Revelations: Great British Menu's Tom Spenceley, head chef, Kitchen Table at Bubbledogs

What was your best subject at school?

 

Electronics and technology

 

What was your first job?

 

Paperboy

 

What was your first job in catering?

 

Kitchen porter at a local bistro, aged 14

 

What do you normally have for breakfast?

 

A cup of Yorkshire tea and a banana

 

What do you do to relax?

 

Go for long walks, spend time with family and friends, forage

 

Which is your favourite restaurant?

 

Gaggan, Bangkok

 

What’s your favourite hotel?

 

The Swinton Park hotel, in Masham, North Yorkshire

 

What is your favourite drink?

 

Guinness

 

What is your favourite food/cuisine?

 

An Indian curry

 

Which ingredient do you hate the most?

 

Dragon fruit

 

Are there any foods/ingredients that you refuse to cook with? If so, why?

 

Japanese otoro [tuna belly] – the way this is farmed/fished is inhumane, mass produced and exploited as a whole industry

 

What flavour combinations do you detest?

 

Chocolate and cherry

 

What do you always carry with you?

 

Foraging knife

 

Which person in catering have you most admired?

 

Sat Bains – he comes from a humble background, is self-taught and constantly believed in what he was trying to create

 

Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?

 

Gordon Ramsay, the chef who I watched on TV and whose books I read in my early teens

 

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

 

Music

 

What daily newspaper/website do you read?

 

Sky Sports football

 

If not yourself, who would you rather have been?

 

Liam Gallagher

 

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

 

RAF pilot

 

Describe your ultimate nightmare?

 

Constantly being in the shit and not being able to get out of it

 

When and where was your last holiday?

 

Marbella

 

What irritates you most about the industry?

 

Cowboys

 

When did you last eat a hamburger?

 

Last week

 

What’s your favourite film?

 

Gladiator

 

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

 

Tom Hardy

 

What’s your favourite book?

 

On Food and Cooking, by Harold McGee

 

What is your favourite prepared product?

 

Black garlic

 

Who would be in your “fantasy” brigade?

 

James Knappett of Kitchen Table on meat; Tom Brown, Cornerstone, on fish; Alex Bond, Alchemilla, on garnish; Gareth Ward, Ynyshir, on snacks and larder; and John Freeman, Restaurant Sat Bains, on pastry

 

If you had more time, what would you do?

 

Work out and play football

 

Photo credit: BBC/Optomen Television Limited/Ashleigh Brown