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Phil Howard is one of Britain's most accomplished and respected chefs - he's also a recovering drug addict. Here, to conclude Caterer's Be Aware campaign, he talks candidly to Ark Foundation consultant Peter Kay about battling addiction, his brother's fatal overdose and the impact drugs had on his professional and private life
Phil Howard is one of the most successful chefs in Britain. The proud owner of two Michelin stars at the fashionably chic the Square in Mayfair, he also backs colleague and rising star Brett Graham at Michelin-starred the Ledbury in Notting Hill and has recently announced a partnership with London restaurateur Rebecca Mascarenhas which will see him relaunch the Bistrot Eleven eaterie (to be called Kitchen W8) in Kensington this October in addition to his existing commitments.
A graduate with a degree in microbiology and known for his considered view, he won the Chef Award at the 1998 Cateys - some two years before his contemporary Gordon Ramsay - when he was just 31. Without even delving into his wonderful family life, you'd say he has it all. What you wouldn't expect to hear is that he spent three years as a cocaine addict in the early 1990s.
I have known Phil for only a matter of years, but I had heard through the grapevine that we "went to the same church", so to speak - we both attended self-help meetings to seek a solution from active addiction.
I am deemed by some as an expert in the field of addiction - this is not my own title nor my own belief but I do acknowledge that with more than 17 years of continuous clean and sober time I have a valid opinion. My drugs of choice were alcohol, cannabis and cocaine - in that order - sex, prescription and non-prescription medication and gambling followed shortly after when the ones of choice were not at my disposal. I drank away a house, a marriage and, for a period, the love of three children, approximately /100,000 and every semblance of respect and dignity I had acquired.
Phil's story is a different one, but it still resulted in the loss of his marriage (thankfully, he and his wife, Jennie, are very much back...