As no motor-racing fan will need telling, the Formula 1 season kicks off in Melbourne next weekend. What a fantastic sport it is. When I was cooking on a private yacht in the early Nineties, I got to watch the Monaco Grand Prix in person. It was a dream come true. The buzz, the adrenaline - you just don’t realise how fast those cars go until you see them live.

Mind you, if you’re looking for the real heyday, you have to go back a bit further to the Seventies. It was far more boisterous and less clean-cut then. Like a lot of ten-year-old boys, I had a poster of James Hunt on my bedroom wall. He epitomised the glamour of racing - unpretentious, but at the same time flamboyant beyond belief. A bit like the dishes here, I’d like to think - a retro vibe from the days when men were men and women weren’t afraid of a bit of garlic.

Serves 4

Serve alongside some slow-roasted tomatoes topped with any leftover breadcrumbs mixed with Gruyère.

100g butter, softened
2-4 fat cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 free-range skinless, boneless chicken breasts, about 150g each
3-4 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp paprika
1 large free-range egg, beaten
100g natural-coloured dried breadcrumbs
Olive or sunflower oil, for frying
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 To make the filling, mix the butter with the garlic, parsley, lemon zest, lemon juice, half a teaspoon of salt and pepper to taste. Chill until lightly firm but not solid.
2 For the chicken breasts, check first to see if they have a separate under-fillet, which chefs call a supreme. If so, don’t detach it.
3 Using a small, very sharp knife, make a slit in the flesh of each breast fillet from top to bottom, creating a pocket at a slight slant. Divide the butter into four and roll to roughly the same size as the slits.
4 Push the butter into the slits and press the flesh together. If you have fillets with supremes, then simply fold these over the slits to cover them.
5 Mix the flour, paprika and some seasoning together in a shallow bowl. Tip the beaten egg into another shallow bowl and the breadcrumbs into a third. Toss the stuffed chicken breasts first into the flour to coat, shaking off any excess, then slide them one at a time into the egg and turn until covered. Finally, dip each into the breadcrumbs, again shaking off any excess. Lay the breasts, slit sides down, on a plate and chill for about an hour to help firm the crumb coating.
6 When ready to cook, heat the oven to 190C/Gas 5. Pour the oil into a medium frying pan to a depth of about 1cm and heat until you can feel a good heat rising. Toss in a small cube of bread to check
the temperature - it should start to sizzle and brown. (If you have a thermometer, it should read 180C.) Lower the chicken breasts carefully into the pan and spoon hot oil over the top of each to seal the crumbs. You only need to set the coating in the hot oil, which should take no more than 2 minutes.
7 Remove the chicken breasts from the oil and place in a shallow roasting pan. Bake, uncovered, in the oven for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until the breasts feel firm when pressed with the back of a fork. Remove and drain on paper towel.

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