It is hard to accept the chef and painter Simon Bonwick plays with the same hand as the rest of us. He does not seem bound by time in the same way. He takes the regulation 24-hour day and simply fits more in; perhaps he scrumps hours here and there.
Take a look at the evidence. There are the nine children, instant defeat for anyone else. “I have a very happy marriage,” he shrugs. (“He has grown his own kitchen brigade,” is how Fay Maschler puts it). The Crown in Bray is his 10th pub in two decades. His other Crown, in Burchett Green, held a Michelin star for five or so years — a feat he achieved single-handed, cooking all on his own. One-man kitchens barely exist these days, and with good reason. Most would wilt. Or worse.
