Jamie, Heston and Gordon's mothers reveal home truths about their son's eating habits, with portraits by Lord Snowdon
Nick Wyke  - There is usually only one person who has cooked thousands of times for each of today's leading chefs and that is their respective mothers. Few people play a more influential role in the development of a child's palate and its relationship with food than mum.
Most of us can recall a comforting family favourite cooked by mum or at some time or other have exhorted the supremacy of mum's roast dinner, her fish pie or cheesecake. Top chefs are no exception. But many chefs showed a precocious talent in the kitchen and were eager, from an early age, to usurp mum's role and wear the apron rather than hang off its strings. In interviews published in December’s olive magazine, Celia Blumenthal reveals that "by the time he was 14, Heston was cooking our Christmas dinner". In fact, Mrs Blumenthal couldn't cook anything much without her son sneaking by and dipping his finger in the pate or pie to taste it. A habit that his own kitchen staff today are well used to. "I used to do a very good chicken liver pâté and there would always be a finger mark in it because he’d come in, open the fridge and try it," says Celia. "He’d try to cover it up sometimes, but I’d always know. Once he left a dustpan and brush in the fridge because he’d had them in his hand, put them down to get at the pâté and then completely forgot about them."...
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