Brian Turner has put his life in a book - along with some of the recipes he's gathered over the years. CHARLES HUTCHINSON tucks in.

BRIAN Turner, the Yorkshireman chef with the London restaurant and a regular supply of television work, has a new book on the shelf and this time it's personal. At 54, Brian has written his version of the cook's tale, telling his life story in A Yorkshire Lad.

With accompanying recipes, the book charts his progress from childhood in industrial Morley to his dad's transport caf in Hunslet and catering college in Leeds; to the Savoy at 17, Claridge's and the Capital Hotel; and onwards to Turner - his capital restaurant in Walton Street - and such television shows as Ready Steady Cook, Out To Lunch and his new ten-part series on the Carlton Food Network on satellite TV, A Yorkshire Pudding. Not forgetting his chairmanship of the Academy of Culinary Arts and the UK Hospitality Skills Board.

"A Yorkshire Lad is one man's journey through nearly 50 years of gastronomic growth in the UK, and there are 55 recipes, from a point in my life or in culinary history, to try to show what was happening in Britain gastronomically at the time," says Brian, putting on his salesman's hat.

He was in York last Wednesday demonstrating food for the first time in the Festival Food Theatre of the York Festival of Food and Drink, and taking the opportunity before the afternoon and evening sessions to publicise both book and TV series over a cup of coffee at the Dean Court Hotel.

Straight talking with a Yorkshire humour is his forte, and Brian says his autobiographical book is as candid as it can be, although the lawyers have had a look at it.

"The book tells my life - as far as I can remember it! People have to remember that when I started at school in the Fifties, there wasn't the interest in cooking there is today, so you didn't take photos or notes and there weren't the articles in the press."

Not that his memory has failed him. "People are mentioned," he says, although he then declined to dish any dirt on the newly-opinionated Delia Smith.

"Quite honestly, I prefer not to get involved," he says. "If you were to be a cynic, and I'm not, then you might just think that all the agents had got together in a room and said 'How do we get publicity?"

As Brian's introduction to the book points out, more cookery books are sold per capita in this country than in any other country in the world. Further-more, if you miss one cookery programme, there is always another one along in a moment. Turner, however, has no time for the term 'celebrity chef'. "There's a danger of people being pseudo celebrities, just famous for being famous and not for being recognised for their talent.

"It should also be about longevity and durability. We've already seen TV cooks come and go; the real test of fame is that you're there for long enough. Someone like Delia has nothing to prove. She's stood the test of time."

Brian balks at being called a TV chef.

"I'm not a TV chef; I'm a chef who cooks on TV occasionally, and there is a difference. If TV ended for me tomorrow, I'd still have my restaurant. But the danger is for those who haven't really made it in the industry but have found fame on TV and aren't good enough to run a restaurant or hotel."

No names, no pack drill, just plain speaking.

Brian Turner goes into overdrive with words of advice for those who fancy being the next Brian, Ainsley, Gary or Jamie. "Learn to eat properly; ask your parents to take you out to a restaurant for your birthday present; get involved in the food industry with a part-time job or in the school holidays; get into the kitchen at home and cook for your mum and dad and make bread on a Saturday. Let it be a hobby first, and then it can become your profession," he says.

Perhaps those young aspiring chefs should try out Brian's recipes in A Yorkshire Lad for Turner's English Breakfast or Fish and Chips (still his favourite dish), or maybe Yorkshire Pudding with Foie Gras and Onion Gravy.

"What that dish says is where I've come from and where I've got to; it's a nice demonstration of the journey," he says.

And finally, here is Brian's tip for perfect Yorkshire puds. A tea spoon of malt vinegar. "I don't know why or what it does, but my mother always put it in."

Even with Brian Turner, mother knows best.

Brian Turner's A Yorkshire Lad, My Life With Recipes, is newly published this week by Headline in hardback at £18.99. Brian will be promoting the book at Borders, York, on October 10 at 7pm. Admission is free