Peter Fitzsimons

Favourite chef? Frankly, my late mother.

Favourite cuisine?

French provincial. Lived there for four years and never had a bad meal in all that time.

Favourite place to travel?

My wife and I go back to the village I played rugby in France every year, sometimes with the kids. We are also very partial to London, and had a wonderful family holiday to Cuba in January.

Favourite dish to cook?

Risotto. Easy. Impressive.

Favourite dessert to eat?

Whatever restaurant I am in, wherever in the world I might be, I always look to find whatever the closest equivalent to “apple pie and ice-cream” is.

Sweet or Savoury?

A compromise – sweet and sour is one of my favourite Chinese dishes.

How do you like your eggs?

In plenty. Poached, scrambled, fried, or omelette, but lots of them!

Favourite ingredient and why?

Lamb. Has anyone, apart from the odd vegetarian nutter, ever said they don’t like lamb?

What dish would be the way to your heart?

Lemon Delicious, as above.

What’s your favourite tune to cook to?

My ipod has every Bob Dylan song ever recorded, and I love cooking risotto to the sounds of Desolation Row. Ahhh, sing it with me . . . “Now at midnight all the agents/ and the superhuman crew/ come down and round up everyone/ who know more than they do. And they bring them to the factories/ where the heart attack machines/ are strapped across their shoulder/ and then the kerosene/ is brought down from the castles/ by insurance men who go/ check to see that nobody is escaping from Desolation Row.

What’s the first meal you remember cooking and was it a success or a disaster?

A pasta dish for my family. A triumph! (Well, I had seconds and thirds, even if they seemed content to stop at just an elegant first serve.)

Who do you cook for the most?

My children and wife.

What three ingredients would you take with you to a desert island and what would you cook with them?

Lamb cutlets, potatos and peas. You can’t go wrong.

If you were having any three people, alive or dead, over for dinner, who would they be and what would you cook for them?

Bob Dylan, Muhammad Ali and Gough Whitlam. Something that they could get through quickly – it really wouldn’t matter – as with those three the dinner would be the least of it. It would be all about the conversation.