An inside story to everything on my plate

I have always been a fan of travel, food - tastes and flavours. Be it a new place, a new restaurant, a new dish, or anything new that hasn't gone inside me has to be done. And it's amazing when when people around me - my guests at my restaurant or even someone who tastes my food and sees how I present my food with its worldly elements on that same plate - ask me, 'What's this?' or 'Where did this come from?'

The answers may sound simple and straight forward, but there is an inside story to everything I do.

I have been fortunate enough to work with people from 36 nationalities for many years when I was a chef on board ocean liners and circumnavigated the world seven times.

This has influenced the food I cook, my combos, presentation styles, methods of cooking, and has been a great taste bud training, sometimes weird and sometimes orgasmic.

Trips down to the Caribbean Islands and working with Trinidadians, Jamaicans and Bejans (from Barbados) taught me how to use Rajma (they call them peas) in very different ways. I always ate rajma and chawal (my favourite) in a very classical way, but in Jamaica they cook the rice in the rajma water with coconut milk, ginger, thyme, allspice and so on. When I came back the first time, I cooked it for all my friends back home and it is still on my menu served with a Jerk Style Pork.

I am also a fan of chickpeas, and channa masala as well as hummus. My travels to the Middle East and working with Syrian chefs opened up a whole new world of hummus for me - beetroot hummus, beetroot felafel, green pea hummus.

Seasoning such as Ras El Hanout, Sumac, Berbere have also been a part of my menu. Sumac, a red powder usually tossed with onions makes a for a lovely sour kachumber, that I season my French fries with for my fish and chips at Nido.

We love our chillies but not only us, the Mexicans can't cook without them. They have a myriad of them, each one lending its character to a dish. Habanbero for fire, chipotle for smoke, árbol for another reason.

On trips to Mexico and New York I shopped for different kinds of chillies to experiment. My most favourite, the chipotle, which is spicy but has a smoky element, has ended up in my Chipolte BBQ Sauce and Chipotle Tandoori Lamb Chops on my lunch menu.

When I was researching and developing recipes for Vicky Goes Veg, my cookbook and TV show, quite a few of my recipes were influenced by my travels. Like in Italy, red and yellow bell peppers are roasted and then peeled and put in a marinade of garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and chilli flakes. This is still my favourite condiment, and I use it like a filling for sandwiches and topping for my flat breads, for which I have drawn inspiration from Turkey and the Middle East.

Whole fish roasted with tomatoes, chillies, baby potatoes, garlic, rosemary, lemons, and baked slowly, served as a family style meal have been from fond memories in Spain and Italy.

Every time I make a stuffing for my turkey on Christmas, I thank my friend Oliver and his mom for that timeless recipe that I ate at their house in the UK many years ago.

My friends in Germany and Austria really taught me how to make classical sausages and the art of brining and pickling after my few tutorials on dals and curries to them. My English mates gave me the best fish and chips recipes, and my friends from Sweden taught me how to make a good Gravalax (cured salmon).

The more I travel, the more I see. I more I see, the more I to do. The more I do, the more you will get. The more you will get, the more I will be happy.

Bon appétit and have a great weekend.