Revelations: Kieren Steinborn-Busse, co-founder, the Falcon, Buntingford, Hertfordshire

What was your best subject at school?
Home economics and PE

 

What was your first job?
Potwash at the Stag & Hounds pub in Binfield, Berkshire

 

What was your first job in catering?
Commis chef at the Goring hotel when I was 17. It was long hours for next to no pay, but I loved every minute

 

What do you do to relax?
Watch Chelsea play with a beer in hand

 

Which is your favourite restaurant?

 

What's your favourite hotel?
The Goring. I worked there for three years and it was my first exposure to the kitchens of London.

 

What is your favourite drink?
Beer

 

What is your favourite food?
A kebab from Best Mangal, Fulham

 

Which ingredient do you hate?
Juniper

 

Are there any foods that you refuse to cook with?
Snake. I'm petrified of them

 

What flavour combinations do you detest?
Chocolate and lime

 

If not yourself, who would you rather have been?
Frank Lampard

 

If you had not gone into catering, where would you be now?
A failed footballer

 

Which person in catering have you most admired?
Marco Pierre White. He made being a chef cool

 

Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?
Marco and Phil Cooper (head chef under Marco at Quo Vadis)

 

Describe your ultimate nightmare?
Snakes on a plane

 

What irritates you most about the industry?
Untrained chefs

 

What's your favourite film?
Back to the Future, Lost Boys and Goodfellas