The Twitterview: Stefan Gates

@stefangates: Make it fascinating: blow it up, make it glow, make it conduct electricity, make it funny. There are fab instructions in my Incredible Edibles book! And above all, let them play with their food. Not throw it, but mix it, wipe it on their faces, see if it bounces on the plate.

@PPPMAGAZINE: What’s your favourite recipe in your new book Incredible Edibles and why?

@stefangates: Bum sandwich – a sandwich you wrap cling film around and sit on. Fun, declicious, plus fascinating science. Based on the classic French Pan-Bagnat.

@PPPMAGAZINE: Do your kids Daisy, 9, and Poppy, 7, know all there is to know about food?

@stefangates: My kids are odd. They eat the weirdest food on earth (Mexican fly eggs), but not courgettes #baffled.

@PPPMAGAZINE: What’s the weirdest food fact you know?

@stefangates: That flour is explosive. No kid or adult REALLY understands nutrition until I blow 1tsp custard powder across a blowtorch flame #doitoutside

@PPPMAGAZINE: What’s the hardest food to get kids to eat?

@stefangates: Sprouts/cabbage. Trick is NEVER give up and NEVER force. Keep serving hated foods so they become familiar. Eventually they’ll surprise you.

@PPPMAGAZINE: What is the funniest thing a kid has ever said to you?

@stefangates: Can I eat some of the sheep’s eyeball?

@PPPMAGAZINE: What’s your favourite thing about being a dad?

@stefangates: Discovering huge reservoirs of love you never knew were inside you. That and telling elaborate lies to a gorgeous, wide-eyed audience.

@PPPMAGAZINE: What are your top three daddy must-haves?

@stefangates: 1. Patience. 2. Patience. 3. Patience. If you’ve got any spare, can I have some?

@PPPMAGAZINE: Are your kids shocked at some of the things you’ve eaten?

@stefangates: Hah! No. The only thing that surprised them were tarantulas – from my upcoming BBC documentary Could Eating Insects Save the World?

@PPPMAGAZINE: Do your kids find it weird that you’re on TV?

@stefangates: They’re definitely proud of me, but that doesn’t seem to extend to actually watching any of my shows – other than the CBBC ones!