By . Nicole Lampert . PUBLISHED: . 16:12 EST, 29 March 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 16:12 EST, 29 March 2013 . When Silvena Rowe first arrived in Britain from Bulgaria as a teenager she knew just one word of English - 'hungry'. A strapping six-footer who'd been obsessed with food from her earliest days ('I was a very greedy child'), she was determined to eat well in the UK. Now she has several award-winning cookery books to her name, is about to star in a new BBC food show and has plans for her own restaurant chain; all of which has forced her to reluctantly quit her job as head chef at Quince, the smart restaurant adjoining The May Fair Hotel in London. The night before we meet she had boy band One Direction in her kitchen after they booked a private dinner there to celebrate Louis's birthday. 'They were tremendously respectful and polite,' she says. 'They were so cute and fresh. I do hear they like an older woman!' Silvena Rowe with Aldo Zilli on Country Show Cook-Off . And that's Silvena all over - a fascinating mix of feline-eyed sensuality mixed with tough-as-old-boots attitude. When she was once asked how she managed to keep her skin looking so fresh despite long hours in the kitchen she replied, 'I drink young men's blood!' And the word ambitious doesn't come close to describing her. 'You have to have b***s to run a kitchen, every day is hard,' she says. 'I'm breaking glass ceilings but I want to do so much more. You see Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay? They're in a different realm to any other chef and I want to be there. I want to be the one providing that excitement.' She's aiming high, but if any female chef can take on the big boys the smart money's on Silvena. The daughter of a Turkish-born journalist and a housewife, Silvena left Communist Bulgaria at 16 after falling in love with an English wine dealer, Malcolm Rowe, because 'he did not grab me in the way other boys grabbed me'. They married and while Silvena stayed at home bringing up their first son she taught herself to cook by eating out at nice restaurants with her husband and reading Delia Smith's books. Silvena Rowe on This Morning . After friends started entering her for competitions she landed a job as chef in the cafe at London's trendy book shop Books for Cooks, and before long was cooking for private clients including Princess Michael of Kent. 'She was a tough lady but she had a very good palate,' recalls Silvena. It wasn't long before TV executives started taking notice of this rather fascinating lady, and she's been a favourite on BBC1's Saturday Kitchen for six years now. 'When I first started on that show people would write comments like, “Who's that slut flirting with James Martin?” But now they know me and come to my restaurant.' She's also a regular on This Morning, where Eamonn Holmes loves to have a good old flirt with her too - which doesn't always go down well with his wife and fellow presenter Ruth Langsford. 'Ruth and I are friends supposedly but I think she gets very angry,' admits Silvena. 'She'll make remarks like, “He's my husband,” and I'll say, “Thank you for reminding me.” But Eamonn likes it; he plays up to it and makes it happen. I do like Eamonn - he's very warm. But he's not so hot that Ruth has to worry.' So is there anyone she's worked alongside who she didn't flirt with? 'Antony Worrall Thompson,' she says. 'He's like a ginger garden gnome.' Write caption here . Silvena and her husband have been married for 27 years (Silvena won't actually give her age, but she's somewhere in her mid-40s), and it's probably a good job he refuses to watch her on TV. 'He thinks I'm too much,' she laughs. 'Even when I'm just sitting down I'm too much for him. He gets very nervous about watching me on TV but he wouldn't mind me flirting - he knows I'm a very passionate person and that I love him more now than when we first met.' Silvena at the 2012 World Food Awards in London last November . She also adores her two boys, who are now 24 and 18. Only once during our two-hour conversation does Silvena pause for more than a second. It's when I ask her about being a working mother in what is a notoriously difficult profession for women. 'Yes, I feel guilty,' she says quietly. 'Even now I do. But I'm lucky I had my children when I was young.' She doesn't like to be called a feminist but admits she had this lovely idea of having an all-female kitchen when she opened Quince. 'But I couldn't find strong enough women to work in my kitchen,' she says. 'I tried, I really tried. But it was impossible because most of them were weak and pathetic [she spits out the words]. They're too worried about their love affairs and their insecurities. They were physically weak too - the majority of women are their own worst enemies.' Her new programme, BBC2's Country Show Cook Off, pits top chefs against the public as they vie to win prizes at local cooking competitions. When we meet she's just returned from a jaunt to the Yorkshire Dales where she was paired with Aldo Zilli to cook traditional cakes. She won't say which of them won; but she has a glint in her eye. 'We go to some of the most beautiful parts of Britain in a 1950s camper van with a little kitchen at the back. I crashed the van a couple of times but it was hilarious. The people we met were charming but they looked at me like I was some furry blonde exotic creature and I'm not sure they could understand my accent. Aldo's great fun but we were very competitive. All chefs are competitive.' After seeing her steal the show from Aldo, the BBC are already talking to her about a new project. 'I can't say anything but it will be mind-blowing,' she squeals. And if that's not enough, she's in talks to judge a new restaurant show in America. Somehow she has to fit in what she hopes will be a chain across the United Arab Emirates after being approached by investors. Silvena is living her dream and she really couldn't be happier. 'I feel very lucky to be where I am,' she says. 'I have this theory; people talk about how we all need to embrace life, how we need to love life. I also think it's important that life loves you back. And I really feel that my life loves me back. It's fantastic!' Country Show Cook Off, Monday, 1.05pm, Tuesday-Friday, 2.45pm, BBC2 .
Moved to Britain from Bulgaria as a teenager .
New star of BBC food show Country Show Cook-Off .
