Revelations: Mark Jarvis, chef patron, Anglo, London

What was your best subject at school?
Creative drawing

 

What was your first job in catering?
Pot washer

 

Which is your favourite restaurant?
Royal China Club in Marylebone

 

What's your favourite hotel?
Coworth Park, Berkshire

 

What is your favourite cuisine?
Japanese

 

Which ingredient do you hate the most?
Rose flowers

 

What flavour combinations do you detest?

 

What do you always carry with you?
My notebook

 

How would you describe your desk?
Empty, I’m always in the kitchen

 

Which person in catering have you most admired?
Raymond Blanc

 

Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take?
A sharp kitchen knife

 

What is your favourite drink?
A big cup of black coffee

 

If you had not gone into catering, what do you think you would be now?
An architect

 

What daily newspaper/website do you read?
The Metro

 

If not yourself, who would you rather have been?
My cat, he has the easiest life

 

Describe your ultimate nightmare?
The freezer breaking down on my day off

 

Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?
Agnar Sverrisson from Texture in Marylebone

 

What is your favourite prepared product?
Caviar

 

What irritates you most about the industry?
People moaning about lack of staff

 

Who would be in your ‘fantasy’ brigade?
Gary Jones and Benoit Blin (both Le Manoir) on the pass and pastry, Albert Adrià (Tickets) on snacks, Agnar Sverrisson (Texture) on fish, Sam Ashton-Booth (Anglo) on meat and Danny Gill (Brown’s Pie Shop) on larder

 

What’s your favourite book?
Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking