So much of what we understand about food is shaped by our earliest memories. That might be watching a parent cook dinner after school, mum's roast potatoes, picking vegetables from the allotment, or even ready meals which may have been comforting but inspired a curiosity to cook from scratch. Chefs are no exception; though some find themselves drawn to a life in the kitchen by a Saturday job or fending for themselves at university, many trace the lure back to their most formative years. Of the countless chefs we speak to every year, many point to their mothers and grandmothers in particular as being responsible for their love of experimenting with flavours and ingredients.

We know – dads cook too, and plenty of chefs look to male family members as having inspired them into the kitchen. But in many homes it has traditionally been women who have taken on the lion's share of cooking, so we thought we'd take a moment to focus on just how important mums' culinary creations can be. We've pored over our chef profiles to show just how influential it was for some of our chefs, who have gone from helping with the baking as toddlers to running their own restaurants. And while they might be fully-fledged pros, we can all relate to that nostalgia; we hope this brings back memories of days spent cooking with mum and the cherished childhood recipes we're sure you still make today (to see which childhood recipes stick out for chefs, head this way).

It's clear how important family is to Imad Alarnab, whose Imad's Syrian Kitchen in Soho celebrates the Syrian food of his heritage. He speaks about his mother movingly, painting a picture of an incredibly creative woman who embroidered, wrote poetry and cooked. She was his earliest culinary inspiration, and he reflects on childhood memories of the pair making pastries together. 'My mum is the only influence,' he says. 'I wasn't really inspired by chefs, it was only her. And not just because she's my mum, but because she's my best friend; she's someone to look up to, someone you want to be like. She was a very good teacher. If I used a lot of flour, she would say, 'you know what? I have never tried it this way. Let's see what's going to happen'. She knew what the outcome would be, but she wanted me to try.'

It was his mother's allotment, and getting an understanding of where the ingredients she used in her cooking came from, that first inspired Lewis de Haas to cook. That early influence proved to be formative, shaping his style as a chef; today, as head chef at Crispin in Spitalfields, he leads a produce-driven menu, his love of ingredients shining through in his cooking. ‘My connection with food first came from going down to the allotment with my mum,’ he says. ‘I’d see the growing, the picking, the preparing and the cooking. Food became real for me very quickly rather than something just processed and sold.’ 

Chef Amy Elles grew up in a north London home which had food at its very centre, thanks in no small part to her mum's work as a home economist and a cookery teacher. 'If you were unwell, you’d have chicken soup,' she says. 'Food would be the answer to problems, but it would also be the celebration. Everything centred around food and family. When mum used to practise her dishes at home I used to try everything – my older sister was not very adventurous with food, so I was the guinea pig.’ Amy is another example of a chef whose ethos reflects the food on which she was raised; at her The Harbour Café in Fife, she celebrates seasonal, Scottish produce, keeping her dishes uncomplicated and letting ingredients shine through (shown perfectly in her crab on toast and chicken soup).

For chef Mark Dodson, who heads up the Michelin-starred The Masons Arms in north Devon, his mum's approach to cooking – passed down to her by her parents – saw him develop a love of hearty, home-cooked food, as well as cuts that might otherwise be overlooked. 'My mum’s parents had been through World War II, so had a ‘don’t waste’ mentality which really rubbed off onto her and the food that she cooked. She’s a big fan of offal and I remember tucking into braised heart on Saturday lunchtimes.' A lamb neck suet pudding which has featured on the restaurant's menu even pays homage to the steak and kidney suet version his mum used to make, he says.

Julie Lin (pictured at the top of the feature with her mum) grew up in Scotland, but spent months in her 'second home' of Malaysia every year, where she would watch her mother and grandmother cook, their Nyonya culture marrying Chinese and Malay cooking styles and ingredients. One recipe that sticks out in particular is lap cheong, smoked and sweetened Chinese sausage, stir-fried with egg and peas; not only did she love eating it, but the creativity with which her mum approached the dish has had a lasting impact. ‘Sometimes mum couldn’t get her hands on lap cheong, so she’d use sweet-cured bacon and whatever she could access in Scotland instead, and turn it into her own dish,' Julie, who runs Glasgow's Ga Ga Kitchen and Bar, smiles. 'She used to have an abundance of ingredients to hand in Malaysia, and when she first came here it wouldn’t have been as easy to get hold of the things she was familiar with, so she adapted. That’s really shaped how I cook today.'

Growing up in central India meant Alfred Prasad always had quality ingredients to hand, thanks in part to his father's vegetable garden. But the chef, who became the youngest Indian chef to receive a Michelin star aged twenty-nine (which he then retained at Tamarind for twelve years), looks to his Anglo-Indian mother's cooking as one of the biggest reasons that he has spent his career in the kitchen. Her upbringing in the UK gave her a unique perspective on India's cuisine; one of the dishes he remembers most fondly is her prawn curry, which combined a tomato-based sauce with marinated prawns and was served alongside string hoppers (or idiyappam) – a type of steamed rice noodle. He still makes it today.

Michael Wignall had a childhood which was rooted in good food; the family travelled around the world, exposing him to different cultures and foods from an early age. When they were at home, his mum could usually be found in the kitchen. 'She used to bake cakes every day and everything was fresh,' he says. 'There was a bit of a garden with some things growing there, like rhubarb. It was normal for me to see her baking every day.' Since becoming a chef, Michael has won Michelin stars in every kitchen he has led since his first in 1993, including at The Angel in Hetton, where he is chef-patron.