John Torode

“We're all so busy we don't make time to enjoy our lives, good company and good food.”

“There is no way in the world that a vacuum cleaner will ever be obsolete - they use them for swimming pools, they use them for houses, they use them for industrial purposes. They're fantastic things.”

“I can't understand why anyone would want to reduce vinegar.”

“Restaurant kitchens are highly pressurised environments, with lots of young men, and that means one thing: testosterone. It's not brutal - it's military. It is regimented, tough. People are put into compartments and have to do exactly what they're told or the whole thing falls apart.”

“MasterChef's' about real people and for real people. It's aspirational and inspirational. There's nothing snobbish about it.”

“Raft Point is among the greatest examples of ancient indigenous art we know of.”

“Men and women are not the same in the kitchen. Women tend to be uninhibited and instinctive. Men are inconsistent, egotistical show-offs.”

“I don't mind cooking at home, I find it relaxing.”

“Markets have long been at the centre of communities, not just somewhere to drop in and grab a bag of groceries, but a hub, a meeting place, and always a place to stop and eat.”

“My grandmother would let me stand on a stool stirring gravy in a large roasting dish in front of a wood-fired stove at the age of six. She wasn't worried about the whole health and safety stuff.”

“I love South Australia.”

“Fact is, I'm a carnivore.”

“I absolutely love jumping on a plane. I find it to be one of the most wonderful, releasing experiences in the world. Nobody can call me and I have my own space where I can do whatever I want. For some people a long-haul flight is an ordeal, but I love every bit of it.”

“I like to reactivate my body after a long journey by getting the sun in my eyes.”

“I think restaurants and family homes and stuff are about conversation and about chatting. Food is there because you want to enjoy it and have fun with it but I'm not there to study it - I'm there to spend time with my friends.”

“It seems that the more we travel, the more we want flavour and variation in our food - and the bolder it is, the more addictive those flavours will be.”

“On Christmas morning breakfast is always thick slices of ham, thick white toast, butter and pepper - oh and a glass of fizz!”

“I don't like to eat in front of people.”

“My kind of cooking is not a single style - French, Asian, Australasian or British - it's not modern, old-fashioned or classic; it's a mix of all these things. And at its core is a boy who loved to cook with his Nanna.”

“I ate some really amazing food in Thailand. I had river turtle, and dried rat, which was quite chewy and interesting and a bit like biltong.”