Bradford-born chef Clive Fretwell has turned his sights away from his home city's famous curries to concentrate on an exotic taste of the Far East.

For Clive has become a master chef in preparing sushi - based on Japanese fish and rice dishes - and now runs a hi-tech restaurant in London.

Clive's love affair with food began as a young boy with the rich smells and tastes of his mother's cooking in the family home in Bierley.

After completing a two-year cookery course at Carlton Bolling College, he spread his wings and spent 14 years learning his trade under the expert guidance of Raymond Blanc, eventually running the world famous chef's school of cookery

Now the father-of-two is head chef of the Itsu sushi restaurant in Chelsea and lives in the capital with his wife Julie and daughters Claire, 14, and 15-year-old Selina.

The 39-year-old has even had a taste of stardom himself when he appeared alongside Ainsley Harriott in the star's Gourmet Express programme on BBC2.

But his main preoccupation is coming up with new dishes for Itsu's ever changing menu which is served on plates which diners pick off a conveyor belt running around the restaurant.

Mr Fretwell said: "I come from a background of French cuisine but I had gone about as far as I could in that direction. I needed a new challenge, and when I came to London I was given the opportunity to start from fresh with Asian cuisine.

"We are a sushi restaurant but we also offer other varieties of dishes with Asian influences.''

Mr Fretwell, who worked alongside Leeds-born super chef Marco Pierre-White in the kitchens of Raymond Blanc, said it was his mother Jean's influence which steered him towards a life slaving over hot stoves.

He said: "Mother was always a very keen cook. Hers was very traditional English cooking and she especially used to enjoy making pastries. There was always fresh bread at home as well as cakes and tarts. Mother said when I was five I said to her that I was going to cook Sunday dinner that day and it just went from there."