Revelations: Sam Buckley, chef-patron, Where the Light Gets In, Stockport

What is your favourite drink?

I really like wine from around lake Neusiedl in Austria. I've been drinking too many Sidecars in these Covid times though

What is your favourite cuisine?

Indian

Which ingredient do you hate the most?

Most types of squash, but I love crown prince

Are there any foods/ingredients that you refuse to cook with?

Anything processed – gravy browning, custard powder, food colouring, béarnaise in a carton

What do you always carry with you?

My knife, for the farm and foraging

What flavour combinations do you detest?

Nothing really, but I have a snobbish dig at scallops, cauliflower and black pudding, or black pudding and goats' cheese – 90s classics

Which person in catering have you most admired?

Gary Rhodes taught to me to think big. From afar I admire Dan Barber for his persistence to his own beliefs and the intellect with which he backs them up

Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take?

Books, tobacco and wine

If you had not gone into catering, where do you think you would be now?

Playing music, travelling around – I'm not sure it'd work out

If not yourself, who would you rather have been?

Someone cool like Robert Evans or Leonard Cohen. I'm not sure that's a healthy answer

Describe your ultimate nightmare?

Guests telling me how disappointed they were with the evening

Tell us a secret…

I'm not sure what I'm doing most of the time

What is your favourite prepared product?

Crisps

What irritates you most about the industry?

Veneer and false idols

If you had more time, what would you do?

That's never gonna happen. Please stop leading me on