Chef

I believe passionately that the notion of having to work at a marriage is baloney. Making sacrifices and being a martyr makes one hell of a bad marriage.

I just hate television that's out to make people cry because other people like to see people cry.

If you've got children it's a hell of an everyday job. From a business point of view, children and husbands slow you down.

The obesity problem among children is very serious. When advertising budgets are big and business can corrupt the way we live so that it becomes the norm to snack all day - and if you are never hungry you are never going to feel like eating a healthy meal - that can't be right.

I fall for all those lists of 100 books you must read, and go out and buy most of them.

Now the look of the book dictates the sale. In my day you could still buy a good cookbook in paperback with no pictures at all. I doubt if that would sell today. But those books were much used: they lived in the kitchen and got splattered with custard and gravy.

It takes several doses of any veg before children like it, but once they do they'll like it for life. You wouldn't give up on a child who didn't want to learn to read. Learning to eat is every bit as important.

I think that allowing the nation to become so ignorant about food has been such a backward step - and to be honest I don't think there should be a School Food Trust. It shouldn't be necessary.

I adored the celebrity 'Bake Offs.' They have a more relaxed atmosphere. They all come on thinking they're not competitive so there's a lot of larking around, then of course they get the 'Bake Off' bug and want to win and it's funny.

Children aren't being taught to cook or encouraged to try things or told why food is important.

I won't eat something which is high in calories and not particularly wonderful, because that's just not worth it, you feel guilty after.

With great difficulty, I persuaded my dentist to saw one of my teeth level with the others. He thought it might kill the tooth, but it didn't. I wanted it done because I was doing a lot of television with food and I saw myself eating with these horrible crooked teeth.

The way to get to like good food is by learning to cook, which is why I'm for ever banging on about children learning to cook.

You can serve good food on a budget provided you don't waste it.

I'm nicknamed the 'food tsar' by the press. I'm always giving my opinion on things like; 'Don't nanny children,' although children sometimes do need a nanny. Being a judge on 'Great British Menu' reinforces this image of me.

If I am tanned, I feel a million times better.

I'm not clever. But I am level-headed, hard-working, dogged.

I went to drama school but soon realised I was terrible at acting, so I ditched drama school for art school.

I couldn't live without my faithful companion, Megs the dog.

One summer I was made housekeeper to my own family, making menus and shopping lists. It was my mother's idea of teaching me to be a grown-up. The main thing I remember is my father being so delighted to get roast duck.