How We Met: Neil Morrissey & Richard Fox

Richard Fox, 44, is a chef, broadcaster and writer with 20 years' experience in the beer and catering industry. He writes a "Beer Chef" column for Maxim and is a regular on Radio York. He recently published a book, The Food & Beer Cookbook. He lives in Harrogate

Neil and I have a mutual friend – the actor Hugo Speer, who worked on an episode of Men Behaving Badly. But we met properly at a Virgin Radio party and it's all a bit of a blur, really. However, I do remember leaving Neil's flat at 8.30am the next morning, not having slept, and going straight to work.

That was about ten years ago. We've calmed down since then but both definitely been known to enjoy ourselves. Now we've got our own pub and micro-brewery, we can put all that stuff down to research; all the drinking worked out for us in the right way.

It helps that Neil knows more about the food and drink industry and the catering industry than anyone I've ever met who doesn't work in it professionally. He's brilliantly knowledgeable and passionate about it. If we go back to his house from the pub and get the munchies we don't have a kebab, we start caramelising onions and making gravy and mash. And he'll get incredibly anal about it and we'll have a bit of a debate about whether to use a potato ricer to make the mashed potato or not.

We drive our friends and girlfriends mad when we go out for a meal because we'll just sit there dissecting every little bit of it – did they use this technique or that technique? – and everyone else is sitting there going "Can't you two just enjoy yourselves?" and we say "We are enjoying ourselves!" and they say "But you're making everyone else miserable."

Neil is an incredibly funny bloke but he can be pedantic – if I haven't arranged something in quite the right way he can get annoyed. But it's just like when he's cooking, he wants to get everything exactly right, and he's a bit like that in the rest of his life too. We can be like an old married couple and get really worked up about things and at each other, but in the end we're both able to say, "You know what? You were right." And that's what makes our partnership work.

Even when he's really busy filming, we talk pretty much every day. It takes ages for us to get anywhere because people always want to talk to Neil and shake his hand. He deals with it all really well, though. He's so open and chatty and good with people. It would drive me mad, all that – and being written about in the newspaper; it's like Sting said – "The music I do for free, it's the fame I get paid for."

But in the end, we can sit down with a bottle of wine and in 15 minutes we'll have come up with loads of good ideas and a brand new pub chain. We're greater than the sum of our parts.

Neil Morrissey, 46, is best known for his role as Tony in the ITV sitcom Men Behaving Badly. He also appeared in Boon with Michael Elphick, will be in a new series of the BBC drama Waterloo Road, and is the voice of Bob the Builder. He lives in London and has one son

My first impression of Foxy was that he was a lanky Northern bloke with extraordinarily long hair, which can be considered fashion, or anti-fashion, however you want to look at it. It's always clean though, because he's a chef.

We got really smashed the first time we met properly. I think throughout history getting smashed together has been a classic way to bond with someone. If you were sober all the time, it could take anything up to a week.

We bonded over a mutual love of food and drink. If I'm interested in anything I like to take it to the nth degree, it's just the way I am. My mum cooked at home and it was always good, but I was put in care when I was ten and grew up in children's homes from then on. But later, at drama school, living independently, I learned to cook for myself. I didn't even know what a courgette was when I arrived. The best compliment I've ever had about my cooking was from my son. He's just gone off to university and he rang to ask me for a recipe of a thing I cook with mushrooms. How cool is that?

My partnership with Richard started as a two-man show but it's expanded into quite a big organisation. The idea started off as an idea for a TV show about beer but then turned into us actually making a beer and opening a pub, and it's one of the best things I've ever done.

There are younger chaps than me entertaining the tabloids these days, but back when I was doing Men Behaving Badly there were a lot more people looking at me. There was one story that – with a signed affidavit from a witness – I had been in a pub in Staffordshire drinking, taking drugs and getting off with ladies. In fact I was somewhere else, having dinner with a judge!

My favourite food is whatever I fancy at the time. It's a bit like having a favourite record – I don't believe in that either, it's all about what mood you're in. The kind of thing I really enjoy is banging out a big meal for 10 or 12 people, getting it out on time and making it taste very good. It's very British, but I don't think you can beat it.

Morrissey Fox Blonde Ale is available from Tescos and all good pubs and off-licences. www.morrisseyfox.co.uk