By . Nicole Lampert . PUBLISHED: . 16:12 EST, 29 March 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 16:12 EST, 29 March 2013 . When Silvena Rowe first arrived in Britain from Bulgaria as a teenager she knew just one word of English - 'hungry'. A strapping six-footer who'd been obsessed with food from her earliest days ('I was a very greedy child'), she was determined to eat well in the UK. Now she has several award-winning cookery books to her name, is about to star in a new BBC food show and has plans for her own restaurant chain; all of which has forced her to reluctantly quit her job as head chef at Quince, the smart restaurant adjoining The May Fair Hotel in London. The night before we meet she had boy band One Direction in her kitchen after they booked a private dinner there to celebrate Louis's birthday. 'They were tremendously respectful and polite,' she says. 'They were so cute and fresh. I do hear they like an older woman!' Silvena Rowe with Aldo Zilli on Country Show Cook-Off . And that's Silvena all over - a fascinating mix of feline-eyed sensuality mixed with tough-as-old-boots attitude. When she was once asked how she managed to keep her skin looking so fresh despite long hours in the kitchen she replied, 'I drink young men's blood!' And the word ambitious doesn't come close to describing her. 'You have to have b***s to run a kitchen, every day is hard,' she says. 'I'm breaking glass ceilings but I want to do so much more. You see Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay? They're in a different realm to any other chef and I want to be there. I want to be the one providing that excitement.' She's aiming high, but if any female chef can take on the big boys the smart money's on Silvena. The daughter of a Turkish-born journalist and a housewife, Silvena left Communist Bulgaria at 16 after falling in love with an English wine dealer, Malcolm Rowe, because 'he did not grab me in the way other boys grabbed me'. They married and while Silvena stayed at home bringing up their first son she taught herself to cook by eating out at nice restaurants with her husband and reading Delia Smith's books. Silvena Rowe on This Morning . After friends started entering her for competitions she landed a job as chef in the cafe at London's trendy book shop Books for Cooks, and before long was cooking for private clients including Princess Michael of Kent. 'She was a tough lady but she had a very good palate,' recalls Silvena. It wasn't long before TV executives started taking notice of this rather fascinating lady, and she's been a favourite on BBC1's Saturday Kitchen for six years now. 'When I first started on that show people would write comments like, “Who's that slut flirting with James Martin?” But now they know me and come to my restaurant.' She's also a regular on This Morning, where Eamonn Holmes loves to have a good old flirt with her too - which doesn't always go down well with his wife and fellow presenter Ruth Langsford. 'Ruth and I are friends supposedly but I think she gets very angry,' admits Silvena. 'She'll make remarks like, “He's my husband,” and I'll say, “Thank you for reminding me.” But Eamonn likes it; he plays up to it and makes it happen. I do like Eamonn - he's very warm. But he's not so hot that Ruth has to worry.' So is there anyone she's worked alongside who she didn't flirt with? 'Antony Worrall Thompson,' she says. 'He's like a ginger garden gnome.' Write caption here . Silvena and her husband have been married for 27 years (Silvena won't actually give her age, but she's somewhere in her mid-40s), and it's probably a good job he refuses to watch her on TV. 'He thinks I'm too much,' she laughs. 'Even when I'm just sitting down I'm too much for him. He gets very nervous about watching me on TV but he wouldn't mind me flirting - he knows I'm a very passionate person and that I love him more now than when we first met.' Silvena at the 2012 World Food Awards in London last November . She also adores her two boys, who are now 24 and 18. Only once during our two-hour conversation does Silvena pause for more than a second. It's when I ask her about being a working mother in what is a notoriously difficult profession for women. 'Yes, I feel guilty,' she says quietly. 'Even now I do. But I'm lucky I had my children when I was young.' She doesn't like to be called a feminist but admits she had this lovely idea of having an all-female kitchen when she opened Quince. 'But I couldn't find strong enough women to work in my kitchen,' she says. 'I tried, I really tried. But it was impossible because most of them were weak and pathetic [she spits out the words]. They're too worried about their love affairs and their insecurities. They were physically weak too - the majority of women are their own worst enemies.' Her new programme, BBC2's Country Show Cook Off, pits top chefs against the public as they vie to win prizes at local cooking competitions. When we meet she's just returned from a jaunt to the Yorkshire Dales where she was paired with Aldo Zilli to cook traditional cakes. She won't say which of them won; but she has a glint in her eye. 'We go to some of the most beautiful parts of Britain in a 1950s camper van with a little kitchen at the back. I crashed the van a couple of times but it was hilarious. The people we met were charming but they looked at me like I was some furry blonde exotic creature and I'm not sure they could understand my accent. Aldo's great fun but we were very competitive. All chefs are competitive.' After seeing her steal the show from Aldo, the BBC are already talking to her about a new project. 'I can't say anything but it will be mind-blowing,' she squeals. And if that's not enough, she's in talks to judge a new restaurant show in America. Somehow she has to fit in what she hopes will be a chain across the United Arab Emirates after being approached by investors. Silvena is living her dream and she really couldn't be happier. 'I feel very lucky to be where I am,' she says. 'I have this theory; people talk about how we all need to embrace life, how we need to love life. I also think it's important that life loves you back. And I really feel that my life loves me back. It's fantastic!' Country Show Cook Off, Monday, 1.05pm, Tuesday-Friday, 2.45pm, BBC2 .
from Bulgaria as a teenager she knew just one Country Show Cook-Off . And that's Silvena all