Barry McGuigan

Aged 46

Food heaven: pasta, chicken, fish and vegetables; Irish fry ups

Food hell: Barry doesn’t have a food hell.

Former Boxer, Barry McGuigan, is no stranger to pressure. He channelled his anger and aggression to become the best in the world during his professional fighting career. But now he has hung up his boxing gloves and is heading into the kitchen – will he be able to leave his fighting talk at the door?

Barry says: “Aggression is primal. Everyone has aggression and every boxer is born with aggression. Every fighter that has been a great fighter has had the ability to use that in a very special way.

“I pick things up slowly, especially things I have never done, and I’ve never had the inclination to start cooking. My only concern is that I will get angry and I don’t want to do that. Anyone who gets angry at someone else – it isn’t nice.”

Barry thinks that he doesn’t stand a chance up against a woman in the kitchen – mainly because unlike women he can’t think about more than one thing at any one time!

“The big issue is women can do two things at once but men can’t and I certainly can’t! Sometimes I can’t even have a conversation because I am thinking about something else. I don’t know if it’s from my addled brain from boxing or just an idiosyncrasy however I find multi - tasking hard.

“I want to learn to cook and I realise that in order to learn I have got to apply myself. My objective is to be a decent cook by the end of it and I hope I stay in long enough and people can tolerate me for long enough.

“I think I will be like Mutley from Wacky Races in the kitchen – growling and getting grumpy. And the odd Father Ted ‘feck’ thrown in for good measure!”

On working with Marco Pierre White, Barrie says: “I hope Marco and I can click, there is no guarantee that will happen. I don’t really know Marco – I hear conflicting reports about him. Enfant Terrible and I then hear he is a really decent guy.

“I’ve met Marco twice at a Christmas lunch. I don’t get intimidated – being a fighter you don’t. But he is a big lad – as my father would say, ‘I’d rather keep him for a week than a fortnight!’”

Barry’s cooking repertoire is currently somewhat limited to beans on toast, fry ups and spaghetti, but he is hoping that Hell’s Kitchen might make a chef of him so he can put the pinny on from time to time and cook for his family.

“My goal primarily is to learn to cook and cook several dishes well. I want to be able to feed my family and they all can have a day off. I have never had to think about that so now it is time to learn.

“Also with my son being a boxer he has to eat certain things to remain at his fighting weight so I would like to be able to cook for him when my wife is away.

“I don’t know what I have let myself in for! The difference with this is it’s a proper task and there is an objective – I need that objective. I can do the basics – beans on toast and occasionally I can do spaghetti but I don’t do it very well.

Barry, who counts his dream dinner party guests as James Joyce, Mohammad Ali and JFK, is worried about the long hours and hopes there will be some downtime amongst the hard graft.

“I am worried about the long boring tedious stuff – I have a damaged knee ligament and can’t stand still for long periods of time. I tell you how I know that – following my daughter and my wife around shopping! So I hope that there will be times to sit down and relax.

“As a boxer you go in the ring for three minutes and you sit down for one minute and as an amateur you box for two minutes and sit down for one minute. So I will be looking for rest, but I am a hard worker and a grafter and I really want to learn.”