Fergus Henderson: 'I'm happy to eat most things - but I hate raw celery'

My mother was a wonderful cook and my father was an excellent eater. She was from Bolton - Bolton mothers seem to be a common theme among quite a few very good chefs I know. They used to have dinner parties like the ones people had in the 1970s – cashmere tablecloths, lots of burgundy, crème caramel and going to bed without doing the dishes. I remember coming downstairs in the morning to find the debris of the previous night, half-drunk glasses and ghostly puffs of cigar smoke, and longing to be a part of it all.

My favorite food when I was a kid was steamed syrup sponge and custard. When I was little, I had a mysterious illness that put me in the hospital for a few days; Mom tells me she knew it must be serious when I refused the steamed syrup sponge.

Architecture shaped me. It gave me clarity and rigor in my vision…or maybe it's always been there. My father was an architect, and when I told him that I was leaving architecture school to become a cook, he said to me: “OK, but be good”. Guess I had to take that to heart.

I'm happy to eat most things and feel like almost everything has a place or a place. context in which it is redeemed, but I hate raw celery. It feels so pointless, like it takes more energy to chew than it gives you. That makes it strange, as a foodstuff. I can pretty much eat it braised, although I'm not crazy about it.

I always recommend people to cook half a braised pig's head, if they hope for a romantic meal. What's sexier than staring into your lover's eyes while you dip into the cheek or nibble on the ear? The other thing, for me, is pigeon and peas. It was the first thing I cooked for Margot [Henderson, his wife], when she visited me in the kitchen. She was surprised it was just that: a pigeon and peas. This caught his eye.

When we opened St John we were accused of being over 400 years old. It gave us freedom - if you're never in fashion, you'll never be out of style. This is why I hate the idea of ​​food "trends". The idea of ​​food trends is tragic - by their very nature they are impermanent, elevating bad foods where they don't deserve or relegating good foods to history. Good food should be permanent.

I think my style can sometimes be too austere. White food is becoming more trendy in some areas, but many people still have a problem with it. And while offal is more palatable to many than before, I'm still struggling to convince the masses of the joys of guts.

Parkinson's disease changed the way I run my restaurants in the most meaningful way - which I can't really cook in St John's kitchen anymore. It's such a sadness. But I bring encouragement, advice, and I am a constant presence, which my bosses appreciate. It contributes to what's on the plate, even if it's not directly the veneer. This is important.

My most memorable dining experience was a meal at Michel Guérard's restaurant [in Eugénie-les-Bains, south-west France ] who had all the emotions running through him. We were two families, mine and that of my father's friend, Terence Conran. A few days earlier we had been to a wonderful restaurant where they were both behaving terribly badly, cantankerously, but that meal was well received and it just kept going – delicious, but incredibly rich. I remember headed eggs, stuffed with everything possible – crayfish, foie gras, truffles, everything. It was too much and to aid digestion, which we needed, we drank a whole bottle of Poire William. The return to our accommodation was wobbly and difficult. It was an evening filled with excitement, joy and regret.

My favorite things

FoodBone Marrow here in St John. Roast, grilled sourdough, parsley salad and wet salt (the French call it gray salt). Each element works in perfect union, and the architect in me appreciates a dish that must be built first rather than destroyed...