Demon Cook

One of my long-held wishes - to have a house with a large kitchen, big enough for a dining table and plenty of cupboards - was fulfilled when I moved from London to west Dorset in 2018. In fact, it was the size of the kitchen, with its large windows on two sides with views of Chesil Beach and Portland Marina, which sold the house to me.  But as any keen cook knows, you can't have too many cupboards or worktop space. I had been hankering after a modern butcher's style table or island unit for awhile and my son, who is a professional chef, pointed out that such an addition to the kitchen layout would be very useful.  These pieces of furniture do not come cheap. Even an Ikea unit is upwards of £100 and many are designed and built for decorative rather than practical purposes and may not be that sturdy. It was Pinterest, the image sharing social media platform, which provided the inspiration for my own butcher's table - a simple frame made from galvanised steel tubes (like sc

The similarities between my industry, classical music, and my son's, hospitality (he's a chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant in west London) are many. In both industries, a specialist training or apprenticeship is required to learn and hone the appropriate skills and expertise to support and further one's career. The work is hard, the hours are long, often unsociable, and the pay is low, for performers and chefs alike (only a very few, in both professions, reach the dizzy heights of international stardom and the remuneration that goes with it). Both professions are inextricably linked to the general public by providing services which people want and from which they gain enjoyment. And both contribute a not insignificant amount to the UK economy.   Live music and hospitality have been severely impacted by the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic (and let's be clear, it is government policy, not the virus itself which has caused such damage in both sec