They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day: increasingly, the business world agrees with this axiom. I like breakfast time because it is the start of the day, when anything is still possible. A positive meeting first thing provides an optimistic opening from which to capitalise. One is still full of energy, unlike at dinner, which after 10 hours of work can seem a tiring prospect.

Even if you miss breakfast with your family, that is surely preferable to missing supper and reading bedtime stories to your children because of a work commitment.

I have other reasons to love breakfast. For the past 10 years or so it has been core to several of my businesses – Giraffe, Patisserie Valerie and Gail’s. The British have been busy discovering the joys of eating breakfast out during this period, and my companies have been a part of that revolution.