My dad is Jamaican and a passionate cook so I grew up eating a lot of Jamaican food. Being mixed race I'm lucky to have that contrast - having a white family and a black family and being able to appreciate each culture for what it is.

If I'm honest though, I find English food very boring. It's comforting, but it has no kick. Whereas my nan makes a roast dinner and doesn't season the chicken, in Jamaican cuisine everything is well seasoned using garlic, thyme, black pepper, scotch bonnet peppers, curry powder. I do like my nan's roast dinner though, and I love a fry-up for breakfast.

Food is natural in Jamaica. You're driving along and you pick up a jelly coconut. In my uncle's garden they have an ackee tree. The last time I visited I sat with his wife picking ackee, cracking open the huge hard red shells and prising the yellow fruit off the black stone.

Jamaicans don't usually go to restaurants to eat, we like home cooking. For me Cottons is the exception. What's nice is that they haven't tried to westernise the food too much, yet people who aren't Jamaican can come here and enjoy it. It's great cuisine, but it's true to our roots. I had my birthday party here last year.

I usually order ackee and saltfish, the Jamaican national dish. You can have it for breakfast with fried dumplings, for dinner with white rice, or with yams and green banana to make it more filling. I love oxtail stew, curried goat, and the jerk pork with rice and peas and homemade coleslaw. The food's got a real kick to it.

In Jamaican cooking we use all of the animal, we eat pig's tail, oxtail and cow's foot - nothing goes to waste. In the Western world we tend to be very wasteful and greedy - travelling has made me realise that. In America the portions are ridiculous, there is so much waste. But you go to India or Japan and food is respected. Food is political. I inherited that idea from my mum. She's been a vegetarian for 20 years because she's against the way we farm animals. A part of me would love to be vegetarian, but the Jamaican in me says no way! Still, I respect my mum's beliefs. I try not to waste food or buy food for the sake of it.

Jamaican food is not instant. You can't just whip it up. We like to season the meat the night before, and cook it slowly. With oxtail you cook it for hours until it falls off the bone. When I'm working I go to takeaways, or my [Jamaican] nan's because she's always got something on the pot. She's the queen of cooking, I'm yet to find anyone who can beat her.

When I was doing Strictly Come Dancing we ate a lot of Jamaican food because there was a takeaway nearby. We'd order fried fish and hard food - boiled dumplings or yam or green banana - it's really stodgy and very filling. You can't compromise, we don't do light dishes.

Why would people be surprised that I eat hearty food? I love food too much to care about having a flat stomach. Some people will compromise what they eat to wear certain outfits, but I'd rather eat a nice dinner than put on a crop top. I can't stand celebrity magazines, the ones that draw circles around bits of cellulite. Why do we buy into that? Flaws make us human. How much longer are we going to be talking about diets? Let's give it up. There are more important things in life. OFM

History

The sister restaurant to the original Camden branch opened in 2006. It boasts an impressive rum list (300 at last count) and was a finalist for best restaurant in the 2007 Caribbean Food and Drink Awards.

Popular dishes

Renowned for its West Indian dishes including Cottons' Famous Curried Goat, Jerk Baby Chicken and Trinidadian Mixed Fish Curry. Three-course set dinner menu £21.50

Who eats there

Trevor Nelson, Shaggy, Jay Z, Sol Campbell, Halle Berry and Samuel L Jackson.

Opens: Lunch, Mon-Fri , 12pm-4pm; Dinner, Mon-Thu, 5:30pm - 11:00pm. Sun 12pm-11pm

COTTONS 70 EXMOUTH MARKET, LONDON, EC1, 0207 833 3332