Jean-Christophe Novelli cooks up a storm in Bilston

But oozing Gallic charm, restaurateur Jean-Christophe Novelli seemed right at home steaming chicken and baking Tarte Tatin in Leekes furniture store in Bilston.

The remarkably youthful-looking 55-year-old was on a mission to bring the healthy cooking message to his Black Country fans, and they were eating out of his hands by the end of the two-hour demonstration.

Eager volunteers stepped forward to try their hand at making sugar spirals by the tricky method of twisting liquid caramel around a skewer.

Tina Demers, of Sutton Road, Wednesbury, was first out of her seat, and the 58-year-old bio-medical scientist based at Walsall Manor Hospital created a near-perfect corkscrew coil.

• When using mint as decoration for a dessert, dip it in cold water first to refresh and maximise the aroma.

• Garlic should be juicy, with no green bit in the middle, when cut. If it isn’t, you need to use more than the recipe says.

• Don’t use extra virgin olive oil for cooking as it turns toxic at 70C. Choose rape seed oil instead.

• Salt can be as hard to give up as cigarettes, says the former smoker. Use honey instead of salt to flavour your vegetables

"I don't normally do things like that but my hobby is making cakes and it's not often you get the chance to have a lesson from an expert. I really enjoyed it. He's lovely," she said.

The chef presented one of his desserts – a caramel nest filled with ice cream and berries – to Tina Capewell, from Bradley Lane, Bilston, when he found out she was celebrating her 52nd birthday.

The fiver-a-head tickets were a gift from her son Luke, 29, who accompanied her.

She said: "I'm not a pasta lover, I like Jean-Christophe's traditional style of cooking. His chicken was fantastic."

Teaching assistants Deb Ufton and Kerrie Wilkes, who work at nearby Loxdale Primary, were hoping to pick up some culinary tips.

Deb, 44, runs a healthy eating after-school class for pupils once a week and was onside with the chef's anti-sugar, anti-salt philosophy.

Kerrie, who was celebrating her 42nd birthday, said: "He was absolutely brilliant. Best birthday ever."

Afterwards the chef, a father of three, told the Express & Star what inspired his conversion to a healthier way of cooking, which includes using rape seed oil instead of olive oil and butter and the sugar alternative xylitol instead of the Silver Spoon variety.

It all seems a bit, well, un-French.

There's a happy balance, he says.

"Look, I'm very proud of being French but you need to see where you're going in life.

"I love butter on bread, and on toast, there's no substitute. But in cooking – no, there are many ways to cook more healthily. It doesn't always come easily, giving up salt can be as hard as giving up smoking but you should be done."

He saw the light five years ago when his eldest son Jean was two years old and just moving on to solid food.

"I was excited to be cooking for him but my mother said: 'Are you crazy? He's not a customer of yours, he's a child.'

"She kicked my backside, saying I shouldn't be giving him so much salt and sugar and saturated fats. I felt so bad. After that I started changing my ways. I found ways to make the food still delicious and fun, and thought if I take such care with my child, I should do it for adults as well."

The keep-fit fanatic, and keen triathlete, appeared at Leekes on both Saturday and Sunday.

Jean-Christophe said: "I love doing demonstrations. I wouldn't do it if I didn't get a buzz. When I started my cookery school 11 years ago, women were 90 per cent of my students and men just 10 percent, now men make up 65 per cent."

The demonstrations don't always go according to plan.

"But if you burn something, who cares? It's the technique you pass on. It's not about the finished product but how you get there."