Member Info

How long have you worked at your current restaurant?
Year and a half as head of development and research at the Fig & Olive.

Where did your passion for cooking come from and where did you learn your skills?
Watching MasterChef when I was younger and always going out for food with my parents and being able to see through the kitchen doors or open plan kitchen really intrigued me watching the chefs work learnt my skills at UCB before spending time in London.

What do you enjoy most about being a chef?
The people I work with, the busy hustling environment and seeing satisfied customers.

Name three ingredients you couldn’t cook without.
Onion, salt and thyme.

Which piece of kitchen equipment couldn’t you live without?
Thermomix.

What food trends are you spotting at the moment?
Split sauces.

What do you think is a common mistake that lets chefs down?
Panicking and flapping under pressure instead of staying calm and attacking the job head on.

What is your favourite time of year for food, and why?
Summertime, I love the vibrant fresh produce which is widely available.

Which of your dishes are you most proud of?
Pecan tart, orange gel, salted caramel ice cream or scallops, mushroom duxelles, cep foam, burnt cauliflower puree, black truffle.

How do you come up with new dishes?
Research, I like to dine out a lot and see what other chefs are doing, I like to use as much in season ingredients as possible so that plays a massive part in the dishes I put together.

Who was your greatest influence?
Marcus Wareing.

Tell us three chefs you admire.
Louisa Ellis, Ben Murphy and Daniel Clifford.

What is your favourite cookbook?
The Chefs’ Knowledge.

Who do you think are the chefs to watch over the next few months?
I don’t think I know of many chefs to watch over the coming months but more the technology and the ability of young chef to use classic technique with modern day technology to produce art on a plate.

What’s been your favourite new restaurant opening of the last year?
Orelle restaurant or Land restaurant, I really enjoyed both in the last few months when visiting.