Trevor to start on kitchen floor

After winning the RTE hit cooking show HEAT, chef Trevor Thornton says that he has no problems starting at the back of the kitchen and working his way to the front.While Trevor wowed judges and the "customers" at the HEAT restaurant with his haute cuisine, he feels that it would be unfair for a head chef to bump him to the front of the kitchen before he has earned his stripes.'I might have cooked for lots of people on the show but working in a kitchen as part of a team is a totally different story. I am on a four-day week at the minute and hopefully I will get a day in a restaurant training under a top chef. There"s actually something in the pipeline at the minute but because the details haven"t been finalised I can"t really talk about it.'Trevor, who lives in Petitswood, has also just announced the very best in good news, as wife Tina is expecting their first child.'We are over the moon, of course,' he said. 'But we have also got to think hard about the future now and there won"t be any plans to pack up and start a restaurant or anything because we have to pay the mortgage,' he laughed.Trevor also praised his wife"s cooking and said that 'she can hold her own' in the kitchen on the rare occasions that she has to cook.'There are times when I can"t make it home in time to put up a dinner and Tina always does a great job but I almost always make the food in the house which I divide into two categories; mid-week and weekends.'During the week I will make soups, stews and curries but at the weekend I will spend hours creating something. I"m having friends over next weekend and I"ll be planning and cooking the seven courses over two days.'Trevor also says that making your own is not only better for you but can also help save you a few quid in the long run.'Since the show I make all my own stocks and sauces. The trick is to know what you can do with the left over stuff. Take a chicken caesar salad, I would make my own dressing for say €5 and not only can I freeze the leftovers but I can use the leftover ingredients to make something different for the next night.'After the final of HEAT was aired last Tuesday night Trevor had to jet off to France for work and had to wait for the weekend to enjoy his 15 minutes when he got back to Mullingar.'Yes, people have stopped me in the street which is great but I"ve also been contacted by a lot of people who I never thought I would hear from again. People from school, college and even primary school have been in touch to say well done which is really nice of them,' he said.