HESTON BLUMENTHAL

What gets me excited is the original principle.

It was quite a challenge to make people eat crab ice cream.

And I like asking questions, to keep learning; people with big egos might not want to look unsure.

I'm not scared of anything in particular, but I am motivated by a fear of failure as opposed to a need to succeed.

I tend to take negative comments to heart.

I was determined that if I failed it wouldn't be due to lack of effort.

But most is all to do with work. There are aspects of work that are enjoyable, that you could call a hobby.

At home I've got 1,500 cook books and the spines have all gone, the pages are all torn - it's chaos.

If it doesn't taste good it doesn't go on the menu.

I still love doing what I do, and I'm really lucky to get up in the morning and want to go to work.

Development is where my heart is focused because eating is the only thing that we do that involves all the senses. We eat with our eyes and our ears and our noses.

No, when I worked as an accountant I was falling asleep waiting for 5 o'clock.

I've got around 400 cookbooks.

I would try doing a dish 30 different ways.

We were saving, saving, saving then going to France and blowing the money eating. She was a nurse and had never experienced fine dining but she loved it, too. Our mates thought it absurd.

Being branded number one restaurant in the world is actually very humbling.

I worked 120 hours a week for eight years. That's 20 to 22 hours a day every day and one week I only got 15 hours sleep.

I haven't raised my voice for eight to 10 years in the kitchen. And I won't have anybody shouting. If I hear of anybody having a go at anyone else, they'll get disciplined.

You know how sad your life is when you know the release date of DVDs.

Now my complaint is there are only 18 hours to work in a day.

There are so many issues in our oceans - like the near extinction of blue fin tuna - that should be taken more seriously worldwide.

As we get older, we tend to become more risk averse because we tend to find reasons why things won't work. When you are a kid, you think everything is possible, and I think with creativity it is so important to keep that naivety.

I was born in the '60s and grew up in the '70s - not exactly the best decade for food in British history. It was horrendous. It was a time when, as a nation, we excelled in art and music and acting and photography and fashion - all creative skills... all apart from cooking.

To me, food is as much about the moment, the occasion, the location and the company as it is about the taste.

I write and chop with my left hand and do everything else, including eating with a knife, with my right.