Chefs don't do ponytails and we shouldn't do them because I guarantee that whenever there's a discovery of hair in the food, it's guaranteed it's from the chef's ponytail.

Find what's hot, find what's just opened and then look for the worst review of the week. There is so much to learn from watching a restaurant getting absolutely panned and having a bad experience. Go and see it for yourself.

I'm quite a chauvinistic person.

I'm not trying to take New York by storm. I just want to sneak in there, keep my head down, batten down the hatches and cook.

It's learning your craft and understanding what it takes to survive in this industry. On the back of exposure from TV to books to Rachel Ray to Martha Stewart, the customer's integrity is far greater than every before. As a nation, just like the U.K., we don't complain enough. The more we complain in this country the better our restaurants will be.

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.

When you have the arrogance, the confidence and you can't cook, then you're only going to look stupid.