A lot of people say I look like a rock star or a designer punk. But I swear it's the job that has carved my face. It's the hours, the stress, and the pressure. It's not me trying to look like this.

Self-control is true power.

I am a believer that if you bring children into this world, then you have a responsibility to do your best and support and guide them until the day you die.

People are bored of these 12-course gastronomic menus. They want affordable glamour.

My favourite dinner is a cup of tea and a ham sandwich with English mustard.

If you really want to know what motivated me as a young man, it was a fear of death.

For me, food is about generosity, and this should reflect on the plate as well.

Generally, I respect critics; they have their job to do.

Perhaps I created the monster Ramsay, who ended up as a TV personality screaming at celebrities on 'Hell's Kitchen,' doing to them what I had done to him.

I think, in life, the more you force things, they break. You just let things happen.

All great chefs have two things in common. First, they respect nature as the true artist, and they are just cooks. Second, everything that they do is an extension of them as a person.

I'm happiest walking through fields, on beaches, and over riverbanks. Nature is my surrogate mother.

The pressure of TV can force people to do odd things.

English wine is nonsense. They are over-priced and not very good.

You cannot criticize a man for going to work. You really cannot.

I love the institution of marriage.

My twenties were the worst period of my life.

I'm naturally an introvert.

I never had a drink at all till I was 38. I'm just not a drinker. I go days without drinking.

Can you imagine, I lost my mother at age six? My childhood ended then.

When you work for someone, you never realise how much you are learning. It is only when you leave and you reflect back on life.

Like most fathers, I would do anything for my children, and I've worked very hard at trying to be a good father. I want to give them education, security, everything I never had.

Good people are always forgiving. They close an eye to one's failings.

Females make better cooks than men. Females have a better palate. They have a better sense of smell. They never take shortcuts; this is why they're very good in kitchens. The weakness in what they do is they are not as physically strong as men, so they're never really given the opportunity.

My mother's death was the defining moment of my life.

I'm the Christopher Biggins of reality TV.

I think it's really important for every young person to work in a kitchen because you learn a life skill.

Harveys opened against the backdrop of Thatcher's greed culture.

I can't work in a domestic kitchen; it's just too confined. There's no freedom, and there's no buzz.

I met my first wife at the fishmonger's in the summer of 1987, some six months after opening Harveys.

Oh, I love ladies in hats! One rule of restaurants: never take a hat from a lady; wait for her to offer you the hat because she might not want to take it off - she might not have had time to do her hair properly.

I think Singapore is one of the great cities of the world.

I wouldn't want to be in one room, 20 hours a day, 52 weeks a year, with four white walls and a stove. I think it stunts your growth as a human being.

I don't need Michelin, and they don't need me.

My children are, without question, the most wonderful thing. I've learnt more about myself through my children than any other experience in my life.

People still think I led a rock and roll lifestyle. I was in my kitchen 100 hours a week; I didn't have time to do that.

'Kitchen Wars' makes 'MasterChef' look like a walk in the park!

My cooking attracted celebrities. I met Sylvester Stallone. He squeezed my bicep and said: 'I don't usually eat your kind of food, but for you, I ate it.' I haven't got a clue what he'd eaten but he asked me to cook for his wedding feast when he married Jennifer Flavin at Blenheim Palace.

When you roast a chicken perfectly, there's nothing more delicious.

When I look at old pictures, I see my son Luciano, not me. Luciano looks identical. That's what's extraordinary, the power of a gene pool.

I leave my emotions at home.

Rudeness is not having fun, and if it is, it's at the expense of another person.

The newspapers had described me as the Jagger of the Aga. It wasn't hard living up to the reputation.

My tortured life - with its extremes and conflicts - might have been difficult for me to deal with, but the press couldn't get enough of it. I was in the papers every day, 'the enfant terrible of the culinary world.'

The only time I am seen in public is when I go to work. When I go home to England, I never leave my home.

The reason I do television is because we all have to work and earn a living, as I have four children. It's also a platform for me to share my knowledge and inspire the young.

I love gardens!

I think what you got to do is to create an environment which people wish to sit in. You have to create a menu which is interesting to people. You have to create food which is delicious and affordable. I think that's what's important.

Remember, restaurateurs are only shopkeepers; that's all we are. It's no different from the supermarket down the road.

I don't like London. I'm not happy here. I don't even own a flat here.