'Chefs are very competitive backstage'

Factfile
Name: Ainsley Harriott
Age: 50
Significant other: Married to former costume designer Clare Fellows. They have two children.
Career high: Being promoted from chef to presenter on Ready, Steady, Cook.
Career low: His television show in the US was cancelled in 2000 due to low ratings.
Famous for: His unrelentingly cheery demeanour
Words of wisdom: On American food: "The portions are too large, there's very little flavour and it's often fried to death - a heart attack on a plate. I'm amazed they have the audacity to knock British food."

When you think of Ready, Steady, Cook presenter Ainsley Harriott, you probably picture a bundle of boundless energy, all flamboyant enthusiasm and hearty chuckles. Off the television, the chef is a little more sedate - but not much. On the morning we speak, he's had a tough week of filming and a very late night, but he's still as jolly as ever.

"People always think I'm this zany character. It's always me or Lenny Henry," the 50-year-old says with a large grin. "But I think I just see the funny side of life, I don't see the negative side, and I think that's a very good energy to be around.

He does admit that today he is extremely tired, but will be filming more episodes of Ready, Steady, Cook later in the afternoon.

"We've been in the studio for four days last week and four days this week, and it just catches up with you. But Dr Showbiz takes over and you just get on with it. You have to keep the energy going because it's an afternoon show and everybody wants to have that little lift!"

Ainsley always knew that he wanted a career in food, and being able to combine that with television has been a dream come true for him, because he also has a background in performing. As a young man, in addition to training in the kitchen, he performed in numerous comedy clubs, even once doing a turn on the stage of The London Palladium.

"It was a great way of subsidising my income," he remembers. "The catering business is really bad to start with, so having the ability to go out and do a bit of work in comedy and perform with a few friends was great.

"I was hanging out with Jack Dee, Alan Davies, Arthur Smith, Lee Evans, the list goes on. I'm in a room with these guys, watching these talented geniuses do their thing, and I'm there with a very mediocre double act called the Calypso Twins," he says with that trademark cackle. "But it was brilliant, I loved it."

His first foray into television came when he was made resident chef on Good Morning With Anne And Nick, which lead to more work on Can't Cook Won't Cook, and Ready, Steady, Cook. Then, when Fern Britton left the latter programme, Ainsley was asked to take over as presenter.

"It was pretty daunting," he recalls. "It was dramatically different from being one of the chefs. At one point I thought it was like Kenny Dalglish playing for a football side and then suddenly becoming the manager. You know everybody, they're all your mates, but you've got to keep things under control."

While he loves taking on the role of host, Ainsley reveals that he's sometimes itching to get involved with the food and has to stop himself advising the other chefs what to make from the bags of ingredients brought in by that day's celebs.

"I find it so frustrating," he groans. "Sometimes I want to strangle them and say, 'How could you do that to that lovely vegetable?' But it's their gig."

Of course, Ainsley is not alone in thinking he can do better than the other chefs, they are, let's not forget, an extremely competitive breed - and apparently that element of their nature is clearly visible for all to see backstage.

"Oh they are very competitive," Ainsley grins. "Especially the old established ones that have been there for a while like Nick Nairn and Paul Rankin. It's terrible when those two are up against each other. They are almost pushing their fingers into each other's chests behind the scenes before they come out! It's a gladiatorial battleground!"

And those battles are not just reserved for Ready Steady Cook. Talk to any celebrity chef and it seems they've got some sort of beef with at least one of their peers. Although Ainsley doesn't join in this banter, he's been on the receiving end of a tongue lashing from one Gordon Ramsay, who once said, "He's not a serious chef, he's a comedian".

But while Ainsley may never have owned a restaurant, he does run a catering business, and says life as a restaurateur never really appealed to him.

"I was a bit nervous about it," he explains. "I always felt that I was going to be locked in with no escape.

"I'm a people person, and I just can't walk away. When me and my wife go out for dinner and people wave and say, 'Hi Ainsley', I'll stop for a chat. She says, 'You don't need to do that. You don't need to engage all the time'. But I can't help myself, it's just the way I've been brought up.

"So it's perhaps best that I didn't go down that restaurant route because I'd be staying up until three or four in the morning every night drinking brandy with people!

"I admire a lot of the guys that persevere with it because it's very tough," he continues. "I started when I was 17, and at that age you have all the energy in the world, although you're working all the hours and you're getting £160 a week. Suddenly you hit your 40s and you think, 'I've been doing this 20 odd years', and you've been on your feet the whole time."

So there's no regrets, he says, particularly as not being in the restaurant trade has allowed him to spend plenty of time with his kids, 17-year-old Jimmy and Maddy, 15.

"I'm so fortunate that I've chosen the right career path," he says.

"Yes, perhaps I could have been out there with my own restaurant earning a load more dosh, but television has been good to me. The real beauty of it, is that I have a fantastic relationship with my daughter and son. You don't build those bridges if you're not there."

Ainsley says that he was always keen to get his children involved with the cooking at home, and it's led to them having a healthy relationship with food, something he thinks is vital for other parents to do.

"I think the most important thing is that they're relaxed around food," he says. "I get upset with parents that say, 'Why won't you eat this, why won't you eat that, you will not leave the table until you have finished!' I'm sorry, I'm just not into that.

"Our taste buds change. What you didn't like last week you like this week, even as adults. And children are constantly changing. My son absolutely hated salad as a kid and he eats it every day at school now because he's more into having a healthy body.

"You don't need to push them so hard. They will eventually get there."