Driven
James Martin
COOKING IN THE FAST LANE – MY STORY
This book is dedicated to all the people I’ve met, loved, lost, punched, argued with, kicked, sworn at, bought from, sold to, hired, sacked, spoken about, written about, fallen out with, hated, worked with and had a drink with. You have shaped my life and this book.
Table of Contents
1 Skateboarding Around the Kitchen Table
2 Arcade Games and Aston Martins: The V8 Vantage
4 The Castle Howard Rubbish Run: The Ferrari 308
5 Les Voitures (Merde) De Mon Pere
6 Bmxs, Bunny-Hops and Brownies
8 Philip Schofield is Definitely Not a Chicken: The Fiat 126
10 ‘Extra-Curricular’: The White Vauxhall Nova
11 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
12 A New Start in the New Forest
13 The Car-Fanatic Father I Never Had
14 How a Kit Car Saved My Life: The Westfield, Part I
15 Screen Tests: The Westfield, Part II
17 Ready, Steady…Now Don’t Do it Again: The Lotus Elise, Part I
18 The Perils of Public Transport
19 A Very Royal Scandal: The Lotus Elise, Part II
21 A Considered Buy: The Ferrari 360, Part I
22 My Other Car’s a Ferrari: The Vauxhall Corsa
23 It’s Only Metal: The Ferrari 360, Part II
24 A Kick in the Nuts: The Ferrari 360, Part III
26 Jags, Ranges, Bikes and Boats
27 My First Oldie: The Gullwing
28 Follow that Car! The Ferrari 355 Again
29 The Time of My Life: The Dbs 007
31 Miss England and the Saturday Kitchen Cars
33 A Leap of Faith: The Maserati A6Gcs
Most people probably don’t know about my car obsession, but it’s quite serious, and I’ve had it a long time. From my earliest memory, my life has been dedicated to the pursuit of two passions – cooking and motors. To be honest, I can’t remember which came first; the two have always gone hand in hand. As a kid, I was either helping out in the kitchens of Castle Howard, where my father was catering manager, or driving a tractor around the fields of our farm. If I wasn’t flambéing chicken livers at catering college, I was circling Golf GTis in AutoTrader and dreaming of Ferraris. And if I wasn’t working 18-hour shifts in some of the most punishing kitchens in London, I was spending what little I’d earned on some ridiculous kit car with no roof and big shiny exhaust pipes. Every job I’ve ever had has been to finance wheels of some description. I know that most people associate me with cooking, but for people who really know me, cars are probably the first thing that spring to mind. Put it this way: I’ve got a beautiful big kitchen at home, but my garages, all three of them, are more impressive. My whole life has been wrapped up with cars in some way. Knowing that, it’s easier to understand why this has been one of the most monumental years of my life. This year has seen the realisation of one of my dreams. This year I took part in the world’s ultimate road race.
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