Q What inspired you to be a chef?
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t in the kitchen. Our family was quite large and the kitchen was the biggest room in the house, so we tended to congregate there naturally. From a very young age I remember being in the kitchen with my nana who was a terrific baker, she would give the children the pastry off-cuts to play with, then gradually as I got older I just started to cook for the family and enjoyed it.

I went straight from school to catering college in Stockport. Classes were small and the training kitchens were run on the same principles as a working industrial kitchen with a strong sense of personal responsibility instilled in us, this made the transition from college to real life much easier for students, although I was also getting real life experience during my course as I worked in the food industry to help support himself through college.

I went straight from college to my first job in a hotel kitchen in Manchester and also worked for a while at Hoar Cross Hall in Staffordshire. Rachel and I built up a lot of experience in the industry before we decided to start up our own business just over 2 years ago.

Q What did you find the hardest skill to learn?
To keep quiet – until you reach a senior position anyway, then a chef has to be in control in the kitchen, it’s top dog syndrome. If you’re in this line of work to succeed its going to be there in your character you just to have to keep a lid on it until you’re the one in charge.

Q What ingredient's couldn’t you live without?
Game, both fish and meat. There’s just something about the flavour of wild meat and fish.

Q Is there any food you won’t eat and why?
We couldn’t get Kevin to come up with anything he wouldn’t eat or cook, but we do know that in terms of sourcing policy The Victoria is ethically minded and if you care about where your food comes from and what’s in it The Victoria is a good choice.

Q What is the worst dish you have ever cooked?
We experiment a lot when producing new dishes for the restaurant and not everything is successful. If however something went wrong for some reason you just wouldn’t serve it.

Q Who cooks at home?
Rachel does cook, but I really enjoy cooking, and I find cooking for the two of us relaxing, its completely different to cooking for the restaurant. As a chef you taste everything that is cooked in the restaurant, so when it comes to cooking for us I’m looking for a change of flavours. My stepfather is from Pakistan and I learnt to cook curries at home and Rachel and I have them quite regularly, but I also cook a wide range of food, and I like to experiment.

Just like everyone else who works though some days you’re just too tired to start from scratch and I’ll use short cuts, or it’ll get too late and we’ll have something as simple as cheese on toast.

Q What piece of kitchen equipment did you really want then never use once you’d bought?
I can’t think of anything, although I’ve known other chefs for whom the whole boy’s toys thing carries through into the kitchen. Our kitchen here is very small so every piece of equipment has to earn its keep. The flip side is what can’t you can’t have too many of? For us it’s pans - we have 14 sautee pans and it never seems to be enough!

Q Favourite school dinner?
Toad in the Hole with home made Yorkshire pudding.

Q Who would you most like to cook a meal for?
I really can’t think of anyone.

Q If you weren’t a chef, what would you have been?
It would have definitely been something practical, I also studied horticulture at school so perhaps something outside in that field. I can’t image being stuck in an office at a desk I need to be moving around.

Perhaps you could start growing your own vegetables I said. Perhaps we could said Kevin, and you know I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they did.

To book a table at The Victoria telephone
0161 613 1855

Kevin’s recipe:
Black Pudding Hash

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