I spend two hours on stage cooking, and I end up eating pizza

(LAUGHS) Doing the television shows keeps me fit. I’ve actually lost weight doing them. If only I worked all the time than I would be fine, but I’m never going to be the thinnest chef in the world.

Dairy Milk chocolate is the worst temptation for me. YOU know, when you are on tour you miss nice food and you spend your life eating pizza or a curry at midnight. (Laughs) I spend two hours on stage cooking all this nice food and then the crew and roadies eat it all and I’m left eating pizza.

We go through so much food while on tour. We have about 16 roadies and they work hard and as soon as the show finishes they dive in and devour everything. MUM came along... twice. She liked it so much she came back again and she’s already got tickets for the new tour.

She’s happiest at the moment that my American Adventure series is on between the Coronation Street episodes on Friday.

That’s like winning the Oscar for my mum. It doesn’t get any better than that for her.

I’m sure I would have to appear on Corrie to beat it.

She even texted me the TV listings when it started, to show me, she was so excited. (LAUGHS) It’s a different world. You never really see a live audience on television and so, when you’re in that kind of environment, it’s almost surreal. There is an instant reaction.

I learned you have to pace yourself. I’m working with people who organise all these big Genesis tours and they know what they doing. You come off stage and 10 minutes later you are on your way out of the arena.

You get to see a lot of the UK very quickly. It’s a big event and you’ve got to gear yourself up.

My mates came along to the last tour thinking it was just going to be some cookery demonstration and they were quite surprised what a good, fun show it was. I want to make it exciting and interesting. It doesn’t get bigger than this. I WAS nervous before the Hammersmith and Blackpool dates. But Hammersmith, well, I remember Duran Duran playing there back in the day and walking past and hearing screaming inside so to drive past and see your name in lights is a pinch-yourself moment.

Walking out in front of 4,000 people in Birmingham or in Glasgow. Those are all pinchyourself moments. You think ‘What’s going on?’. I MIGHT bring Ralph along to one or two arena dates. Cooper is a working dog and likes to be outside, but Ralph is a real superstar. There would be Ralph T-shirts and Ralph merchandise if I agreed. WE actually take over a hangar at Heathrow three days beforehand. We build a set and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. We then strike everything down and then we do it on stage on opening night.

There’s still the potential for things to go wrong, it’s a live show, but we plan ahead as much as we can. I DID James Martin’s American Adventure for ITV and I’m about to go to another country for the next series. Another country, another adventure, I can’t say any more than that right now but it will be on TV next year. I will be filming in September, before the tour starts.