Sharing my journey with hospitality students in Asia — from a small Indian town to Scottish kitchens — was a humbling reminder that the questions I am asked today are the same questions I was asking twenty years ago.

How do you survive a brigade kitchen? When do you know you are ready to move on? How do you keep your cooking honest when the pressure is to make it impressive?

I do not have neat answers. I have a long career's worth of mistakes and the few hard-won principles that came out the other side: respect the ingredient, respect the team, repeat the dish until it is right, and keep the door open for whoever is coming up behind you.