It’s all about evolution and endeavour, really. When we first opened in 1989 I wanted to do a savoury bar with a kind of English tapas. Dorset snails, Welsh rarebit, devils on horsebacks, things like that. We wanted to celebrate the Auld Alliance between France and Scotland on the menu, too, with casseroles. But now most home kitchens have better-stocked cupboards than restaurant kitchens had in 1989. So we had to adapt and I realised that compartmentalising the menu in that way had to change.

In the early days we had a French chef and I asked him if we could put chips on the menu. Up until then we had parmentier potatoes which took a lot of effort and time to make. He said ‘no’ because, in his words, ‘everyone will want them’. I couldn’t believe it. We serve chips and burgers now.

Well Boisdale isn’t just an extension of my personality. It’s a huge team effort. But I don’t think there’s a lack of personalities. I think a lot of small restaurants in Soho and the East End are showing a lot more passion than existed among catering staff in the ’80s. That was when everyone went to Westminster catering college and came out all making the same French dishes.

There’s a dark side now, though, and that’s chain restaurants. I won’t mention it by name but I went to a smart opening yesterday and it felt like an airport restaurant. There was no soul or personality. It was just marketing on a brand name and, frankly, it wouldn’t have been good enough even for Las Vegas. I knocked on the panelling and it was just MDF with a veneer. Restaurants are a business, of course, and need to make money but there’s no individual passion to so many new places.

It probably does have an effect. Nigel is a great bloke but I wasn’t a Brexiteer. Who comes here from the political world doesn’t bother me and it doesn’t bother a lot of my customers. I won’t be dictated to in terms of who I invite here and who I don’t. We have a lot of left-wing advocates who come here. Though, I admit, there’s probably more on the right coming here to eat and drink at the moment.

Restaurants are high risk and the economic environment when we started serious negotiations in 2009 was turbulent. However, this also presented opportunities on lease terms. Overall, I had great faith in Canary Wharf as the vibrant capital of the increasingly fashionable and invigorated East End.

Boisdale of Canary Wharf was built with love neither following fashion or money. Success often follows sincere and enthusiastic endeavour. I continue to be pleasantly surprised and thrilled as each day progresses. Yes, there are bad days. But they are soon forgotten.

Reading between the lines, you can see how the cost of labour has reduced menus. Portion control is much more stringent. These brigades of pastry chefs that so many restaurants had are rarely there now. This is why Michelin-starred restaurants often don’t make any money as the overheads are so huge. Running a restaurant is great when it’s going well, but it’s like being on a battlefield when it’s going badly and you can’t pay the bills.

There is entitlement and bad behaviour, for sure, but it’s always been there. You can’t expect your favourite customers to always be on sparkling form. But there are some customers who, it seems, really want a restaurant to fail.

They come in and want things taken off their bill and just want to throw their weight around. Those kinds of people always remind me of those ordinary citizens in Nazi Germany who you would never think could be mass killers, but it turns out were capable of doing appalling things. I always think obnoxious diners would have made good Nazis!

We don’t rebel but we do evolve and innovate for certain. Half of London was out to lunch back when Boisdale opened. Even taxi drivers would come in for two pints! Everyone drank at lunchtime. But the culture has changed. Yet, for me, the essence of what makes a good restaurant is still the same. Life is about living and ultimately you want to work with people you like. It’s in our DNA. We’re social animals. We take comfort from being physically alongside people we know and like. So the idea of working from home is absolute bulls**t to me.

I had someone apply for a marketing job not long ago. She’d never worked in a restaurant before and wanted to work from home four days a week. I mean, what the f**k? We need to pull our finger out. We don’t work hard enough in my opinion – and hard work is what it takes to run a restaurant.

There are so many! Our Cigar Smoker of the Year Dinner & Awards, always immaculately hosted by Tom Parker Bowles in Canary Wharf, are definitely one of my favourite annual Boisdale events. Entertaining luminaries such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Baroness Trumpington, Burt Reynolds, Jeremy Irons, Andrew Neil, Charlie Sheen, General Sir Patrick Sanders, Kelsey Grammer, Ray Winstone, and Dolph Lundgren, at what we like to think is one of the world’s greatest annual cigar dinners, has been an extraordinary pleasure and honour.

But I do also adore our Music Awards hosted each year by the wonderful Jools Holland. Stories? Yes, there are many stories but sadly for the time being they will have to remain under the wrap of The Boisdale Official Secrets Act!

It’s my life. I don’t plan anything. I just get on with the day. The idea of retiring doesn’t horrify me; I’m a songwriter, so I’d like to do more of that. I love to write, and I think I could do a lot more as an artist. But I love what we do here. The most time I’ve ever taken off is two weeks.

I massively admire and enjoy the surviving old-school stalwart time machines like Wiltons, Rules and Bellamy’s. I am also very fond of my neighbour Olivo’s food and always delightful service. At heart I delight in virtually all passionately-led owner-operated restaurants irrespective of cultural cuisine, of which I am so glad to say London is now full to the brim.