BELIEVE it or not, the first time I tried bread and butter puddding, I thought it was truly awful.

I went to a restaurant with my parents when I was a youngster and the chef served up a really disgusting, dense, tasteless version of the famous pudding I had heard so much about.

I couldn’t believe everyone raved about something so horrible so as soon as I got home I attempted to make it myself; it was a revelation.

It took a few attempts before I got the recipe perfect and I soon started making it all the time.

One of my first jobs as a chef was at an Italian restaurant, but this good old British pud didn’t sit well on the menu — or with my boss — so I used to make it in secret and serve it to the customers when he’d left for the day or took his break.

Customers would ask for the illicit dessert under their breath, ordering it in code or with a secret wink and it soon became my infamous signature dessert. This was one of the first dishes I put on the menu when I opened the Chorley Old road restaurant in 2001.

I’ve tried to take it off the menu a couple of times but the customers (and die-hard bread and butter pudding fans) won’t let me. This is also a really inexpensive, easy dessert to make and great if you’re having a dinner party or feeding a lot of people. Some say I shouldn’t part with our ‘famous’ recipe but it’s too good not to share!