Mike Robinson

Owner of The Pot Kiln, in Berkshire, and co-owner of Michelin-starred The Harwood Arms, in Fulham, Mike Robinson is one well-travelled chef. He talks to Alicia Miller about game cookery and living in France

I’ve always been food-focused.

I grew up in the countryside and my father, a pilot, travelled all over the world. He’d bring back foods like whole Seattle salmon that, at that time, seemed strange. I’ll never forget when we were driving home from school one day and hit a hare. We pulled it from the hedge and made jugged hare with our 90-year-old neighbour! I remember thinking how cool it was that you could cook something wild.

We went to Kenya when I was very young.

We were spoiled because of my father’s job and even then food factored into our holidays. I remember these guys on the beach would peddle up on a bicycle and sell us fish. We fished for ourselves, too, and whatever we caught we’d bring back to the hotel and they’d cook it whole over a barbecue for us.

I’ve eaten a lot of game.

I actually kill about 90 per cent of the stuff we serve in our restaurants, plus whatever we use at our cookery school. But when I go out, my pick has to be The Vineyard at Stockcross (http://the-vineyard.co.uk), in Newbury. There’s a dish with red deer, which I don’t usually eat – it’s often farmed and I prefer wild – but it tastes stunning the way they do it.

One of the best things to eat in the whole world

is the flame-grilled mackerel at The Ledbury (http://the ledbury.com). It’s one of the restaurant’s signature dishes and you can see why. But my favourite London spot is Racine (http://racine-restaurant.com) – it has the best classic brasserie food in the city. Fish soup with croutons, confit duck, filet au poivre...

I lived in Chamonix for six years

so my comfort food is definitely French. I went out there because I’m a mountain climbing fanatic – and because I thought if I could speak French it would help me meet girls. Of course, it was a great place to learn how to cook too. I still go to France regularly, to Bordeaux, where I eat at a restaurant called La Tupina (http://latupina.com). It’s run by this eccentric bloke, and has a huge roaring fireplace with all sorts of contraptions: grates and griddles for cooking pork, lamb chops and côte de boeuf.

I always assumed Las Vegas restaurants were rubbish,

but I went this year and had the most magnificent meal at Bouchon (http://bouchonbistro.com), one of Thomas Keller’s places. I had the French onion soup, for which they cook the onions in beef stock for 24 hours! It’s the best soup of its kind I’ve had.

The fish in Essaouira is phenomenal.

There are lots of restaurants along the water and you can watch the fisherman hauling things in. You buy what you want by the kilo, pointing to different things saying, ‘I’ll have this... or that’. They cook it right in front of you, so it’s hard to get any fresher.

As it’s a competitor of ours I shouldn’t say this,

but when I come to London and want to relax, I head to The Sand’s End (http://thesandsend.co.uk) in Fulham. Quite simply, it’s just a really fantastic pub.