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AS a chef and restaurateur, dining out is something I believe is very important for children to enjoy as they learn so many key social skills at public tables.

It has always horrified me to see children in any restaurant on tablets and phones with headphones on, totally in their own world and not absorbing the environment around them. How are children ever going to learn patience and table manners if everything is geared around appeasing them?

I’m a father and completely understand the challenges around taking my children out to eat in any establishment. I’m not perfect and have had to learn along the way. I feel the key is pitching the establishment and length of time right. Of course young children will get bored if they must sit through a fancy tasting menu in the same way that most adults won’t enjoy a restaurant that is 100 per cent designed around catering for children’s needs. I think this is a key part of their growth and learning; how to compromise and understand that every experience doesn’t revolve purely around children or purely around adults.

I take my kids (nine and five) to restaurants where I know there is food they will eat and things they can do as well as food I will eat and an environment where it won’t be full of screaming children. This is the compromise as I would never expect them to enjoy a four-hour tasting menu experience like I do. Even if I took them, I couldn’t relax and enjoy it, I would be too anxious about how they are going to behave. Neither of them are allowed a screen to watch when we dine, yet while they wait for their food we can chat, colour or play games and do things that up their engagement and human interaction.

At Salt we allow children of all ages but obviously only allow well-behaved children who sit at the table. We don’t offer a children’s menu and that works well for us - we have had children as young as seven enjoy a full, eight-course tasting menu with their parents.

In the early days of Salt we did get quite a mix of groups arrive where the parents let their kids run wild and some even ran into the kitchen, unbeknown to the adults. While we are a very relaxed restaurant, we have a zero tolerance for this kind of behaviour as I consider all guests’ experiences.

When I dine out anywhere one of my biggest pet hates is kids running around restaurants or treating the chairs like a jungle gym. Thankfully, now we have these policies in place we don’t get these issues any more but in year one I had several guests complain because they couldn’t control their own children.

One guest wrote a lengthy review on TripAdvisor about large wait times for their Saturday lunch. Upon investigating the situation via CCTV, I realised there was no issue from our side, the father spent most of the lunch up and down with the children and trying to stop them from climbing all over our fixed seating.

Time is relative and from experiences of eating out with young children I understood his problem. When you are not relaxed, feeling stressed and anxious, a five-minute wait for your main course can feel like 20.

Often in these cases it’s the restaurant staff that take the brunt of the frustration, or owners like me that must deal with unjust complaints.

So, if your child isn’t a fine dining connoisseur, get a babysitter, dine out when they are in school or wait until they are old enough to enjoy it. Because at the end of the day, if your kids don’t enjoy it, you won’t enjoy it, the team won’t enjoy serving them and I definitely won’t enjoy dealing with the aftermath.

• 200g pre-cooked corn on the cob

Take a sharp knife to the neck end of the bird and scrape against the wishbone to reveal it. Use the tip of the knife to cut either side of the bone. Carefully pull the bone out and twist to remove the wishbone as one. Turn the bird upside down and cut along either side of the back bone. Use the tip of a sharp knife to cut along the thigh bones. Scrape the meat back and pull it against itself to disconnect it from the drumstick. Turn the bird back over and lightly press down on the breast bone with the palm of your hand to flatten it out. Insert a metal skewer though the leg under the skin in a diagonal direction and into the breast, taking care when inserting through the breast bone. Repeat for the other side.

With a sharp knife, carefully remove the kernels from the cob by slicing in a downwards motion from top to bottom. Place into a large bowl, add the smoked paprika and mix well. Peel and finely dice the red onion and place into a sieve. Run under a hot water tap for 2 minutes and then allow to dry. Once dried, add to the corn. Slice the chilli in half and remove the seeds. Slice into thin strips and then finely dice. Add to the mixing bowl. Bring a pan of water up to the boil. Carefully remove the core from the tomato and lightly score the skin on the top. Once the water has come to the boil, carefully plunge them for 10 seconds and remove into ice cold water. When cooled, carefully remove the tomato skin and then cut into quarters. Remove the seeds, roughly dice the flesh into 1cm dice and add to the corn. Cut the avocado in half and remove the stone from the centre. Peel off the skin and dice the avocado into around 2cm pieces. Add to the corn. Roughly chop the coriander and add to the mix. Zest and juice the lime straight into the mix and gently mix well together. Season to taste with salt.