“When I am working in the kitchen, I never wear a toque. It is something I find slightly pretentious. I feel the same way over the more recent custom of embroidering chefs’ names on their jackets. I find it ridiculous and more than unnecessary to have my name written on me as though I were a packet of cheese.”

The French-born Pierre Koffmann has spent the largest part of his kitchen career in the United Kingdom, awarded the coveted three Michelin stars at his restaurant La Tante Claire in London. Until 2016 he was head chef of Koffmann’s at The Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge.