Omar Allibhoy is a revolutionary – a culinary revolutionary. The dashing Spaniard, dubbed "the Antonio Banderas of cooking" by Gordon Ramsay, is on a mission to spread the word, and the love, for the cuisine of his homeland by leading a tapas revolution in the UK.
And not just in restaurants either. The charismatic young chef wants to show people just how easy creating delicious and authentic Spanish food in their own homes can be.
Omar came to England eight years ago to learn English. After spending two years with legendary El Bulli chef Ferran Adria he was keen to expand his repertoire and learn about flavours and techniques from around the world.
"I had spent all my life cooking Spanish food but I wanted to learn other cuisines too," he said. "Eight years ago there were not many different cuisines in Spain.
"There was French, Italian, and some very, very bad Chinese and that was it.
"I thought that if I wanted to learn other cuisines I had to first learn English."
But it wasn't long before Omar realised that there were very few places offering good quality Spanish cuisine in the UK, and that while people would happily cook up a curry or a pot of pasta at home very few people would turn their hand to tapas, and so the Tapas Revolution began.
"I started to realise how badly Spanish food was represented in this country," he said.
"That's when I started Tapas Revolution and started doing exactly the opposite of what I came to England to do."
He has just released his first book Tapas Revolution, which shows people how to make tapas dishes at home using every day ingredients.
"When you cook Indian food you need a hell of a lot of spices in the cupboard and all kinds of ingredients that you never have.
"When you make Thai food you need fish sauce, and palm sugar and things that you never use again, or are difficult to find.
"But in Spain, we share the same dry goods cupboard as here in the UK.
"We use the same things and that is the concept of the book.
"Years ago, before I started writing the book I heard a statistic that 75 per cent of the UK population buy their ingredients in the five main supermarket chains.
"I thought that if that is the case I need to cook with ingredients you can find in those shops, so all the recipes can be cooked with ingredients you find there.
"The accessibility of it is very important to me."
Omar believes there are several reasons why we have failed to embrace Spanish cuisine in the same way that we have with other cultures.
"It is a concoction of reasons," he said. "The Italians went to the US and spread their cuisine all over the world.
"The same has happened with Chinese and Indian in the UK. But the people of Spain never emigrated.
"We went to Germany in very small numbers, and Peru, but nothing significant that could make any changes.
"Although people travel to Spain and enjoy the food it has never translated to people cooking it at home.
"There's a very simple reason for that – no-one has ever shown you how to do it.
"If you put on the TV there are lots of Italian chefs representing Italian food – Gennaro Conntaldo, Antonio Carluccio, even Jamie Oliver. French food has Raymond Blanc, and Chinese has Ken Hom but there has never been an ambassador for Spanish food on TV.
"That is why I started this tapas revolution. I wanted to spread the word for good Spanish cooking.
"I do not know if I am the best entertainer, but I am very certain of my cooking skills."
Omar will be at Topping & Company Booksellers on Thursday, September 12 for an evening of tapas tastings and to talk about Tapas Revolution.
The evening starts at 7.45pm and tickets cost £7 if collected before the day, £8 if picked up on the night.
The ticket price can be redeemed against the price of the book.
For more information visit www.toppingbooks.co.uk.
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