Table talk

Jason Atherton, the executive chef at Maze, on arctic roll, poisonous toads, and credit-crunch cooking
Chef, Jason Atherton
Atherton's hero is Ferran Adrià. Don't tell his boss, Gordon Ramsay. Photograph: PR

Name your three desert island must-have ingredients

  1. Maze
  2. 10-13 Grosvenor Square,
  3. London
  4. W1K 6JP
  5. 020 7107 0000
  1. Style: Asian-influenced French cuisine in tasting-sized portions

I can't do without pig - and I mean any cut of it, all of it. I could roast it or maybe do a nice confit. Then I'd have chilli. I'd make some sauce out of that. And lastly, I'd have booze: a nice white wine from the Alsace region.

What would you have for your last supper?

My last supper would have to be something really simple. My wife is from the Philippines so maybe something from there. Pork adobo and a nice bottle of white wine, perhaps.

What foodstuff would you put in Room 101?

I hate omelettes. Firstly because I'm crap at them on Saturday Kitchen, and secondly because I just hate them. They're rubbish.

What's your favourite table?

Barrafina [a tapas bar in London]. Some of my best memories are from when I was living in Spain. The food there is fantastic - the tapas is great.

What's your poison?

I don't want to go on about it but it's a good white wine from Alsace - I worked out there for a while and the wine is fantastic. A good gewürztraminer or a riesling is great with Asian food.

Which book gets you cooking?

At home it's got to be simple books. I have a collection of thousands, which drives my wife mad. At the moment I'm reading The Great Tapas Chefs of Europe and Asia, a book I brought back from Spain.

What's your dream dinner party line-up?

Well, I'd have to say my wife - it's a little bit boring to say that, but it's got to be done. Then I'd say my best friend Paul … Come on Jason, THINK! ... Then I'd have to put Ferran Adrià in because he's such an inspiration, then Jessica Alba because she's fit. I wouldn't talk to her: I'd just look at her. Then Brad Pitt for my wife, and maybe Robert De Niro - he's super-cool.

What was your childhood teatime treat?

Arctic roll. For poor people it was the easy way out. My mum would cook dinner, then take the Bird's Eye arctic roll out of the freezer, slice it in half and me and my dad would share it. It was great. We do an homage to the arctic roll at my restaurant, Maze, but only in the summer because we serve it with wild strawberries. People love it – they LOVE it.

What would you cook to impress a date?

I would have to use my culinary skills to their full advantage. To start I'd cook lobster or langoustines or oysters, then a sexy lamb or beef dish. We'd take dessert to bed.

Who would you most like to cook for?

Probably Barack Obama - I admire the way he's handled himself and he's bringing hope to the future of America. He'd be a very interesting guy to cook for and to chat with.

What was your most memorable meal?

I remember taking an ex-girlfriend to Aubergine and having Gordon's food – it was the most amazing food I've ever eaten in my life. The word genius was needed. People forget that Gordon has this status as one of the best chefs in the world for a reason: when he gets behind the stove he is truly amazing.

I had the lunch menu, and I was only on a small wage so I couldn't afford a lot. Gordon was cooking on a budget then, which made the food even more interesting. To start we had a terrine of chicken and foie gras; for the main we had off-cuts of fish made into perfect little pan-fried medallions and a courgette tagliatelle with a pea velouté; then for dessert we had a raspberry soufflé with vanilla ice-cream.

What was your biggest food disaster?

I worked for Marco Pierre White who was an absolute nightmare because he was so demanding. I was running the fish section and every day we'd make two fresh soups. The fish soup was made from red mullet - you'd cook it then blend it in a Firma Mixer. Now, in the old days these machines had lids that turned both ways – they don't do that anymore. So I'd put the lid on, turned it, assumed it was locked and pressed the start button. The whole soup went all over the kitchen. So we had no soup for lunch, and I got an absolute bollocking from Marco.

What's the worst meal you've ever had?

Oh God, the worst meal I've ever had was in the Philippines. I went with the wife for Valentine's and left the baby behind. We booked into a really nice hotel, went to a really nice-looking restaurant on the beach – you know, very romantic. Filipino food can be fantastic, by the way, but this place was so gimmicky it was ridiculous: all the food was red, even the bread had been dyed red. All of the food was disgusting and it really spoiled Valentine's.

What's the most outlandish thing you've ever eaten?

Poisonous toad in Vietnam. I was in Ho Chi Minh City and visited a market. There was a little old lady sitting with a bucket next to her which you could see was moving - the toads were in there. She had two bricks with a little fire underneath and a bowl filled with some muddy water.

She takes the toad, washes the poisonous mucous off it, slits its belly with a knife, delves inside with her hand and rips its guts out (all in front of me). She washes it again, whips its skin off with a flick of the knife, rubs it in chilli salt, cooks it on her little barbecue for a few minutes, then skewers it and gives it to me to eat. It wasn't bad. Quite tasty - and I didn't get poisoned.

Who's your food hero/food villain?

My food hero is Ferran Adrià, because he's so inspiring.

My food villain would have to be all the fast food places for misrepresenting themselves. They con the public with their beautiful photos of what the food will be like. Now if we were to do that in restaurants we'd go bankrupt! But because they're selling cheap food they get away with it. They should say how they make it. They should tell the truth that they wash the sinew off the bones to make the burgers. It's just crap.

Nigella or Delia?

Delia is just a legend – she's been around so long and done so well. She's one of the people who started the whole celebrity chef thing.

Vegetarians: genius or madness?

I think vegetarians are fine – if that's your bag, that's great.

Muesli or fry-up?

I eat muesli on a daily basis to keep off the pounds but my heart is with the fry-up. If I could eat a fry-up every day without putting on weight I would do because they're awesome!

Starter or pudding?

Both. I think you should go the whole hog and order three courses if you're eating out and spending all that money. Where's the sense in denying yourself? You should have the whole shebang.

What's the best/worst thing about the British food scene?

It's the fact that we have so many talented chefs today – your James Martins, Angela Hartnetts, Gordon Ramsays – the list goes on and on. Twenty years ago we didn't have that. We had five top chefs, now we've got hundreds and they're all breeding the next wave of chefs and the cycle will go on and on. Soon you'll be able to get a great meal in every town, city and village in Britain, just like you can in France, Italy or Spain.

The worst thing is we're always dumbing down our food and saying that it's crap. We lost our way a bit in the 70s and 80s when we let commercialisation take over our food production but if you look back, before the war, our housewives (and I hate to say that because it sounds sexist – but they were the ones doing the cooking) they were producing great healthy, nutritious food.

What's the next big thing?

Because of the economic crisis, chefs are going to have to cook with cheaper ingredients and they'll have to pass that cut on to the customer so that customers can still afford to go out for dinner. Clever chefs will be able to do that

What would you do if you weren't a chef?

I would be a banker and make lots of money!

• Jason Atherton will be appearing at Gordon Ramsay presents Taste of Christmas from December 4-7 at ExCel London

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