Folk star Laura Marling secretly quit music last year (12) to train as a chef.

The singer/songwriter was plunged into a deep depression after ending a dysfunctional relationship, and she was gripped with crippling self-doubt about her chosen career.

The Brit became convinced her life as a musician would not last, so she decided to take a break and re-train for a new vocation as a restaurant cook.

Marling tells Uncut magazine, "I thought, 'I'm going to have to come up with a back-up plan, because I don't even know if I'm going to be able to keep this up forever.' So I walked into a London restaurant I go to a lot and said, 'I'm competent. I've got a chef's knife. Could I come in and work?' Much to my surprise and delight they said, 'Of course. We actually just lost someone so we need someone to fill in.'

"I was elated, but then I realised I had to begin work at 5.30am. I was very quickly aware that I have never actually worked a day in my life. But while that was quickly apparent, it was amazing too, because I learned lots of technical stuff and I learned how consistent you have to be at a restaurant.

"After coming out of all of that, it's been a relief opening myself up to feeling young and naive and allowing myself to behave like that."

Marling is set to return to her first love with the release of her new album, Once I Was An Eagle, next month (May13).