I act on impulse and I go with my instincts.

We have never done anything in a cynical fake way

Growing up in Britain, we didn't have much, worked for everything. To leave food on the plate, Mom classed it as being rude and so we ate because we were hungry, not ate because we had a choice in the fridge.

The issue I have is that the cooking techniques are up for questioning, today more than ever before. If you waterbath beef at 22-degrees for 12 hours, it may taste fantastic, but if you don't cook food at a high enough temperature, you risk not killing the bacteria. Things like that make me nervous of venturing into it.

I've had a lot of success; I've had failures, so I learn from the failure.

What you're experiencing now [on "MasterChef," on "Junior"] is what life's going to be like for the next four, five decades. You're going to go through those bumps. Bringing you back in contention and giving you that kind of confidence, they're huge. But they let it go, there's no fear, they're naughty, they're rude, and they know there's no parents and there's no school teacher so they can have fun, and it shows.

My childhood favourite is mum's shepherd's pie, Yorkshire pudding and roasted potatoes. I remember coming home from school and going to the kitchen to help her. It's because of her that I discovered my love for cooking.