I drank cocktails by the pint until I hit 30 stone!

Top chef is 18st but can’t touch a drop

CELEBRITY chef Tom Kerridge has spoken about his battle with drink which saw him downing pints of an Italian cocktail to deal with the stresses of work.

The Michelin-starred chef revealed how he would always keep a bottle of gin and a full case of beer in his car because he feared being left without access to booze.

Kerridge, pictured, described how he would order a pint of negroni – an Italian cocktail made of gin, vermouth and Campari – after work as a ‘starter’ and be the last man standing in drinking bouts.

‘I was drinking colossal amounts,’ he said on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. ‘I don’t understand ‘‘a drink’’. You know you have gone beyond that when you drive around with a case of beer and a bottle of gin in your boot in case, wherever you’re working, the bar has closed.’ However, the 45 year old, who has since gone teetotal and shed 12st from his 30st frame, said he does not regret his ‘colossal’ boozing days because it was a release from driving his business forward. The chef, whose TV credits include MasterChef and whose gastropub The Hand & Flowers in south-east England, got its second Michelin star in 2012, admits drinking to get ‘smashed drunk’.

But five years ago, as he approached his 40th birthday, he realised he had to change after a heavy drinking session.

‘I went cold turkey. One day that was it... I have completely destroyed alcohol for myself,’ he said. ‘I would like to think that maybe one day I would be able to enjoy a glass of red wine with the roast beef that I love. But at this moment, there is no way that is allowed in my life.’