Lauren Taylor meets the Michelin star chef as he publishes his first cookbook.

For a chef who became Britain's youngest to earn a Michelin star at the age of 24, and twice triumphed on BBC Two show Great British Menu, Tommy Banks is remarkably self-effacing.

"I've still got so much to learn," he says. "I don't think I'm a particularly advanced cook." Many would disagree. Banks runs the Black Swan, Oldstead in North Yorkshire, where he's been from the age of 17 (his parents own the pub), and became head chef in 2013, retaining the star it had won under previous head chef, Adam Jackson. But he felt fraudulent, as if the dishes weren't his.

Fast forward five years and Banks has gained a name for himself for his own inventive combinations - he prefers the term "making it all up as I go along" to 'self-taught' - using local produce and displaying them as though exquisite pieces of art on the plate. The Black Swan was voted the world's best restaurant on TripAdvisor in October 2017 and, now, it's always packed.

"Do people achieve things and manage to bask in it? I don't know if I'm different," he wonders, on the publication of his first cookbook, Roots. "Whenever I achieve something, there's also something else we've got to do."

Perhaps his feet are firmly on the ground because it hasn't always been easy. "Running a business in a rural place is really tough, it struggled," he admits, and aged 18 Banks became very ill with ulcerative colitis, had surgery and spent a year recovering.

"Winning Great British Menu was massive for my self-confidence. Before that, I thought what I was doing was good, but no one else had really [experienced] it, because we were this tiny restaurant and we were quite quiet," says the 28-year-old, admitting he was "petrified and extremely anxious" going into the show, and how odd it was to be recogised afterwards. Now he's on the other side of things - this year's MasterChef finalists spent a day cooking with him.

Anyone who's seen his TV appearances will know he's steadfast in his ethos of home-grown produce and really using the ingredients on his doorstep - after all, farming is in his blood. Banks grew up on the farm his family still run in the "idyllic" rural, North York Moors.

As a result, his food is completely dictated by what's grown on the farm, so humble British (or more specifically, Yorkshire) veg always takes centre stage, whether it's a beetroot steak cooked in beef fat, a mainstay at the Black Swan, or in desserts like celery leaf parfait. And any meat he uses won't be farmed far away either.

"It means you have to be creative," Banks says. "My menus are designed around what we've got coming in. So if we've got jerusalem artichokes, beetroot and wild garlic, we won't just do vegetarian food, but whatever the fish or meat is going to be will have to go around what that is first. I'd never approach it like, 'I want to do a duck dish'. It's more like, 'I've got celeriac, what are we going to do with it this year?'"

The book is a real celebration of nature and his homeland. "Everything I've done over the last 10 years is documented in there, everything I've learned and come up with." And it's true - Roots is so comprehensive it covers everything from simple family recipes, like his grandma's apple cake, to advanced cooking techniques where you'll need a water bath and a vacuum seal to recreate some of the dishes on his Michelin star restaurant menu.

He also wants to dispel some of the misconceptions around 'seasonal' eating. "When I started growing produce, I realised there aren't really four seasons in the UK from a culinary perspective, because we literally have nothing ready in January to April, and most of May, depending on the weather." For instance, peas in supermarkets in spring are likely to be imported. "Spring is a time when everything is growing," he says, "We haven't even sown our peas yet! We'd lose them to frost."

It's only natural then that his cookbook reflects the farming seasons rather than the four seasons we all know. It's split into three sections - the hunger gap (January to May), time of abundance (June to September) and the preserving season (October to December).

The hunger gap (the "most challenging of the three seasons") is a time for humble onions and wild garlic to really shine, as well as jerusalem artichokes, Yorkshire rhubarb ("the best in the world") and some foraged ingredients most won't have cooked with before - spruce, lovage and fir.

"Douglas fir, you have to forage. Most people won't, but some people will," says Banks. "The flavour is a bit like grapefruit, and yes, you have to put a lot of technique into making it taste delicious, but it's really good."

The first five months of the year also inspire his dishes that play with savoury and sweet - think artichoke fudge or scallops in rhubarb juice. "If you've only got root vegetables, you have to make them work," he says.

While the easy-to-make John Dory with young vegetables and lemon verbena stock is perfect for summer - the season of plenty. "Me and charlotte [his girlfriend] really like it. All the vegetables are really fresh and on point and delicious, and the herby broth is so much tastier than a salty stock cube," he says.

