“One of the things I have a great passion for is food. I wouldn’t exactly call myself a foodie – I’m less interested in the art of food and more in the everyday joy of it.

For me, the family dinner is an important ritual, where we sit down to a home-cooked meal and just talk. And preparing that meal is part of the ritual. So part of the passion is definitely cooking. I think good food is essential for wellbeing and home-cooking is not just for physical well-being. The act of creating and sharing a meal is integral to the human experience.

My mum used to have dinner on the table at 6:30pm every day and, being a Chinese family, there would always be three dishes, plus soup and rice. It was only after I left home that I discovered the joy of cooking myself, and the creativity involved.

When I was an undergraduate I had an Indian friend who would buy big bags of spices and rustle up curries to die for. So I figured out that it was possible to live very cheaply on tasty combinations of rice, vegetables and spices. Then there’s things I experimented with that have now become dinnertime staples – cassoulet, a particularly tasty Korean fried chicken, seared salmon (the kids like it v-e-r-y pink) with udon noodles, a wicked tiger eating pig dish, and a five-minute-to-make banana cake.

We do quite a lot from scratch. Our veggie garden was a staple until the dogs started eating the goodies, but we still do our own breads and doughs (pizza bases, tortillas and focaccia), and things like curry pastes from scratch. And there’s nothing like cooking a fish you’ve just landed yourself – steaming a bream, Chinese style, or frying a just-caught flathead in butter.

To me, recipes are inspirations rather than instructions. Once you get a feel for the flavours of your ingredients, it’s easy to improvise. For example, we do Sunday roasts regularly. But when we do, say, a roast chicken, it’ll be marinated in Indian spices and (home-made) yoghurt and the leftovers will be fried with rice to make a version of Biryani for the next evening.

There’s a book called ‘Ratio’ by Michael Ruhlman which doesn’t provide recipes but instead provides guidance on how ingredients work together. I like that approach to learning to cook. That way no matter what you have in the fridge and pantry, you can throw together something delicious.

It’s the same with learning how to do anything. Giving our students the ability to adapt to the challenges they’ll have to face is much better than only teaching them how to follow recipes.”

How often does your family sit down for dinner together? Tell us in the comments below.