What are your earliest memories of being interested in food?
I would say having croissants for breakfast at my Grandfather’s house, opening them up and filling them with extra butter!! The rest of the week we would have porridge cooked with water and salt though. The trick was to eat it quickly before it got cold.
Describe how you see your own culinary style and how it has evolved over the years…
The diversity and quality of ingredients that are available to us in Britain has improved so much over recent years that working with passionate producers and their products has enabled us to showcase this. That’s what I find inspiring, I want to pass on the experience we have in the kitchen to the guests by not messing around with the food and serving an incredible strawberry, not a tomato that tastes like a strawberry!
Tell us a bit about the restaurant at the Isle of Eriska…
The food we serve at the Isle of Eriskais all about the quality of the ingredient, and thanks to the network of producers we have built up this enables us to change the menu every evening. We also have a tasting menu that is based around a list of ingredients that we have on the day, the guests see the list but they don’t know how each dish is comprised until they get it.
If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your younger self, starting out a career in the world of food?
It’s a cliché but I would advise myself to travel more, not just to work in different countries but to spend time off experiencing them too.
If you could take a plane ride to any restaurantin the world, just for one meal, where would you go?
I think I would take my wife to Le Suquet the Bras’ restaurant in Laguiole. For me it’s the ultimate, a great location highlighting great ingredients.