Revelations: Harvey Ayliffe, executive chef, Bluebird Chelsea and Bluebird Café, London

What was your best subject at school?

 

Art

 

What was your first job?

 

My parent’s greengrocer shop – I was very young

 

What was your first job in catering?

 

The Savile Club, a gentleman’s club in Mayfair

 

What do you normally have for breakfast?

 

Coffee and a banana

 

What do you do to relax?

 

Spend time with my family

 

Which is your favourite restaurant?

 

Scott’s in Mayfair

 

What’s your favourite hotel?

 

Babington House in Somerset

 

What is your favourite drink?

 

Estrella Damm

 

Which ingredient do you hate the most?

 

Pheasant

 

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

 

Quince – I just don’t get it

 

Which person in catering have you most admired?

 

Heston Blumenthal – he took food to another level

 

Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?

 

Mark Hix and Tim Hughes – both for very different reasons

 

If not yourself, who would you rather have been?

 

The author Michael Lewis

 

When and where was your last holiday?

 

Ibiza last summer

 

Tell us a secret...

 

The first time I cooked for my wife I served her burnt curry and she ate it. I wasn’t a chef then!

 

When did you last eat a hamburger?

 

It was a chicken burger at Thunderbird Chicken a couple of weeks ago and it was lovely

 

What’s your favourite film

 

Fargo

 

Who would play “you” in a film about your life?

 

I’d like to think George Clooney, but more realistically Lee Evans

 

What’s your favourite book?

 

There’s so many! Probably Whispers by Dean Koontz

 

What is your favourite prepared product?

 

Ready salted crisps

 

Who would be in your “fantasy” brigade?

 

It’s a bit corny but it would be most of the team I had at 34 Mayfair