In the 1970s we got nouvelle cuisine, in which a lot of the old rules were kicked over. And then we had cuisine minceur, which people mixed up with nouvelle cuisine but was actually fancy diet cooking.

I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate.

The more you know, the more you can create. There's no end to imagination in the kitchen.

I had my first French meal and I never got over it. It was just marvelous. We had oysters and a lovely dry white wine. And then we had one of those lovely scalloped dishes and the lovely, creamery buttery sauce. Then we had a roast duck and I don't know what else.

...no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.

Until I discovered cooking, I was never really interested in anything.