Not many chefs can claim to have cooked a person's last meal before they die, but Brian Price has cooked 300 of them. He was the 'last meal' chef for Texas death row for 11 years and has just released a book called Meals to Die For.

A death-row inmate's last meal has traditionally been prepared by prisoners serving lesser sentences at a nearby jail and was usually the responsibility of whoever was on duty at the time, but Price's ability in the kitchen meant he kept the job for more than a decade. When Price was first admitted to the Walls Unit in Huntsville he was asked what job he'd done outside the prison. His supervisor said there wasn't much call for a photographer and musician and told him he had to learn to cook.

'I got hooked up with a little gay dude named Kerry Parrack, who had been a four-star chef in El Paso. His nickname was Pack Rat because what he couldn't smuggle out from the kitchen wasn't worth having. One time he strapped a gallon of peanut butter to one leg and a gallon of jelly to the other with Cellophane.

'He taught me the basics and I started cooking supper for 1,800 inmates before being asked to cook the final meals for death row in 1991. I learnt to do everything from scratch - there were no mixes. I made everything from cornbread to gravy.'

Price had accepted a plea bargain to serve 15 years when he was sentenced in 1989 for sexual assault on an ex-wife. 'If I hadn't gone to prison for so long I wouldn't have written the book and I wouldn't be with the wife I'm with now, living on nine acres near a lake and co-hosting a radio programme [he met Nita, while she was presenting a Christian radio programme live from the prison]. God is good,' he says.

The recipes in his book have names such as Posthumous Potato Salad, Post-mortem Potato Soup, and Old Sparky's Genuine Convict Chilli (which boasts three degrees of spiciness - 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 volts depending on the number of jalapeno peppers included).

Details of last meal requests have long been available to the media after an execution, but Price reveals that what prisoners ask for and what they actually receive are sometimes two different things. 'The local newspaper would always say they got 24 tacos and 12 enchiladas, but they would actually get four tacos and two enchiladas.

'In the beginning we had a store of T-bone steaks just for executions but some time in 1993 they stopped bringing them over from the butchers. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has its own meat-packing plant so there was no reason for it.'

Price says the first death-row meal he cooked was for murderer Laurence Buxton who requested filet mignon. He actually got a T-bone steak, but Price was touched when he sent word back saying how much he liked the meal. 'I gave this guy a little bit of pleasure - just something to distract him for a brief moment before his execution. It's a very humbling and emotional experience and I always prayed over each meal.'

He admits writing the book seems a little morbid but insists the world is fascinated by the macabre. 'Besides, it's a morbid thing the United States does, strapping someone down to kill them like an animal in front of tons of witnesses.'

The most requested last meal is a cheeseburger and French fries. The hamburger meat would be delivered in rolls from the TDCJ meatpacking plant and Price would season it with a little Worcestershire sauce, some garlic powder, salt and pepper. 'Then I'd grill the onions right there beside it and toast the buns with butter. I did the best I possibly could with what I had and I'd always use fresh lettuce and tomato to garnish it with. The simplest meal I ever prepared? One guy asked for a jar of pickles.'

Karla Faye Tucker was the first woman to be executed in Texas since 1863. Price recalls she asked for two bananas, four peaches, a nectarine, a cucumber and a garden salad with ranch dressing. 'But she never touched a thing.'

Price describes murderer Kenneth MacDuff as a monster. 'He tortured and killed several people,' he says. 'He wanted two T-bone steaks but he got a hamburger steak. As much as I despised the man I'm supposed to find forgiveness as a Christian. He didn't need to be judged by me - he had to face God.'

The only person Price refused to cook for was Mexican Leopoldo Narvaiz Jr. He murdered four of Price's daughter's schoolfriends, all aged between 11 and 19. Before Narvaiz's execution in 1998 Price asked if another chef could prepare the meal.

On the day of an execution the meal would have to be ready by 3.45pm and Price would put the plates on a tray and cover it over with paper ('so no one could see it, as a matter of respect'). It would then be carried across the yard to the north-east corner of the prison which housed the death chamber. The inmate would eat at 4pm and two hours later would be killed by lethal injection.

'From my cell's vantage point there was a bank of windows and I could see the hearse pull up and leave,' Price explains. 'It was a black mini van with tinted windows from the local funeral home. After I served the meal I'd take a shower and be back in my cell by about five o'clock. I'd wonder why this guy had ordered what he did and what thoughts might be going through his head and I'd watch the little clock tick away in the corner. Five fifty-five, five fifty-six - I would know he'd be strapped down by then and would have already given his last statement. When six o'clock came I'd picture the warden giving the signal.'

Price says inmates generally choose food unique to their culture. 'Mexican guys want Mexican food. The black guys generally want everything from 'chitlins' [stuffed pig intestines] to fried chicken and watermelon.

'My potato soup was popular too. I'd prepared it for the whole unit in the past, including the guards, so I used to get requests to make it for the occasional last meal. I'd use potatoes, onions, butter, sweet cream, garlic powder, salt, pepper, mozzarella cheese and instant mash potato as a thickener.'

'One man ordered butter beans which was difficult to prepare, but it was something his mum made him when he was a kid and I knew it would take him back to a time when it was peaceful. So I cooked them real slow. There was this little old black guy - a prisoner named Monroe who walked up and smelt the cooking and said: "Mmm, I love butter beans, who they for?" and I said, "Well, Monroe, they're for the guy they're fixin' to kill". And he said: "Mmmm, don't want no dead man's beans, I got enough problems".'

Meals to Die For is available on Amazon

www.mealstodiefor.com