Q&A: Tom Aikens

"The idea is sort of a British brasserie. We're going to smarten it up a bit in terms of the interior and the food is definitely going to change. We're still going to keep the brunch offerings on the weekends, then Monday through to Friday, it will be a bit more high end."

"I love to travel and Asia is such a great foodie destination. Hong Kong is a great city for culture, good food and, obviously, there are a lot of expats here, so in terms of my name being known, I wouldn't say I'm established, but the dinners [I did at the Principal restaurant, in Wan Chai, in June] sold out within two days."

"My grandfather and father were both in the wine business, so we did a lot of travelling as a family through France, and my mother did a lot of home cooking and we helped her with that. In Norfolk, where I grew up, we grew a lot of our own vegetables. By the age of six or seven, we were helping in the garden, picking and growing things and making jams and chutneys and things like that. I left school at 16 knowing I wanted to be a chef. My whole career started at the age of 16, when I determined where I wanted to work and what I wanted to achieve. I did it within 10 years."

"I think London is very exciting and has been for a number of years. It is one city that fits everyone's tastes. The diversity of restaurants, from high-end to low-end, to the brasseries and Chinese and Eastern European, to Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, English, French, Italian and Spanish - I mean there's everything there. The broad spectrum of food that you can have in London I don't think you can get in any other city. Well, maybe in New York, but you couldn't get it in Paris."

"I guess when you're young, you're just trying to prove a point and you're a little selfish and untoward to other people in terms of getting there; you just bulldoze your way through. It's not always the best way. Yes, I have a reputation that precedes me sometimes, but I'm not that person any more. That was when I was in my 20s. Having kids helps balance one's life. Through the course of a career you have ups and downs, and life has ups and downs. It's not like life is always rosy."

"There's a crab dish I've done for quite a while. You have the crab meat and you basically put a coriander mayonnaise at the bottom, then you have the crab, and there are three powders on top: one is coconut, then horseradish, then a crab one. It's then got coriander oil and horseradish snow - that one is a very simple dish but with great flavour. It looks all white with the white crab meat and the white powders, and then you have the intense green oil around it. It's a nice, vivid-looking dish."