In the years I spent in England as a child, I watched Ready, Steady, Cook religiously, every single afternoon after school. I used to love watching the likes of Ainsley Harriot and Anthony Worrall Thompson battle it out with 20 minutes and a bag of ingredients each. But my favourite afternoons were the ones when James Martin was on, partly because James could usually be relied upon to whip up at least one pudding (I’ve always been a bit obsessed with dessert) and partly because, like half the female population of Britain, I had a bit of a crush on him. It is therefore slightly surreal to find myself standing in front of the man himself – he’s taller than I imagined – asking for an interview.

‘Sure,’ he says, in his charming, Yorkshire accent. ‘Where should we sit?’

The star of a whole host of television shows – including James Martin Sweet, Sweet Baby James, and Saturday Kitchen – Martin is also the author of six cookbooks – with another one in the works. Since the beginning of April, he is also the owner of a shiny, new restaurant. But how did he start out? ‘My family used to run the estate at Castle Howard [a Baroque mansion, home to British landed gentry]. None of my family were chefs, so cooking in that kitchen was how I started in the business. And working on the farm – we used to have a pig and chicken farm, so I knew where good food came from. When you understand that, you understand how to cook it.’

From there, James went on to study the craft formally, before he was discovered by Anthony Worrall Thompson, and he got his first break in swanky London restaurant, 190 Queensgate. It was at Castle Howard, though, that James developed his love for rustic, British food.

‘It was real food, proper pork-and-apple-sauce food. It wasn’t anything fancy. It was proper home-cooked food. To me, there’s nothing better than two pieces of fish and a wedge of lemon, when it’s fresh from the ocean. You don’t have to do so much to food… A nice steak and chips, béarnaise sauce…’ he tails off in a food fantasy.

I interrupt to ask about his new restaurant, The Leeds Kitchen.

‘Yeah, yeah, we’re open in Leeds, it’s going very well, touch wood!’ he says patting the coffee table in the lounge of the Cape Grace where we’re sitting. ‘I’m actually looking at a few more sites.’

The essence of this new venture is very much in line with James’s good food ethos. ‘Good local produce – because we’re in Yorkshire and it’s my home county, we’ve got a massive selection of local produce and we utilise it all. Everything from local rhubarb from five miles away, to honey, garlic and meat. We’ve got a local butcher and a fishmonger about twenty miles away and we keep it very, very simple and try and cook the food that the customer wants. I would quite happily cook steak and chips every day of the week if that’s what people want.’

And his television shows? Which ones have been the most fun to film? ‘I probably enjoyed Saturday Kitchen more than any of the others, because it’s a live show and all the guests are friends of mine.’ Shot in front of a studio audience, the show features guest chefs and celebrity wine and cooking guests and has been phenomenally successful, growing from 300 000 viewers to a whopping 3,5 million since James began hosting.

Do things ever go wrong on set? ‘Oh yeah, there’s loads,’ says James with a snort, ‘but you don’t see ‘em and we’re good at covering ‘em up. We try not to make it too obvious!’

And is the food, cooked under pressure on set edible? ‘Some of it, yeah,’ he says, laughing again. ‘Because chefs are doing it and we wouldn’t serve anything that wasn’t edible. I’ll leave it at that!’ If he was on a desert island, what five foodstuffs would he not want to live without? ‘Salt, butter, cream, chocolate and more butter,’ James tells me. I chuckle.

‘Yes, you’re not known for cooking the world’s healthiest food…’

‘That’s true,’ he says, hesitating ‘I don’t believe margarine tastes as good as butter – and I don’t believe yoghurt and crème frache tastes as good as double cream. As a chef, you have to use the best. Munching on a radish and a lettuce leaf is not my idea of fun!’

I think I’ve struck a nerve. Sure enough, in his demo at the Good Food and Wine Show later in the day he makes a point of browning his fillet in approximately half a brick of butter, and adding more as the audience gasps. Not to worry James, the double cream and butter are half of the reason we love you in the first place. And yes, the crush is still intact.

By Katharine Jacobs