It was here, inspired by local fishermen, that he fell in love with the idea of foraging, later meeting friends who went on to establish a business sourcing wild mushrooms for the Carluccio's chain of Italian food shops and restaurants.

But she had taken her son to Ibiza, where she wanted to try a grape diet for her health. Hider's mother, who had studied medicine, died of cancer when he was 16. His interest in plants as natural foods was sparked very early on by his mother: 'She was interested in herbal medicine so I was introduced to nettles as a child.' Hider now supplies London restaurants, such as Gordon Ramsay's Boxwood Cafe and Claridge's, with these kinds of ingredients, proving that unusual flavours need not go hand-in-hand with excessive food miles. 'I got caught out one day with six hours of work ahead of me, so I nibbled on a blade of wood sorrel and a rosehip and I was fine,' he recalls. And while a handful of weeds may not be everybody's idea of convenience food, this 21st-century hunter-gatherer can go a full shift on them. No ripe blackberries yet? No problem: Hider eats the leaves. Red clover on your lawn? Lovely in a sandwich. Those nettles you plan to cut down and throw away this weekend? He would make them into a soup. Life is one long round of ready meals for this professional forager, who can rustle up a feast in the most unlikely surroundings. It's probably fair to say that Yun Hider rarely goes hungry.

He eats shoots and leaves