Do you find cooking on Ready, Steady, Cook, or other TV programmes, very stressful?
Yes, very. I do get nervous, possibly even more so now, as I put myself under pressure to perform. Have you got any tips to ‘disguise’ fruit and veg for kids, so they get their ‘5 A Day’ without realising it? I find chopping up vegetables and putting them into sauces, like lentils into a Bolognese sauce a good tactic. Basically, its normal for children to be fussy about food, its just a stage they go through, so I think as a mum you have to be creative about working around that – put veg into pies or puree them into soups. With fruit, I like to stew it or make pies with it, or use dried fruit, just keep their diet full of variety. What’s your experience of being a female chef in a fairly male dominated industry and would you encourage your daughter to be a chef? It has its advantages and disadvantages. I get offered work because I’m a woman, but it’s still pretty much a man’s world. And yes, I would encourage my daughter to be a chef – I think she’s quite into it. One of her favourite
