I'm Ian, or le Chef. I live in South Africa and I was in Italy since March, France since September, and Spain since the beginning of November. I'm moving to South Africa.

My first love is to cook food.

The food all over the region is brilliant.

I don't smoke. I play six instruments (badly) - violin, flute, sax, guitar, piano, harpsichord. I had a crippling stroke in 2011, and I'm fine now apart from a right-sided weakness and some difficulty with my speech. I ride a scooter and bicycles, I have a car license, and I walk a quite a long distances and run a short distance.

I worked in the ad industry for many years as a Creative Director then an Account Director. I have a couple of creative awards to my name and my teams'. I worked in Seychelles as a Marketing Director.

As le Chef, I cook all things. I'm happy to eat mostly vegetarian dishes, and I also love meat. I have experience in picking, curing/salting olives, I can do cured meats (Charcuterie etc.), I have a liking for wine (I am a two year graduate from way back when...). I love mushrooms (I have some South African and British books).

I'm an ex-racing driver, I've raced (past tense) in South Africa around the country in +-10 tracks. I took part in a race and rally tour over three days and it covered 2,000km.

I'm currently an author and I've written two books. I've got a fiction book called 'Rough Diamonds' soon to be published.