CHEF Ainsley Harriott had a hand in the kitchen from a promising Enfield student when he dropped by last week.

About 50 people turned out to Pearsons department store in Enfield Town last Thursday for a book signing by Mr Harriott, who presents Ready Steady Cook on the BBC, and to see him promote a new range of cookware.

Matt Gordon, 18, formerly head boy of Highlands School, and soon to become an undergraduate at Queen's college, Cambridge, had to fill in at the last minute after Mr Harriott's official demonstrator he broke down on the motorway.

Mr Gordon, of Windmill Gardens, who works as a waiter at the Pearsons restaurant, said: "I don't really have a clue what I am doing, I just got told I had to help in an hour's time this morning. We're steaming some veg and making smoothies."

Mr Harriott said he had recently returned from doing the Good Food Show in South Africa with other celebrity chefs such as Anthony Worrall Thompson. Asked if TV chefs ever met up and went to restaurants together, he said: "After we finish work we go to a restaurant together and all the chefs want to impress us, but all we want is steak and chips and a glass of wine."

James Hurst, assistant chef at Pearsons restaurant, said he admired Mr Harriott because he'd "done a lot with his life."

He said: "I've used a lot of his recipes when I cook for my family. I like his mannerisms, the frilly stuff he does - it spices up the kitchen a bit."