What was your first industry job?
I did work experience at a small restaurant in Bollington called Beasdales, plating cold starters and washing up.
If you weren’t in kitchens, what would you do?
I would love to be an architect, but would probably need to slightly improve my paperwork skills.
What industry figure do you most admire, and why?
Magnus Nilson, of MAD and Faviken. I ate at Faviken when I was a young chef and it was incredibly formative, I love his writing and outlook on food and hospitality. I’m probably not allowed two choices, but I wouldn’t have become a chef were it not for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and River Cottage.
What’s your pet hate in the kitchen?
Excessive tea towel use.
What’s the oddest thing a customer has said to you?
That they couldn’t eat tree shaped vegetables.
Sum up your cooking style in a single sentence…
Food that feels right for the context of the time and place it was made.
What’s the worst review you’ve ever had?
I did once make a dietary canapé specifically for someone who couldn’t eat onions and then topped it with a red onion salsa type thing, which didn’t go down too well.
What advice would you give someone starting out in the industry?
It’s easy to go to clichés of ‘keep your head down’ etc, but I would say follow what it is specifically that lights your fire in the world of food and find the joy and enthusiasm.
Which single item of kitchen equipment could you not live without?
I am a big fan of a spoonula, because of how silly the word itself is but also because they’re very useful.
What would you choose to eat for your last meal?
Roast chicken, great bread, aioli and a tomato salad.
À la carte or tasting menu?
As a food nerd a tasting menu just gives your more things to taste.
What’s the best meal you’ve ever had in a restaurant?
Faviken, a year before it closed, a life-changingly amazing experience.
What’s your favourite fast food joint?
I have spent my career in rural East Devon, rural Somerset, rural North Wales and rural Somerset, so my access to fast food has always been quite limited. However, as a northerner I do have a tiny soft spot for a Greggs.
What’s the dish you wish you’d thought of?
I am just down the road from Osip, and I once had a fig leaf ice cream, with a fig and almond tart and macerated blackberries. It was completely delicious, using ingredients I was very familiar with, but used in a really lovely way.
MasterChef or Great British Menu?
GBM, 100%.
What’s the most overrated food?
I think I am probably just wrong here, but it’s not that often that I feel myself wanting to put beef on a menu.
You’re restaurant dictator for a day – what would you ban?
I have never really understood j-cloths.
Who would your dream dinner party guests be?
We would all have a very awkward evening, but from a few different career paths; Johnny Flynn, Magnus Nilson, Edmund De Waal and Alice Walters.
What’s your earliest food memory?
Macaroni cheese and runner beans with my grandad.
Twitter or Instagram?
I think they’re probably both very bad for us, but Instagram seems less horrific.
What’s the closest you’ve ever come to death?
I have led an embarrassingly safe life.
Where do you go when you want to let your hair down?
It used to be at a little coffee shop in Dorset called Kiosk, in my new Bruton era it is tending to be The Three Horseshoes.
What’s your tipple of choice?
Every now and then a whiskey just feels like the right choice.
What’s your favourite food and drink pairing?
I recently had a terribly classy combo of a frozen Rolo pot with a sprinkling of smoked Halen Môn sea salt accompanied by a glass of quince cider. It was good time.
What do you consider to be your signature dish?
I tend to cook lots of different things quite a lot, but I have been making a porridge sourdough loaf for a number of years, and I haven’t got tired of it yet.
