A love of TV food programmes set Michael Rheeder on the road to becoming a chef.

"When I was growing up I really enjoyed watching them," he says. "I didn't have a favourite celebrity chef, they are all so different - I just liked anything about cooking."

His parents, who both cook, also inspired him. "They are good cooks, and they both get a lot of pleasure from preparing meals," so to me cooking was always seen as something to enjoy.

He struggles to remember the first meal he rustled up. "I was about 12, and I think I made an omelette. I'm sure I'd already made things like beans on toast, but this was the first meal I made from raw ingredients."

After leaving Hipperholme and Lightcliffe High School, Michael went on to study food preparation and cooking at Huddersfield Technical College.

During the two-year course he worked on a day release placement at the Hare & Hounds pub in Hipperholme. "I was preparing food for the chef and generally learning the trade," he recalls.

"I really got into it. I was also helping to plan ahead - it gave me a proper taste of what it would be like to work in catering."

Having made a decision to make cooking his career, he moved to the historic Shibden Mill Inn in Halifax, where he credits the head chef with improving his skills and giving him confidence to be more adventurous with food. "I learned loads while working there, about being creative with food, finding out what works and what doesn't, and about presentation."

Michael took his new-found skills to Gomersal Park Hotel, where he further expanded his repertoire, leaning how to cater for weddings, banquets and other large functions. "I was in a team of 12 chefs, so it was very different to what I had been used to."

Still only 22, Michael, who lives in Brighouse, is now senior sous chef at the historic Old White Beare in Norwood Green. One of a six-strong team, he can test his creativity at the gastro-pub, one of a number owned and managed by Bradford-based Greencliffe Taverns.

"Some great opportunities have opened up here," he says. "We have a good, varied menu, with traditional food as well as modern bistro-style."

He has had more than a hand in drawing up the eaterie's new menu - taking on the task himself. "I had 100 per cent input."

The selection includes, for main meals, seafood chowder, oven-baked rack of lamb and Mediterranean vegetable brochette, with Bailey's cheesecake and pear and raisin crumble featuring among the desserts.

Michael loves the adrenaline rush that comes with being busy. "I thrive on being busy - it adds something to the atmosphere, there is a little buzz in the kitchen."

Days off are spent with his partner Kira, a therapy assistant at Bradford Royal Infirmary. They met at a pub in Hipperholme, where Kira was working behind the bar. "It was my night off and I happened to go in," recalls Michael. "We got on really well."

Unlike many chefs - who on days off like to put distance between themselves and the kitchen and eat take-aways - Michael enjoys cooking for himself and Kira. "It is what I like doing, whether at work or at home," he says. "I look through cook books and do a lot of fusion cooking, trying new ingredients, experimenting with things that do not normally go together, exploring taste. That's the beauty of cooking - there are so many possibilities."

Not that he neglects traditional grub - he is an expert Yorkshire pudding maker, coming runner-up in a competition. "I was against chefs from across Yorkshire," he recalls. "It was a few years ago, but I haven't lost my touch, I'm still good at making them."

  • The Old White Beare is on Village Street in Norwood Green. Tel: 01274 676645