The Michelin-starred chef based in Marlow has shared an insight into his health journey after going from alcohol and food binges to a successful hospitality career.

Kerridge, who owns The Hand and Flowers, The Coach and The Butchers’ Tap and Grill in Marlow, where he lives with his wife and eight-year-old son, told Men’s Health this week that at one point, his drinking was so excessive that he would have been the equivalent to local sporting hero Steve Redgrave had alcoholism been an Olympic sport.

The comparison with the sporting legend – who studied at Great Marlow School before winning medals for rowing in five consecutive Olympic Games – was even more apt than it seemed, with Kerridge detailing the strict exercise schedule he still observes to keep off the pounds.

The 51-year-old, who has spoken openly about his path from heavy drinking and junk food to a healthier lifestyle, said he “swam a mile everyday” to lose weight as well as cutting out alcohol and “eating very little in the way of carbohydrates”.

He is now completely teetotal and, alongside the Redgrave reference, compared himself to Breaking Bad’s Walter White for how regularly he flogs alcoholic wares without mucking in himself. 

Kerridge told Men's Health: “I sell (alcohol) in the most amazing, incredible places, but I don’t partake. Nothing at all. November this year will be 11 years.

“I miss the chaos and the mayhem I was in (but) I’m pleased I’ve done it, and I’d argue that I did it better than everyone else. If there was an Olympics for drinking, I would have been Sir Steve Redgrave.

“I’d be celebrated. I’d be Sports Personality of the Year, and I’d have won it a couple of times, I reckon.”