Gastronomy is the French Foreign Legion. You don't need any qualifications. Just walk through the door and keep your head down. Be respectful - "Yes chef!" - and you'll be given a trade. One day you'll be in a position where you can put a roof over your children's heads, you can put food on their table, create security for them.
It's not about what you achieve, it's actually what you do for your industry and that's what I think is important. And when people look at me and they see my achievements with the restaurants do you know what I think? I think I did more than that. What I achieved was teaching young men and young women when they were young and inspiring them.
I think if you've been given something in life you have a moral duty to give things back.
We're in a world that is run by accountants and I think that it's sad in many ways.
The more I invested in myself, the kinder I was to myself and the more I understood myself.
I've paid my price, a high price, I watched my mother die. I look at everything I've been given now as a form of compensation. A person who has regrets is a person who casts anchors.
I don't do social events, I don't do award ceremonies, I don't do charity dinners. I live my life off-radar.
I'm not a worrier. I like sleeping.
If the lift is broken, I'll just sit and wait for them to sort it out. I don't believe in friendly conversation or chit-chat.
I spent my days on the riverbanks, in the woods, in the fields, shooting, hunting and stalking. I unravelled everything within my life. Self discovery is most important to me.
Chefs today choose to step onto that treadmill where they have to be seen. Every day they have to go to this party, they have to go to that party. But then you think "Who is doing the cooking?".
You have to shout in the kitchen to deliver the orders, to drive the troops, to get the food out. When you have a table of eight courses and everyone's having something different, you have a 15-second window to get it all together so no one at the table waits.
I wasn't manufactured. I was cut from the cloth of the very old world of gastronomy. There was no such thing as celebrity chefs, chefs were trained and I like to think that I still represent those old values from that world and the opportunities that I am offered I often say no to.
You walk into a restaurant when chefs are not there and it's different. The magic isn't there. Why pay top pounds when the chef is not in the house? I feel cheated. I don't mind paying big money for food but if I go to Paul Bocuse's restaurant I want Paul in the house.
I've never tried to be a celebrity chef, people call me that but I was that young boy that the media chose.
I didn't understand myself well enough be an ambassador to my world, to inspire people to want to cook, to inspire young people to want to come into my industry.
I just want my children to be happy. And to be good people. Proper people. That's all.
I find supermarkets fascinating places. It's extraordinary, you can buy anything there.
It's extraordinary these obsessions. You conquer one but then you move onto another.
I like things that are educational and educational. I like things that are inspirational.
In London I'm not seen in public. I don't go to award ceremonies or gatherings. I just don't go because I like my privacy. I like being with my family and I like being in their company. I work very hard and I don't have much time so I just want to be with my family or in the English countryside. I don't take holidays.
A lot of my reputation is a product of exaggeration and ignorance.
When you walk down the street of Kabul your values for life changes, they do change.
