Sophie Michell: My life in travel

I plan trips where I'm likely to be surrounded by food.

If I am travelling to a beautiful place, no matter how lovely the scenery is, if the food isn't great it just doesn't work for me.

I get my inspiration from the US.

I've just come back from an amazing trip in northern California. I went to San Francisco and spent some time at the food market looking at what was on trend and what was coming up. I then drove south to Big Sur. When I say Californian food, people aren't really sure what I mean – it's clean cooking, very colourful and bright. They're very into fresh produce there.

Most people hate LA, but I love it.

If you don't know anyone it can be quite difficult to get around. However, if you're there for a bit and you've got good friends there and know where you're going, you can be at the beach in Santa Monica, you can be up in the canyons, or in the hills. Los Angeles has loads of different areas, which I absolutely love.

A lot of the food there seems to be really cool at the moment. They have a really interesting way of putting ingredients together. You could call it fusion; Asian mixed with Mediterranean and lots of seasonal produce. It's quite light too; you don't tend to get very heavy sauces. It ticks all my food boxes.

... But I love it. I think there's a lot to it that's really good, and we've got amazing produce here. But when I was 11 years old, English food was very different to how it is now. Nowadays, you can really eat well, even on a street level, but when I was younger, unless you went to a restaurant, the standard wasn't that good.

I buy lots of recipe books when I'm away.

I brought back four this time, which was completely ridiculous because my luggage was so heavy. But I like having them, and seeing how things are done when I travel – that's always inspirational. We travelled a lot when I was younger and that's what triggered my becoming a chef.

Greece is a great food destination.

My family has lived on Crete for 15 years, so I visit them there a lot. I think people now, what with the economic troubles, have got a bad image of the country. But when I go back I'm still surprised by how beautiful and rustic it all is, how fantastic the food is and how cheap it all is. Their ingredients are all very natural; they just sell you the food, they don't have any ready-made meals or anything like that.

Get on Twitter for restaurant recommendations.

Twitter is a really good source for food festivals, restaurant openings and special offers. I think people could utilise it more.

The idea of fine dining seems outdated.

Food is much more about pleasure and enjoyment, social interaction and fun. And that's what it should be about – a much more Mediterranean take.

Airport food is changing.

It's always been really difficult to get a nice healthy meal when you're travelling, but all over now people are becoming conscious of how food affects you when you travel. I think it's a great accolade in some respects to open a restaurant in an airport; it's challenging because it's such a small market, but it's good that chefs are taking more interest in it because it's very relevant to travellers.

I've never missed a flight, touch wood.

I hate the idea of it, although I have had to wait eight, 10 hours in an airport. Every time I book a trip, I plan these mad, James Bond-type itineraries which involve taking five flights. But I love travelling, so I tend to enjoy it all.

Sophie Michell is a food writer and the executive chef at Pont Street, Belgraves Hotel