Gordon Ramsay’s ‘bark is worse than his bite’, says British chef Angela Hartnett

What are your childhood memo­ries of food? “My grandparents on my mother’s side came from Italy, and on my father’s side they were Irish. They all were a product of the [second world] war. My parents were born just before the war and lived through it, so that generation had real respect for food. We sat around a table and ate together as a family. That was hugely important, more so than just food for the sake of it.”

What did you eat growing up? “We used to have anolini – pasta filled with breadcrumbs, parmesan and meat juices, and then cooked in a broth. We would make fresh pasta and my grandmother would make her own bread. She was never good at desserts, and that’s why my mother was good at making cakes, apple pies and tarts.

“I cooked a lot with my grandmother, since I was the eldest granddaughter. My father died when we were young, so I would help my mum a lot. And it was expected that you helped. There was no choice, not like today’s kids. We had to lay the tables, all that sort of thing, which I think is a good thing.”

What do you like about cooking? “I like eating, and if you’re a good chef you need to be able to eat. Chefs that don’t taste their food are the ones that have bad restaurants. And it’s not just about eating food – it’s company, it’s everyone being together, it’s conviviality, it’s sharing. That, for me, is what food’s about.”

When did you know that you wanted to be a chef? “Probably when I was a teenager. My mum kept saying to me, go off to a Le Cordon Bleu school, or France, and I didn’t want to do that. So I went to university and studied history. I worked in restaurants to get experience, which, for me, was the better way to do it.