While it might seem that provenance and sustainability are relatively new topics on the agenda, these values have really been with us chefs for years. We just need to look to Italy where amazing age-old regional recipes were created around produce available in that specific area.
I started out in this industry a long time ago, in 1985, at a restaurant called Chez Max with a fantastic chef called Max Magarian. It was at the height of nouvelle cuisine, which was all about small portions with outlandish pairings like kiwifruit-topped fillet steak. Luckily for me, Max was a purist and taught me that fashion and fads in food will happen, but it always comes back to classic food, simplicity, and good-quality ingredients.
When I worked with Max we were getting incredible ingredients every day and everything was handmade. This was exceptional training for me and set me up for my next position at The River Café. When I started there it was just a little restaurant that was run by two now legendary ladies, Ruth Rogers and Rose Grey. At the time they had a completely different approach to food than most of the restaurants in London.
We would lay the ingredients out every day and from there we would write the menu. Doing this meant we never compromised and it challenged us to use each ingredient in the best way.
It was an amazing time because no one else was doing this and we were all learning. Producers would come to the restaurant and we would buy from them daily and then invent. If some chap turned up with porcini mushrooms in the morning they would be cooked and on the menu by lunch.
At the River Café we also grew ingredients in the garden and it added a great a story to our dishes, which helped sell the product. Rose and I started visiting suppliers in the UK and abroad. We went to a farm in Italy where they grew cavolo nero, which at the time was not available in this country. The farmer very kindly gave us seeds and we passed them to a UK farmer who began growing it. It thrived and is now available in supermarkets across the country.
It is truly amazing how so many of these developments came from the passion of restaurants and chefs. I would absolutely love it if English famers grew more Italian produce. Things like chicory, which is expensive to import from Italy, could easily be grown in England.
People think of Borlotti beans as being very Mediterranean, but they actually grow like runner beans. I can’t encourage farmers enough to grow more Italian produce in England.
In short, good food is only good if the ingredients are, and growing locally means it is fresher and more accessible. -
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