bains, France

What is your favourite cuisine?
French or Japanese - I can never decide which

Are there any foods/ingredients that you refuse to cook with?
I no longer use bluefin tuna or any fish/shellfish that is bottom-trawled. And I will only use the best French foie gras - no other country has ever produced it really properly.

What was your first job in catering?
Washing up. Second job: washing up at a local hotel

Which ingredient do you hate the most?
Natto

What is your favourite drink?
Champagne

Which person in catering have you most admired?
Michel Roux

Describe your ultimate nightmare
The Roux scholars missing their flight home from Japan - we're on a really tight schedule coming back from Kyoto

What do you always carry with you?
Cigarettes and a really cool pocket ashtray (only in Japan)

What irritates you most about the industry?
The acceptance of large international fast food chains as "normal" - if all their sites became independent restaurants, cafés, etc, the world would naturally become a much better place

Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take?
Cheese - many different types and lots of it

Who would play you in a film about your life?
Johnny Depp (he's a bit weird, too, right? And better looking)

Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?
Rob Mabey

What's your favourite film?
The Life of Brian

What would be your last supper?
Sushi at Masayoshi Kazato's Sakae Zushi

What's your favourite music?
British rock, and reggae

What's your favourite book?
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Trevor Blyth, chef-proprietor, the White Fox, Tokyo