‘I’ve never known fear like it’: Tom Kerridge on booze, bad-boy chefs and the crisis for pubs and restaurants

‘A pub should feel familiar, like a warm bath’ … Tom Kerridge at the Butcher’s Tap and Grill, Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Is this the world’s most macho introduction? On entering the garden behind the Butcher’s Tap and Grill in Marlow in Buckinghamshire, I’m engulfed in charcoal smoke. Through the fog I spy a countertop laden with slabs of raw meat – a leg of lamb here, a tomahawk steak there. And presiding over two enormous kamado grills is celebrity chef Tom Kerridge, 6ft 3in tall and with a meat cleaver in one hand and a butcher’s saw in the other.

“Smoke and meat!” he says with a grin before jumping into host mode. “Can I get you a drink? A tea or a coffee?” It’s a boiling hot day, so I say just a glass of water would be great. “Really?” he says, his face crumpling like I’ve just told him I’ve run over a beloved pet. “How about a gin and tonic? Or a glass of wine?”