Q&A: Mark Sargeant

"You can get chicken, beef, lamb and pork all year round, and fish is seasonal in the UK, like cod is a winter fish. Around this time of year, game is culled - if you don't keep the animals' numbers down, they will overpopulate and damage the natural environment. I look forward to game season, which starts on August 12 or 'the glorious 12th'. The game has to be shot so it's a real hunter-gatherer kind of thing. And because it is hard to catch, you have to treat the product with respect. It's best to cook it simply, to show off its natural flavours. At Galaxy Macau, my menu features dishes like whole roast grouse, hare pie, pot roast pheasant and wild duck."

"At eight years old, I decided I wanted to be a chef even though there was no influence of cooking in my family, as my mum was a full-time nurse. At 13, I started washing dishes in a steak house on the weekends. The food there wasn't particularly good but I loved the environment - the hustle and bustle, the camaraderie in the kitchen, the adrenaline. I had loads of money for a 13-year-old and, as a result, was well dressed and had a fantastic BMX [bicycle]. I left school at 15 to go to catering college. I went from being in the middle of the class to the top because it was something I was good at."

"It was exciting - you have to be slightly cuckoo to work for Gordon Ramsay for 13 years. There were times when I wanted to leave because I was so tired and it was so stressful, but it was the passion and drive that kept me going back. To a small extent I enjoyed it - it was like being in the army, it makes a man out of you. I needed that because I was a mummy's boy. I became Gordon's sidekick and did lots of different things, like write cookery books, run his restaurants, do TV work and travel with him. What I learned most from him was multitasking.

"By the time I was 35, I wanted to be my own man and make my own decisions. When I decided to leave, we just went our separate ways and haven't talked since. But I'm sure if we bumped into each other we'd burst into tears and have a big hug."

"In my last year and a half with Gordon, I wasn't in the kitchen anymore. I was already going in that direction - I wanted to be a restaurateur, not just a chef. There's so much to learn in the business, like P&L [profit and loss] sheets and how to pay the bank back. When I was working for Gordon, I was practically the boss without being the boss. Wait - that makes me sound like Bruce Springsteen."

"I am home most nights to cook for them. I cook for the kids first and then, as they are eating, I'll prepare our food. My four-year-old, Ivy, is a fussy eater, much like my fiancée, Nancy. But Pearl, the two-year-old, will eat anything. I usually make comfort food, like spaghetti bolognese, shepherd's pie or chicken rice, which is kind of like Hainanese chicken rice, with poached chicken and lots of vegetables."