IN a cosy dining room filled with light, art and floor-to-ceiling shelves of beautiful crockery, Australian cook and writer David Herbert is apologising about the baked goodies on the table: "They're not the most attractive-looking scones," he says, with a smile.

This is a man who has cooked for the Queen Mother and two Australian Prime Ministers, and worked with Delia Smith and Jamie Oliver, but Herbert is as modest as they come.

His cheese scones, spread liberally with butter on a silver knife, are light, fluffy and impossibly moreish.

We're having afternoon tea (Ceylon Orange Pekoe leaves in an infuser because "teabags are banned in this house") at his West London home to discuss his cookbook, David Herbert's Best Home Cooking, which is a collection of recipes from his weekly column in The Weekend Australian Magazine.

Although the 56-year-old now calls the UK home - he's lived here on and off for decades - he's sent two recipes a week back to Oz for the last 16 years.

His column is very popular, and Herbert says letters from fans have, on occasion, moved him to tears, including one from a woman who says she carries his tomato soup recipe around with her in her handbag because it's a constant in "an abstract world".

"There was a guy whose wife had died and she'd always made this chocolate cake, so every year he made it to celebrate her."

Herbert grew up surfing with dolphins and fishing in Nelson Bay, a seaside town on Australia's east coast - but it was cookbooks that fascinated him most.

"I used to go to the library as a kid, when I was eight, nine, 10, and borrow cookbooks from the shelves and go to bed at night thinking about them.

"I remember my father's sister, who was quite sophisticated and lived in the city, telling us about how she went to Russia and had this dish that was a slice of salami under the grill, and they popped an oyster in it. I went to sleep for weeks thinking about how delicious this oyster and salami dish would have been; food always seemed to fascinate me."

Herbert has now notched up six cookbooks of his own. His latest is aesthetically simple but beautiful - smaller than most, it feels lovely in your hands - with a black cover, a la vintage Delia.

"The people that inspired me were always domestic cooks; mostly female food writers who weren't chefs, they were people that were writing. From the Seventies, I had Katie Stewart's cookbook and loved it because it was really practical, simple food that always worked," he says.

"People think they want to cook cheffy food at home, but in fact, it's just stressful. Cooking should be easy, uncomplicated and you want to have a nice time, you don't want to be in the kitchen making stacks of stuff and try to be like a restaurant. Get a job in a restaurant if you want to do that!"

When he first came to England, he got a job as cook in a country house in Norfolk - and would be sent to cook for the late Queen Mother when she was at Sandringham. He returned to Australia to become the Prime Minister's private cook, throwing last-minute barbecues for 20: "You'd always have stuff backed up, you just had to stretch it."

Drawn back to the UK again ("I missed the light and landscape") he was taken on as food editor for Sainsbury's Magazine, which Delia Smith set up ("We got on fabulously"), and then became food editor on Easy Living magazine.

Nowadays, he's branching into pottery - making cups and saucers in a kiln which is clacking away in his conservatory - but he still likes nothing more than trying out new recipes for his column in his modest kitchen and sharing them with his partner, Francis.

"Sunday nights we have roast chicken, and then I make a risotto or chicken pie out of the leftovers. Sometimes I do meatballs because Francis is Italian, and sometimes I just roast vegetables. They might take an hour to cook, but the preparation time is nothing. Even cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, all goes in, so it's fairly simple."

Try some of David Herbert's simple fare for yourself...

:: RED LENTIL AND BULGUR SOUP

(Serves 4)

1-2tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 celery sticks, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2tsp dried chilli flakes

1.25L chicken or vegetable stock, plus extra if needed

100g red lentils

55g bulgur wheat

2tbsp tomato puree

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2tbsp roughly chopped mint

2tbsp roughly chopped basil

Plain yoghurt and extra mint leaves, to serve

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add the onion, celery and garlic and cook for five to seven minutes, or until softened but not coloured. Add the chilli flakes and cook for one minute.

Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Stir in the lentils, bulgur and tomato paste and return to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the grains are tender. Add a little extra stock, if needed. Season to taste.

Add the mint and basil just before serving. Ladle into bowls and serve with a dollop of yoghurt and a few extra mint leaves.