FOOD AND DRINK / What the new-wave restaurateur ate in one day

BREAKFAST - nil. I got up, had a bath, rushed out to the car. One of the first things I do when I get to the restaurant is make a pot of English Breakfast tea for everyone - I had sugar and milk in mine. This was about 7.30 in the morning. I had another half cup at eight, and at nine we had a cappuccino all together in the kitchen. I always have to check all the vegetables and fruit for ripeness. This time I had about a quarter of an appalling plum, and a blackberry. We have staff lunch at about eleven; I had a leaf of trevisse, a kind of bitter lettuce, a raisin and a dried apricot. I was cooking all day, so tasting all day - I was making a stew of wild mushrooms with celery, garlic and rosemary, so I was tasting the juices. After lunch service we treated ourselves to a dessert. I had walnut shortbread with poached plums, blackberries and figs in spiced red wine syrup with a scoop of whipped mascarpone and cream. And I had tea as well - more English Breakfast with sugar and milk. In the afternoon, we had some fantastic runner beans in from Staffordshire so I ate some of them, raw. Later I had half a glass of some sweetish, Germanish wine at an art opening. I sat down to dinner, which I do two or three times a week, at 8.30 in the restaurant. I chose a slice of green olive bread, and the first course was three different types of tomato with the Staffordshire runner beans and buffalo mozzarella, all jumbled together with a dribbly sort of pesto and freshly baked focaccia bread. The main course was a duck's leg made into a confit, on a bed of roasted endives. On the side, a little salad of rocket, trevisse, and spider frisee - a fine, feathery lettuce. Then I had two kinds of cheese, Ticklemore and Gubbeen, both fantastic, with oatmeal biscuits and a fresh cobnut salad. For dessert, autumn fruit crumble - poached apple, plum and blackberries, with a crumble of fresh toasted breadcrumbs mixed with lots of butter and brown sugar. To drink with the meal, Chateau de Boursault champagne, then a Californian wine called Edmunds St John, and a Savigny-les-Beaune 1980. To finish, mint tea and chocolate truffles - we make them here and they're the best in England. I drank lots of sparkling water, which I make myself do. And that's the lot.

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