Nine top chefs recall their childhood favourite dishes

2. Johnny Godden, Flying Fish Seafoods founder

“Hands down, the thing I would choose over most things is fish and chips. I don’t remember the first time I had it, but I do remember it always being around. I remember from an early age someone coming in with a bag with boxes inside. You opened it up, steam would come up and the fish and chips would sometimes be a bit soggy, but there was something quite magical about it. I liked it when you’d get really cheap white bread – one slice with thick bits of margarine.

We’ve got a really good fish and chip shop in our town, but the bread and butter is really posh, which isn’t good for fish and chips. It has to be cheap white bread. I get my fish in a separate box to my chips, then I rush home as quickly as I can so when I open the box the fish is still quite crunchy, I add loads of salt and vinegar, then I wrap it into a sort of chip butty: one slice, not two, rolled over and squashed. And the other thing that I really got into lately is mushy peas. I put loads of vinegar and pepper in my mushy peas, and then dip my butty in it.”

3. Saliha Mahmood Ahmed, doctor, former BBC MasterChef winner and Saturday Kitchen regular

“My favourite dish is lamb & pea samosas – we have them for any happy occasion. My grandmother and her sisters lived in Bradford, and would have long afternoons preparing hundreds of them while gossiping about family politics and sipping cups
of chai.

More like this

I still remember every crunch of perfectly savoury, crisp crust, each encasing the perfect amount of filling. Every mouthful gave you a substantial amount of spiced, fatty, moist lamb mince, tempered gently with the sweetness of bright green British garden peas. Next to the samosas was a huge glass bottle of tomato ketchup, which we dunked our samosas into joyfully and without restraint. And yes, I still dunk them in ketchup!”

4. Sandy Tang, Macau-born chef, recipe developer and MasterChef finalist

“Growing up, I ate a variety of foods, but mostly Asian-tinged with Portuguese. My mum would make beef stuffed with enoki mushrooms in teriyaki sauce; classic steamed fish with spring onion and ginger; boiled bacalhau (salt cod) with potatoes and vegetables drizzled with olive oil – very Portuguese; maybe serradura as a pudding, a layered dessert with cream and crumbled Marie biscuits (similar to rich tea) – another very Portuguese dish.

We ate together every night for dinner. But the highlight was always Sunday brunch in a teahouse, sometimes with extended family – lots of gossip and all kinds of dim sum (siu mai, har gau, char siu bao, custard tarts).”

5. Norman Musa, Malaysian-born chef and entrepreneur

“Growing up, I would visit the night market with my mum, two minutes from our home in Kampung Sungai Nyior, where she’d pick up the best fresh ingredients. My favourite dish is an ayam bakar – the night market’s chicken with slaw, not just for its beautiful flavour, but because it’s reminiscent of my childhood in a humble village. At the night market, a half chicken would be flattened and tied lengthways onto bamboo sticks so it could be turned easily to cook both sides.

This dish taught me how to be independent by saving my pocket money to buy a chicken leg from the market, which had more than 100 stalls. There was always a queue to buy the ayam bakar, and once I bought mine, I’d go home and open the package wrapped in old newspaper. The smoky flavour and the chilli paste made it so aromatic and succulent. My mum watched me in admiration after I told her I saved my pocket money to buy it.”

6. Ayo Adeyemi, executive chef of London restaurant Akoko

“My favourite dish is jollof rice, which is basically a Nigerian biryani – a baked rice dish containing lots of spices, onions and meat or fish. It’s what I grew up with three times a week. My family was Christian-based, so my mum used to cook it for church gatherings, family parties – catering for everyone. It was lovely to see the joy on other family friends’ faces to know that my mum was cooking her famous jollof rice dish.”

7. Trine Hahnemann, Danish chef

“My favourite dish is roast chicken with sweet and sour cucumber salad, a separated gravy and potatoes. It’s a traditional dish, and my family love it. It’s all about the seasonal cucumber salad, that combination of sweet, salty and sour. It’s a classic summer recipe and we always had it for my mormor’s birthday in July. The whole family would get together in her tiny beach house and there was always a build-up to the dinner – I remember being excited about the atmosphere – we knew it was special.”

8. Lerato Umah-Shaylor, chef and pioneer of African cuisine

“My favourite dish is slow-cooked black-eyed beans with plantains. This dish is home. It is love, comfort and joy on a plate. My mother weaned me on black-eyed beans and mashed potatoes. When I am tired, this is what I want to eat. A warming bowl of beans cooked with blended onion, red pepper and scotch bonnet, topped with crispy onions and red oil, served with fried or roasted plantains.

In Nigeria we have several variations of this dish, but it is often eaten for breakfast. These beans are also commonly served at restaurants and bukas or chop bars across Nigeria and Ghana.”

9. Petty Elliott, chef and writer

“One of my all-time favourite dishes to make is ikan woku, a whole fish marinated in turmeric paste and herbs, then wrapped in young palm leaves and barbecued. It captures the essence of Indonesian cuisine, and transports me back to my roots.

It’s often served on festive occasions, like Christmas, and is a centrepiece at buffets alongside pork cooked in bamboo and barbecued fish with rica-rica sambal. It’s packed with aromatic ingredients like garlic, shallots, ginger, chillies, lemongrass, lime leaves and basil. I’ve experimented with variations on the dish, such as ikan woku belanga, a spicy fish stew made in a wok.”