I felt I was going off my rocker

"I didn't resign because I had loyalty to Gordon but no one was listening to what I had to say. It wasn't my decision to finish it. They called me in and said, 'We've been losing money, we're closing the restaurant.' The staff were taken care of but I was out with nothing. I just got dumped.

"I sulked for a few months. My head wasn't in a good state and I had no money. I got some cooking gigs for rich ladies, I went back to work for Anouska Hempel [the hotelier for whom he was personal chef after returning from Hong Kong 10 years ago]. Then I saw my family, which healed the wounds. My dad retired from the Army to climb Everest. He got lost in a blizzard, separated from his guide, lost one of his fingers to frostbite, came home, had a heart attack - but is going back next year.

"You can't keep a good man down, and he said to me, 'Get off your arse and do another restaurant,' bless him. He lent me money because I was in arrears with my mortgage and I started to find my feet."

His personal life had been nonexistent. Then journalist and PR Sally Anne Shrimpton, niece of Jean, came to interview him. "She took me in. I had a shoulder to cry on. I felt like I had something to prove, someone to prove it for and I've found the next Mrs Pengelley."

He is loath to criticise Gordon Ramsay personally for the Pengelley's fiasco. All chefs who have suffered the heat of the kitchen and hotheaded abuse make excuses for other chefs and Pengelley says: "I am not sure how much Gordon had to do with the financial side of things ... I felt like we had an amazing product and they couldn't see it. For a start the music was like 1970s German porn music. It really wasn't me.

"And it had an identity crisis. Maybe you can't do laid-back Eastern in Knightsbridge. I had reservations about the design. It looked like a fine dining restaurant but I wanted the service less austere, more fun. I won't be making the same mistake twice. Here we can have a great restaurant scene, and we're having top DJs. It's going to be fun, really buzzy - Buddha Bar recreated."

"Here" is Gilgamesh, which is full of the culinary theatrics that Pengelley loves. He'll be serving dry-ice sushi, which looks like fish on a volcano waiting to explode. You think it's on fire but it's 80 degrees below. His famous chilli salt squid and prawn tempura will be back.

"I think my cooking is better than ever and the prices are going to be reasonable. Just enough to keep out the people with six earrings or more and tall spiky haircuts. I want to keep a low profile, stay in the kitchen and cook. Yes, I did have a thing about being chef patron but Pengelley's really wasn't like that. I was too wild to be left in control."

He's going to have not only a Sake somelier but a Mandarin-speaking tea expert to perform a tea ceremony.

Pengelley has been at the helm of several of London's groundbreaking restaurants including Birdcage, which employed gold leaf in its curries and reindeer in its carpaccio, before he went on to head E&O in 2001, where he stayed for two years. His journey through Gordon Ramsay Holdings was traumatic but one from which he thinks he's learned.

"I've learned not to be naive and that I should stay in the kitchen. I learned from E&O that shouting at people doesn't work. I've learned that I didn't handle stress very well. Because I was single I let things get on top of me. I got upset all the time."

There is definitely a sense that he needs to be reined in. His mother, separated from his father, has had many jobs including a prison custodial officer. "She is the only person who could keep me in line." He smiles but then thinks how lucky he is to have a second chance.

"I feel different. I feel stronger. My mind is clear. I'm having fun building a new and wonderful team. I know exactly what I'm going to do and how I'm going to do it. I haven't been so happy for ages."

Gilgamesh, The Stables, Camden Market, Chalk Farm Road, Camden, NW1. Tel: 020 7482 5757. Opens on Saturday.