Paul Ainsworth on Gary Rhodes, Great British Menu’s snowball moment and working with his partner

The No 6 chef talks to Emma Henderson about hard graft under Gordon Ramsay, helping youngsters into catering and his burgeoning foodie empire in Cornwall

All smiles: the couple outside their Michelin-starred restaurant Paul Ainsworth at No 6

How did you and your wife Emma come to run No 6 in Padstow?

I’d been in the Gordon Ramsay Group in London for six years, and then from there I went onto Proteus with Marcus Wearing and I was coming to the end of my time there and I wasn’t really sure about what I wanted to do next, and I was thinking about working abroad. Then I met somebody who knew Padstow very well.

I had actually been there the year before, completely coincidentally, and had dinner at Rick Stein’s seafood restaurant. When I was walking around the village, I actually peered in through the window on No 6 which was boarded up and for sale. I didn’t think anything of it and had a typical weekend in Padstow as everybody does.