WHAT does a chef do after swanning around the Med and the Caribbean in millionaire yachts for a few years, cooking for the rich, the royals and the stars?

He comes back home to leafy Bucks for a bit of the good life. And now Phil Wallis is all set to share the secrets of fine wining and dining with the rest of us.

He has set up a business called Phil the Chef, offering to come into your home and cook for you. Or perhaps even better, teach you to cook.

Phil, 32, who grew up in Princes Risborough and now lives in Chalfont St Peter, always loved cooking. He recalls: "I was the youngest in a big family, and when they all came home I'd help my mum cook. We'd put on big buffets. My play tended to be around food too. I remember running a fish and chip shop in the front room mum cooked it and I sold it to my dad!"

After training in Bucks and working in a Michelin starred kitchen, he worked first in luxury chalets in the French Alps and for the last four years as a personal chef on private yachts. One St Tropez visitor wrote to him: "I have been chartering the world's most luxurious yachts for the last 50 years and have never eaten food of this calibre, ever."

It's wasn't always easy. If they were away from port he'd be up early baking breads and croissants for breakfast, then serving food all day before preparing for dinner, which one yacht owner sometimes decided he'd like at 2am. Once while cruising the Caribbean for two weeks, the mid-cruise delivery of food which arrived by seaplane was rotten. Phil dived for fish with his fingers crossed guests still expected gourmet meals each day.

"It was a fantastic experience but the time comes when you want to settle back home. I want people in Buckinghamshire to discover that with just a few insider tips, they could be preparing mouth-watering feasts for their guests and wowing them with five-star presentation at dinner parties.

"Or I can come and cook a gourmet meal for them, anything from a three-course dinner to a ten-course gourmet menu. Why should millionaires have all the fun?"

The first secret to achieving optimum flavours and results, Phil says, is to source the best ingredients. "Using small organic producers who are as passionate about their products as I am in cooking with them makes all the difference."

I had the chance to sample Phil's approach when he showed me how to concoct a ravioli. So how could we turn this humble dish into something memorable? We roasted butternut squash, whizzed it with tasty parmesan, shallots, breadcrumbs and surprise an amaretti biscuit, then encased it in home made pasta and served it with a simple but very effective sage browned butter. Simple ingredients given very TLC treatment. And he's a patient teacher.

He says: "One guy was given vouchers for lessons for his first birthday after getting married his wife said it was about time he learnt to cook. He wanted to cook a lavish dinner party for their friends, which we worked through together. He rang to say everyone was most impressed. I think he felt he'd earned his stripes."

Eating well doesn't need to pile on the pounds. Phil has teamed up with his nephew Paul, a sports therapist and fitness trainer, to offer a Body Management package in clients' homes. They can spend the morning with Paul who takes care of exercise, fitness and toning, and the afternoon with Phil, learning how to make delicious, healthy and light food.

Phil is providing regular recipe cards at Richardson Butchers at Gerrards Cross Food Hall.