Tired of battling with extreme diets and starving yourself for weeks on end? Then you'll find our guest-editor Gizzi Erskine's latest cook book a breath of fresh air- but much more filling. Gizzi preaches the art of eating healthily during the week but allowing yourself one day at the weekend to relax- and she has some amazing recipes to help you do both. We chatted to Gizzi about diets, exercise, her favourite London restaurants, what she's cooking for Easter and what she'd like as her last meal (hopefully less imminent!)

Katie Antoniou: The Skinny Weeks and Weekend Feast approach is a refreshing change from all the extreme diet fads. How did you develop such a no-nonsense approach to food?

Gizzi Erskine: I suppose I had to really- as I got older I couldn't eat whatever I wanted and keep the weight off anymore. I don't think what I've done is revolutionary- I think this is how a lot of women eat anyway; I think the point was, I was reading something in a national newspaper about how people who give themselves one day off a week tend to succeed more at dieting, and it's because you have that light at the end of the tunnel, but also your metabolism starts to slow down. I'm not saying you're going to lose masses of weight, but if you're limiting yourself to about 12-1500 calories a day in the week, then you can give yourself a day where you're not so stressed out about it. And the great thing is, in my book the meals for during the week are still really delicious- that's really important for me- of course the weekend stuff is extra extra yummy- but my boyfriend doesn't want to eat diet food and he doesn't even know half the time that the week day meals are really healthy!

Part of my ethos as well is to look around the world and see how people eat- the clever women in France don't have a whole baguette- what they'll have is a tartine with much more of the filling but half the carbohydrates- in sandwiches we're generally eating double the carbs we nutritionally need- so with a tartine you're eating the right amount and having more of the nutritional filling. Carbs are a really big thing for me- I think we do overeat carbs here in the UK- even if you look at places like Italy, pasta is a starter not the main course, so you'll only have 50-80g; that's a lot less calories than having a huge bowl of pasta like you do here. We're so sugar happy in the western world- I'm not going to be a bore and say don't eat it, just eat it in the right amount- don't overdo it.

KA: So many of us do these very sedentary jobs these days too- do you do a lot of exercise or do you just rely on eating sensibly to stay in shape?

GE: To be honest with you, last year I put on the most weight I've put on during my career in telly- I was filming 6 days a week, 14 hour days- I was exhausted and I was running on empty so I was eating a lot of carbs and sugar. I was eating sandwiches and sweets which I don't normally eat. Because I'm tall, I didn't really notice it until I got on the scales so half way through, I started running and doing kettlebells. And that combined with the skinny weeks eating, with just a day off a week, I honestly lost about a stone in 3 months. I'm not a compulsive, extreme exerciser- I don't feel like I've done that much. This year I've been naughty though- I've swum a lot but I haven't been running cos I hate to run in the cold.

KA: I remember seeing you instagram some reactionary headline in one of the tabloids about your tattoos- why do you think people are so bothered about what people do with their own bodies?

GE: I really don't think about it that much- all my friends are tattooed, I've never really considered that people might think it's a bad thing. Obviously the size of my tattoos are quite..er.. interesting for the media; I guess there's never been anyone quite like me before so I get that they're interested. But the headlines were just funny- I didn't find it offensive- our country is full of different generations of people; we live in London so we're the opposite of being sheltered, so you forget it's still shocking to some people. I'm just really not judgemental about that stuff because everyone I know is like it. It's nothing about my talent or me on a personal level- I strive to be a really good chef and make a bit of a change in the industry- if anyone told me I was rubbish at that I'd be upset! I've had the same thing with my image to be honest about wearing 60s clothes and having a beehive- people say it's a gimmick but it's not; I've dressed like this since I was a 14 year old girl- I don't know how else to dress! I feel like I'd look really dumb with my hair down, or in jeans, it's just not me.

KA: Sometimes we forget that our generation is so exposed to all cultures and styles, but only one generation ago, people were still very sheltered.

GE: That summarises the whole thing completely- it's just water off a duck's back for our generation but it's all happened so quickly that even our parent's generation might be a bit... my mum didn't like the tattoos to begin with but now she accepts that they're part of society and her perception has changed.

