Food News, with Deborah Yewdall

A BUNCH of bananas, a madeira cake, a miniature bottle of rum and six shallots presented TV chef Kevin Woodford one of his toughest challenges.

He was given just 20 minutes to transform the strange mixture of ingredients into a delicious dish.

It is the kind of torture Kevin regularly puts himself through as one of the guest chefs on the BBC's hugely popular Ready Steady Cook programme. The Liverpudlian chef appeared on the first ever show two-and-a-half years ago and has been a regular ever since.

And now he has helped choose the recipes for the new Ready Steady Cook 3 book, which is published today. Although the show has given him a few tough challenges along the way, he says he loves the element of surprise.

Kevin said: "I love doing Ready Steady Cook because you never quite know what to expect. Probably the worst bag of ingredients I ever got was the bananas, madeira cake, rum and shallots. When the contestant got the ingredients out I looked at them and thought: 'Oh no, what am I going to do?'

"Luckily I managed to create three banana desserts and I used the shallots to make a chutney.

"Some people think we get told what the ingredients are going to be and that we really get longer than 20 minutes but I have never even had a glimpse of what is inside the bag and there is no running over or cheating. What you see is what you get."

Kevin, who also appears on Can't Cook Won't Cook, is a regular on the BBC's Holiday programme and still finds time to run six restaurants on the Isle of Man, where he lives.

But cooking is still his first love and he has a refreshingly relaxed attitude to it.

"It is my favourite way of relaxing," he said. "I put on a good CD, have a mug of coffee and start cooking. I don't follow recipes. I just throw together whatever I want. My philosophy is to cook from the heart - if you see a recipe you want to try but it has an ingredient you don't like, then just leave it out.

"Don't worry about following recipes exactly and don't keep checking your watch. Just do your own thing, cook the way you want to and enjoy yourself."

CHEF'S TIP - Kevin's advises timid cooks to choose a recipe that has only three or four simple stages. That way you can't go far wrong.

WITH zany fast-talking chef Gary Rhodes is bringing his own "rock 'n' roll" brand of cooking to East Lancashire.

The Michelin star-holder and 1996 Chef of Year is bringing his live roadshow to Blackburn next month. And anyone who thinks cooking is dull is in for shock, with a show that has more in common with pop bands like Pulp and Suede than Mrs Beeton and Delia Smith.

Organisers promise the Gary Rhodes tour is unlike any other cookery roadshow. King George's Hall will be transformed with a state-of-the-art kitchen centre and a specially-designed audio-visual system to enable the audience to see him close up. Gary, 36, is one of a breed of new British super-chefs and shows like Rhodes Around Britain, his books and videos have helped spark a new wave of interest in cooking in Britain.

Both his restaurants have been awarded Michelin stars and with the recent opening of City Rhodes in London he is going for the hat-trick. Look out for the Food News interview with Gary Rhodes in March and a chance to win free tickets to the show. Tickets are available from King George's Hall box office on 01254 582582. Prices start at £9.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.