My mum was a single parent raising three kids. Because of that, we had to learn our way around the kitchen quite quickly. I don’t know if that created a love of food – my mum’s an amazing cook, so that probably helped, too. I just love the puzzle of being in a kitchen and figuring out flavours. She set us up well.

Growing up, we ate internationally because my mum was a nurse, and she told me they were always swapping recipes. She had quite an experimental side to her as well. There was a lot of Chinese food that didn’t come out quite right, but she would get there. And of course Nigerian food: jollof rice is a classic – and ground rice with a Nigerian stew, which is a really tomato-y stew.

I’ve never really had a trust of things inside stews. Same with soup: I would only eat tomato soup or vegetable soup for a really long time, because I could identify everything in them. Any other soup I was like, “What is this witchcraft?”

I lived in Los Angeles for a few years and – I don’t know how to say this without it sounding really derogatory – but a lot of American food, it’s very soft. It’s like baby food. Burgers and buns and a lot of eggs. And what’s the other one? Mashed potatoes! People will have mashed potatoes instead of chips at KFC, which blew my mind. It’s very easy to digest American food; that’s a nice way of putting it.

The last time I was on Sunday Brunch they also had on a guy who designs cocktails and he put four of them in front of us. So, I took a little sip from one – very nice! – then a little sip from the next one. By the third one I was drunk. You know that first-drink drunk, where you’re like, “Whoa, let’s go to Brighton!” And I could feel myself getting lairy on live telly, just from basically a thimble of alcohol.

If I’m craving a certain type of food, that means something’s going on with me. If I really want a burger, I know that means I’m a bit down because I’m wanting the salt and the comfort. So it’s a good way of tracking where I’m at. Whereas when I’m not feeling tired, and in a good mental space, then I can eat my wholefoods and cook stews. Yeah, I’m into stews now.

I’m single and live alone, but I’m not the sort of person who thinks nice meals are pointless, because it’s just you. I’ll make myself a nice dinner and really make an effort just for the joy of cooking; just because it’s me doesn’t limit what’s possible. And when I’m not feeling completely wiped out on a Sunday, we’ve got a nice farmers’ market where I live and I’ll get a bunch of stupidly expensive ingredients and do a nice risotto or something.

I’ve been on films and TV shows where the catering was so bad that I thought, “I’m going to start bringing my food.” That’s when you know it’s terrible, when even the actors are like, “Do you know what? I’m going to cook.”

My favourite things

Food
A good jollof rice, you can’t beat. It needs the right amount of salt so that you get that back-of-the-throat, umami flavour. It needs oil: a dry one isn’t good. And it needs spice: some people don’t put much in there; some people put too much and you’re blowing people’s brains out of their ears. So, it has to have the right amount of heat.

Drink
Yeah, that’ll be prosecco. When I go out, I could drink it all night. I’d pay for it, though …

Place to eat
Can it be a friend’s house? My friend Tommy is a really great cook and our dogs hang out and we just chill. I’m much more comfortable dining like that than in a restaurant. I think that’s an age thing.

Dish to make
It’s called Red Dragon Pie and it’s essentially shepherd’s pie but with beans. It looks like nothing, and it takes about two years to make, but once you get it done, it’s really tasty.

Andi Osho’s new novel Tough Crowd is out now (HQ, £8.99)