Majken Bech Bailey on her life in food

I think my earliest memories of food might have been when I was a very little girl. I was around four or five years old, on holiday at my grandparents, going out to pick fresh Danish strawberries. We would always pick so many kilos that my grandma’s house turned into a jam factory for days afterwards.

I have a deep interest in food and I like pretty much any kind of food. My very favourite thing is to be in the kitchen, cooking — whether that’s just day-to-day cooking for family, or something more complicated and ambitious for friends. I love how food stimulates all our senses and brings us all together.

I think the first thing I probably learned to cook properly was French toast. When I was around eight or nine, we had a phase of loving it so much that I would make it for me and my sister at home after school almost every day.

I always had a massive interest in food and hospitality. From when I was a little girl I worked at cafés, pizza restaurants – anywhere I could really, as soon as I was old enough to earn my own money. After I finished business college, I was lucky enough to get a summer job at Henne Kirkeby Kro in Denmark, a gorgeous country inn that currently has two Michelin stars. I completely fell in love with the beautiful world of fine dining that summer, and never went back to university.

My go-to breakfast is a slice of toasted sourdough. It has to be with Harry’s smoked paprika nut butter — it’s very important it’s that particular flavour! Sprinkled with sea salt and topped with banana, it is so easy and so good.

For dinner parties, I love a good tapas setup. I like great local cheeses and interesting charcuterie, filled sweet peppers, olives, salted nuts, homemade sourdough, small meatballs in tomato sauce and prawns in garlic butter. I know there’s not a lot of cooking involved with that, but I love the atmosphere sitting around a table of sharing plates brings.

My culinary inspiration is my grandma. Since I was very young, so many weekends and holidays have been spent with my grandma and grandad. They lived on a little farm with livestock and my grandad loved hunting, so I grew up helping to make everything from scratch. She would always be in the kitchen, cooking, baking, peeling potatoes, making stock, and we kids were always involved, and expected and encouraged to help. It wasn’t just when it came to food though that she has been a massive inspiration, but also when it comes to hosting and hospitality. At any occasion — birthdays, Christmas, Easter — she would have different table settings, special glasses, cutlery, the tablecloth that was only ever used for this one occasion every year. Her attention to detail and the way she made setting a table an adventure has inspired me ever since, giving me a true and authentic foundation for my career.

My last meal on Earth would be a Danish open sandwich from the restaurant Palægade in Copenhagen. From all the many toppings they offer, I would pick hand-peeled shrimps on toast with a deep-fried egg that is perfectly runny inside, topped with Unika ‘gold selection’ caviar. For dessert, it would have to be fresh Danish strawberries with double cream, one of my favourite things of all time, the taste taking me straight back to my childhood.

This is probably a strange one, but the comfort food I cannot resist is a salad. A really good salad with beans, broccoli, salted almonds, humus and some satay chicken.

My go-to quick meal I cook when I’m tired and hungry is stir fry! I like any kind of vegetables sautéed in a pan, a little chicken, a few spices and you’re good to go.

The one food I cannot stand is raw onions. I like onions cooked in any shape or form, but I can’t stand raw white onions.

For a hangover cure, I have always been told that half a teaspoon of salt before going to bed and loads of water will give you a good foundation for the next day.