Dermot O'Leary reveals culinary ambitions

X Factor presenter Dermot O'Leary has said that he would love to find more time to sharpen up his cooking skills. The 37-year-old - who has opened two fish restaurants in Poole and Brighton - confessed that he has ambitions to be a chef. "I was kind of between TV and catering," he said. "It's an industry I worked in at university and I want to get back into it eventually. "Just for me though. I don't want to be a professional chef. I would specialise with fish, as I have my fish restaurants. That's what I enjoy cooking now." Dermot added that he has been inspired by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. "Jamie has done an incredible job with this country," he said. "When The Naked Chef first came out, what I loved about him was that with his recipes, you didn't have to worry about a measuring jug or scales. It was just about getting your hands dirty and getting back to your butcher and suppliers, and using local produce." And he also revealed some of the dishes on the menu at his Fishy Fishy restaurants. "Our chef Loz is doing an Oriental style seabass with broth and some chilli to warm it up," he said. "I hope he does it now because if he doesn't I'm going to be really disappointed."

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.