KA:What's the first meal you ever learnt to cook?

GE:The first meal was probably spaghetti bolognese, my mum used to make it a very specific way with the traditional Italian method- the way she does it is quite epic, there are so many steps, but it's worth it!

KA:Most people learn to cook that dish because it's so simple!

GE: Yeah, not in this case! She used veal and pork mince, she grinds up chicken livers, a splash of milk, red and white wine and a combination of fresh and tinned tomatoes as well as puree.

KA: What are your favourite places to eat out in London?

GE: My current number one is Pitt Cue- I'm obsessed with it, I love barbeque- I probably eat there and Disco Bistro the most. I love the whole gourmet junk food thing- it's so gourmet it almost negates the junk food- so the most exquisite burgers with the most exquisite ingredients, cooked so beautifully and with intelligence, it just happens to fall under the title of junk food. Ooh actually, one of my favourite restaurants is Dinings which is Japanese and Korean fusion, and Sushi Tetsu. That summarise me really- proper world food and gourmet junk food- I love the purity and elegance of Japanese and Korean food.

KA: So what would you want as your last meal?

GE: Ooh- I would go for sashimi to begin with, but then I'd go for a proper roast dinner; with a bloody mary before it arrives and a glass of prosecco with the sashimi, then a big bottle of wine, nothing posh, just a pinot noir or something, with proper roast beef, yorkshire pudding, bone marrow gravy, loads of veg and fresh horseradish.

KA:What about dessert- would you have something like..a crumble?

GE: Ooh, yes! A rhubarb crumble with custard- Bird's custard.

KA: Who would you invite to your dream dinner party and what would you serve?

GE: I'd probably do some modern Korean like I did at K Town, so some sashimi with sea bass, some tuna rice fried sushi, Korean fried chicken wings and miso ice-cream for dessert. I'd have to have Dan Brown, because he's a complete conspiracy theorist and so am I- I'm a complete dork when it comes to conspiracy theories. Can we bring people back from the dead? I'd have Anna Karina- though she's not dead actually, but I want her as her 60s self!

KA: You've designed a rock 'n roll tea for the W Hotel Leicester Square- how did you come up with the recipes for that?

GE: I wanted to see if I could do the American, junk food thing but as a refined tea, so the recipes are really cool- we've got a popcorn and salted caramel eclair, then a devil's food cake with peanut butter mousse in the middle, and peanut brittle, and the maddest is probably cherry cola and yuzu popping candy tarts. They're sour and fizzy, but sweet at the same time.

KA: What do you usually eat on Easter day?

GE: I cook actually- I don't cook at Christmas or birthdays generally, my mum's an amazing cook so on all the big occasions I want her to cook for me! My niece is going to be 6, she comes here every year for Easter and so doesn't think the Easter bunny will visit her anywhere else, so she always comes here! I'm not sure what I might do this year- maybe a beef wellington, because it's been so cold, otherwise lamb.

KA:I grew up in Cyprus where Easter is a much bigger deal than Christmas and everyone fasts ahead of Easter. In the villages people still buy a goat or lamb at the beginning of lent, keep it as a pet and feed it up- then eat it!

GE: I'd be into that- I love those traditions. I think it's a good way to show children too, where your meat comes from.

KA: Definitely; people need to be able to be aware of the cost of what they eat- especially environmentally these days with things like grain and transport leading to such a huge carbon footprint for meat eaters

GE: Exactly, I think this is all coming to light at the moment, I don't want to bore you with my opinions on all this, but yeah, people need to know where what they're eating comes from.

Skinny Weeks and Weekend Feasts is published by Gizzi Erskine (Quadrille, £19.99)

Enjoy dinner cooked by Gizzi and the team at The Drapers Arms here.

She's also appearing at Taste Festival's 'The Lab'

The W Rock Tea remixed by Gizzi Erskine will be served in the W Lounge at W London – Leicester Square between 2pm-5pm daily from 26th March 2013 for a limited three-month period and costs £25 per person.