To Bognor's seafront holidaymakers, he is just the doughnut man. But Gary Edwards has an incredible secret past.

Before he discovered his niche in the market - the promenade doughnut kiosk - Gary, 40, was head baker at posh London hotel Claridge's.

He trained at the exclusive Ecole Lenotre bakery school in Paris.

In the Eighties he was responsible for changing the menu at Claridge's by introducing a range of Continental breads when most British supermarket shelves were stocked with little more than sliced white.

But Gary has left behind the high life to run the Flying Donut and says he doesn't regret a thing.

He said: "I love being on the seafront in the summer. This kiosk is my sanctuary. I'm selling a product I've made with my own hands to people who are on holiday chilling out. There's very little stress - it's bliss."

A baker born and bred, he made his first dough as a 13-year-old working at a local bakery on Saturdays.

He could turn out an expert loaf before he left school and was watching bread rise while most other lads his age were out playing football.

By the age of 17 he had persuaded his dad to buy the bakery where he worked and left school to help run the business.

He joined Claridge's, part of the Savoy group, in 1985. Company chiefs were keen to expand their bread offerings and the following year sent him to learn from the experts in Paris.

As well as learning the miche loaf technique, he studied at the city's Ecole Lenotre, and brought the ideas back to the Claridge's menu.

He said: "It felt like we almost spearheaded a change in people's bread eating habits in this country. It was helped by supermarkets expanding in the late Eighties and more people travelling abroad and trying different food."

After two years Gary got itchy feet. He also wanted to own his own business.

After a spell working for a company developing cake and bread packet mixes he decided to start making and selling one of his favourite foods - the humble doughnut.

He said: "I'd done almost everything in the bread business by then. I decided wanted to work for myself again. I was driving through the promenade in Bognor one day for work and I realised no one was selling doughnuts and there was a gap in the market."

He applied to the council who gave him a one-year lease as a trial. A year later, in 1992, he was handed a 15-year lease and The Flying Donut was born.

The work is seasonal and Gary still keeps a hand in the bread business. For the last five years he has been an independent freelance consultant designing bakeries.

He has worked in the USA, Switzerland, Italy and the UK, and next month he is going to Saudi Arabia to train staff at a bakery he has designed.

He said: "I love Bognor and the seafront in the summer, but there's not much happening in the winter. This way I get the best of both worlds."

Gary lives in Rose Green, near Bognor, with his wife Henrietta and their three children aged between six months and 16 years.

He displays his qualifications and certificates inside the kiosk and he is somewhat of a local celebrity in Bognor.

He said: "People want to know what a head baker from Claridge's is doing selling doughnuts on Bognor seafront."

He also gets women from the town going to the kiosk for baking advice.

He said: "They come down here wanting to know why their scones aren't rising or their cherries are sinking in their cakes.

"I give them advice, and they bring me in samples. They always seem pleased if the former head baker of Claridge's gives their cakes the seal of approval."