John Burton-Race

John Burton-Race has never believed in making life easy for himself or anyone else around him. He is a driven man. His close-cropped curls, taut athletic build and handsome features conjure up an image of a Greek charioteer charging up the most perilous tracks of Mount Olympus, churning vast dust clouds in a fruitless search for the gods. He knows that he will never find them but the effort is glorious. There are no ultimate prizes because the chase in itself becomes the mission – a kind of unrelenting voyage of gastronomic exploration. Unlike most other great chefs he is not content to come to rest, find his plot on a side of the mountain and cultivate his perfect olive grove. Frustration is the fire in his belly: ‘Even if I live to a hundred, I shall die knowing nothing. You can only scratch the surface. It is impossible to be a master of such a vast subject.’