Local knowledge: London

Dan Lepard, Baker, London

Home town: London, since 1984, previously Melbourne

Essential hometown eating experiences …

Really good organic pork, such as Oxford Sandy and Black. Great Lincolnshire sausages. Excellent apples and pears. Superb potatoes. It's a meat, apples, pears and potatoes country, really. Did I mention buttered cabbage? Really should have.

Where I'd send a visitor to eat …

St. John Restaurant, of course. Locanda Locatelli for the superb bread basket that greets you.

Favourites for breakfast …

Hawksmoor Air Street and Ottolenghi, Islington.

For lunch …

Brawn, or a great fat sausage roll from The Ginger Pig in Marylebone. Good less-pricey feasting at E5 Bakehouse. Comptoir Libanais is great value.

For dinner …

Levant, on Wigmore Street in central London, or Modern Pantry in Clerkenwell in East London.

Great dining day trip …

Wander through Soho, starting with a coffee at Bar Italia, mid-morning at Princi (or lunch for great pizza) then cakes in the afternoon at Yauatcha.

The locals' best-kept secret is …

The great Indian food in Southall. A bit challenging to get to, but very good.

Three must-visit places to eat …

Brick Lane Beigel Bake, Delhi Grill, Ganapati.

Best markets or foodstores …

Borough Market, Lina Stores, Fortnum & Mason's ground floor.

The local speciality …

It should be pies, really. But since they're almost impossible to find go for the eel sandwich that Jeremy Lee does at Quo Vadis. And have a pie while you're there.

Biggest date on the food calendar …

For me, it's The World's Original Marmalade Awards (slightly biased as I'm one of the patrons) and the artisan category judging at Fortnums in February.

Stay (a hotel or area) …

St. John Hotel for a little sweet craziness. Stay in Soho if you can; I used to live in Dean Street and the vibrant food there really shaped my outlook over the years.

Culinary home-town heroes …

Alastair Little, Fergus Henderson, Giorgio Locatelli.

What the locals drink, and the best place to drink it …

Has to be gin, really. London is a gin town and, though the once-famed ''gin palaces'' are long gone, at Hawksmoor they still know how to mix it well.

Dan Lepard is the baking columnist at guardian.co.uk and will appear as one of the judges on Nine Network's upcoming series The Great Australian Bake Off. He is one of the stars of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival 2013. He is hosting a brunch and demonstration ($195) in Melbourne at The Essential Ingredient on March 13. Phone 9827 9047.