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“I only started cooking about eight years ago,” says Gary. “I got single again and I just got fed up of ordering takeaways and going to restaurants. I love going to restaurants but I was going on my own and I just thought, oh, learn to cook. Just see; give it a go… And I just wish I’d done it 40 years earlier.”

Gary's Gambas al ajillo

He taught himself, through a mixture of recipe books and YouTube, and was soon fanatical. “If I’m not very good at something I won’t do it, but if I think I’ve got a little bit of talent then I’ll go deep,” he admits. “During Covid, when I was on my own here for a few months, I’d cook three or four meals a day. Not to eat but just to practice. Just to give myself something to do, keep me occupied; just to learn, to improve.”

2. He makes a mean “gambas al ajillo”

Gary cooks up his favourite dish from when he was at Barcelona. “It’s called gambas al ajillo, which is prawns in garlic, and there’s a lot of garlic,” he explains. “You actually take the shells out, you marinate it for a bit in loads of minced garlic, oil, salt, a bit of bicarbonate of soda… but you also cook the shells and the heads first to produce the oil that you’ll cook the prawns in eventually.” This is where the dish gets its taste from, he says, “because the real flavour in prawns is not in the body, it’s in the head”.

Gary’s close friend, dining out partner and hospitality business owner, Jonathan Downey, describes the dish as Gary’s, “killer, winner dish that he cooks at home”.

3. He used to eat fillet steak before a match

Leyla brings along a pre-match meal list from the early nineties, when Gary was at Tottenham Hotspur. His chosen dish that day, eaten a few hours before kick-off, was spaghetti Bolognese. (Gazza’s was lasagne and cornflakes!)

“When I first started at Leicester I’d have fillet steak,” he marvels. “Nobody even discussed what foods you’d eat then, really, it was just whatever you fancied.”

When he moved to Barcelona, he was astonished to find the pre-match meal involved wine. “There would always be a bottle of Rioja on the table, and four glasses, and you would drink the whole bottle between you… and then you would go and have a sleep.”

“The food is amazing in Spain,” says the ex-Barcelona player, but it doesn’t change. “When I went to Spain food wasn’t very good in the UK but now the food in the UK is, I think, the best cuisine in the world because it’s so varied. We’re so diverse in this country – you get the best of everything.”

His top five cuisines are Indian, Italian, Mexican, British and Japanese. “But Spanish would be in my top ten,” he says.

5. The thing he loves most about cooking is feeding people

“The biggest satisfaction I get out of cooking is cooking for other people… and giving people something to enjoy. I think that’s the joy of cooking,” says the broadcaster. “I love the process. I love chopping, I love prepping, I love going and buying my produce and I actually love the cooking aspect of it, but when you give someone something really satisfying, I think that gives you a lot of pleasure.”

When they record podcasts at his house, he does all the catering too, for 12 to 14 people. “I love it, it’s such a challenge,” he states.

6. He worked on a fruit and veg stall as a kid

Gary comes from a lineage of market traders. His parents had a fruit-and-veg stall in Leicester. “I used to help out in the summer holidays or maybe at Christmas when it’s really busy,” he recalls. “I think it was one of the motivations to be a footballer though because it’s such hard work, standing out there all day in the cold.”

His parents trade did however mean he was well fed. “We used to eat a lot of fish because the fruit market was also next to the fish market.” Every Friday his dad would “swap with one of his fishmonger friends… he’d do him a big basket of fruit and he’d get a piece of halibut or something.”

Gary’s second-born son has witnessed the change from novice to pro cook first hand. “I learnt my first dish from dad,” says Harry. “We talk about food quite a lot. We talk about cooking a lot… I love it as much as dad does now.”

Slow cooked leg of lamb – a favourite Sunday roast.

I’m terrible with chocolate... once you start, you’re doomed.

The pair even cook together. “He’s the only person I’ll allow to help me,” Gary admits. “I like people in my kitchen but I like to be left cooking.”

Harry says it’s tough to choose a favourite dish of his dad’s but “the rogan josh is amazing”.

8. He always cooks a Sunday roast

On Sundays, Gary’s four sons will head round for a meal – normally roast beef or a slow cooked leg of lamb. “There’s too many of us for chicken,” says Gary. “You’d need about three chickens, the way this lot eat!”

“Gary’s Sunday roast is the best by far,” says his foodie friend, Jonathan. “Sunday at Gary’s house is a really fabulous feast. He really treasures that day with his sons.”

9. Chocolate is his guilty pleasure

The Walkers crisps ambassador admits he’s partial to a crisp. But his real guilty pleasure is chocolate: “I’m terrible with chocolate.” He’ll get through a whole bar once it’s open: “Once you start, you’re doomed.”

“I started doing a lot of desserts in lockdown and I couldn’t stop eating them so I stopped,” he admits. “I’ve got such a sweet tooth.”

10. His last ever meal would include custard

What would he choose to eat if it was his last ever meal?

“It depends on my mood, which probably wouldn’t be very good if I knew it was going to be my last meal!” he jokes. “So, I think I’d start with my nice little tomato gnocchi bake thing.” Then it’s a toss-up between a curry and a “really good, crispy paella with a nice Rioja”. Dessert would be an “old school pudding” like treacle sponge and custard. “I love custard,” he declares.