Jamie Oliver thinks cooking is sexy

Jamie Oliver thinks being able to cook is "sexy".

The 41-year-old chef – whose wife Jools is pregnant with their fifth child, a sibling for Poppy, 14, Daisy, 13, Petal, seven, and Buddy, five – insists it is easy to "disarm" someone with even basic culinary skills.

He said: "I just think to be a man or a woman and to be a cook is the most beautiful, sexy – if you want – romantic thing. It says a lot about people.

"You can disarm someone by making them cheese on toast."

Jamie admits raising a family is "really hard" and he is thankful to have such a supportive wife.

He said: "She definitely keeps me real and I can only do the things I do that are remotely interesting because she keeps the fort and affects the things we do.

"I think nurturing a family brings out the best in people. It’s really hard.

"I mean, it’s a graft and it’s nuts – like it is for all other parents. They’re always 30 seconds away from anarchy."

Jamie’s eldest daughter is currently "pretending" she isn’t interested in her father’s work, and though he knows they’ll all go through periods of disinterest, he thinks they’ll eventually come back to him for help when they realise he isn’t "embarrassing" after all.

He told Britain’s HELLO! magazine: "The teenager is just pretending not to care at the moment. But it’s all in there.

"And I know I’ll get them back in a couple of years when they’ve forgotten that their dad is boring or embarrassing."