SPORTSMAN'S DINNERS

Acclaimed chef Stephen Harris chats about his Michelin-star pub more than a quarter of a century after its opening. By LAUREN TAYLOR

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"I'd lost 15 years of my career, to be honest, if you're not a head chef by the time you're 40 you're probably not going to get anywhere," he says. "I was late to it.

He'd take himself for lunchtime deals at top Michelin-star restaurants. "It wasn't too expensive, they used to do nice £25 lunches, and I taught myself to cook by eating a dish and then going home and trying to cook it, often with their recipe book. It was quite an unusual way of cooking but it's quite logical."

Having a complete career change decades after most chefs start their training was a risk, but Stephen says: "I didn't have any children, I'd split with my girlfriend of many years, I didn't have any ties, I didn't have a mortgage.