The tail-end of the year, with it's earthy, irony veg like celeriac (seriously underrated according to Banks) and beetroot, is the time for preserving by fermenting or 'clamping', a process common during war rationing where tops are removed, roots buried in soil and kept in a cold, dry, dark place.

"Preserving is quite easy," Banks says. "It's an old technique that we've lost because we don't need it anymore, but I'd urge people to try and ferment vegetables, like kimchi or turnips. They're delicious and so easy. It sounds like a faddy, cheffy thing, but you literally put some vegetables in a jar with some salt and water, leave the jar, and you've got fermented vegetables."

So what's next for the young chef? "I'd certainly like to do more TV." And if you want to try his food without the Michelin star prices, he's just announced a second restaurant opening this summer, Roots York, which will have a "fun, informal" feel.

ROOTS by Tommy Banks is published by Seven Dials, priced £25. Available now.

HOW TO MAKE TOMMY BANKS' AWARD WINNING TURBOT WITH STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM

Great British Menu fans will remember this unusual fish dish from last year's show.

Michelin star chef Tommy Banks is taking the culinary TV world by storm at the moment and he's just released his first cookbook, Roots. It includes his winning dish from last year's BBC2 show Great British Menu.

This unusual turbot dish was designed as the fish course for a banquet celebrating the Wimbledon Tennis Championships - hence the strawberries and cream - but it's also a great example of Banks' signature play on savoury and sweet.

"While this dish is cutting edge in its combination, the technique is based on solid classical cookery," Banks says in the book. Just a warning though - in the difficulty rating, this is at the trickier end of the scale.

Ingredients (serves 4)

Equipment needed: Thermomix

150g chives

150ml grapeseed oil (available via Amazon)

150g green strawberries, cut into 2mm dice (if available, just use red ones if not)

150g red strawberries, cut into 2mm dice

150g golden beetroot, cut into 2mm dice

150g fennel bulb, cut into 2mm dice

150g white turnip, cut into 2mm dice

4 x 120g skinless turbot portions

Knob of butter

Sprinkle of fennel pollen (available via Amazon)

Sea salt

For the sauce:

2 shallots, sliced

10g butter

150ml dry white wine

150ml vermouth

300ml fish stock

300ml double cream

Sea salt

For the elderflower vinegar:

20 ripe elderflower heads

500ml Chardonnay vinegar

For the green herb oil

500g green herb leaves (works best with strong, soft herbs like lovage or chives)

250ml grapeseed oil

Method

1. Make the green herb oil: Blitz the herbs in a food processor to a rough green slush. Tip this into a muslin cloth and work hard to squeeze out any water. Return the dry herb pulp to the blender. Heat the oil to 70°C and blitz with the herbs until thoroughly combined. If your blender has a heating element you don't need to preheat the oil. Just blend the oil and herbs at 70°C for five minutes. Leave to marinate overnight before hanging oil in a muslin cloth over a bowl.

2. Make the elderflower vinegar: Check the elderflower for any bugs, then stuff them into a large jar and pour over the vinegar. Place the jar in a pan of water so the water covers the jar and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat and allow the jar to cool in the water before storing in the fridge.

3. To make the sauce, sweat the shallots in the butter until they are soft but do not allow them to colour. Add the white wine and reduce over a medium heat until the wine is a syrup coating the shallots, then add the vermouth and reduce again.

4. Add the stock and reduce by half. Finally, add the cream and again reduce by half. Check the seasoning and reserve for later.

5. Put the chives in a food processor and blitz until they are a mush. Scrape the chives out of the bowl and onto a clean cloth. Squeeze the chive mush in the cloth to remove all the water - you should end up with a dry ball. Place the dry chives and the grapeseed oil in a Thermomix jug. Blitz for seven minutes at 70°C then strain through a muslin cloth.

6. Season the diced strawberries and vegetables with salt and dress in one tablespoon of the elderflower vinegar and one tablespoon of herb oil.

7. Roast the turbot in a pan with lots of foaming butter on a medium heat, placing it skin-side down, frying for one to two minutes on either side.

8. Heat up the cream sauce, add four dessert spoons of the chive oil and whisk it in - the white sauce should be marbled with bright green oil.

9. To serve, spoon the vegetable tartare (diced fruit and veg pieces) onto four plates, add the turbot and pour over the cream sauce. Sprinkle with fennel pollen to finish.

ROOTS by Tommy Banks is published by Seven Dials, priced £25. Available now.