Oliver Prince, 32, is the executive chef at Bumpkin, a new rustic, British-themed restaurant in Notting Hill

What's in your kitchen?
Delivered fish, vegetables, meats. Suppliers must be careful farmers who don't use pesticides and are sympathetic to animals. Veg comes from Secretts, a farm near Guildford, and from Andreas Georghiou & Co in Turnham Green; my butcher is Frank Godfrey in Highbury and fish is from Billingsgate Market. I've used all these for ten years and trust them.

How would you sum up your food philosophy?
Seasonal and simple - just letting the ingredients do the talking.

How has British food and our attitude to it changed in your lifetime?
Since I've been cooking we've been through fads for French and Mediterranean food, then Pacific Rim and fusion food. But I'm not really into food fashion. Now people are beginning to appreciate all the good things that come from British soil, whereas years ago a good meal meant, by definition, a French meal. British food is becoming top food. But then again, I always loved British food as my mother was an avid cook and mealtimes were a very happy family time for us.

What annoys you about the food culture in Britain?
Faddishness, to an extent, but also our the organic obsession - all food should be organic and the fact that we have to pay more for it annoys me. You shouldn't have to spend the extra money, really, to get the quality. The other big thing that annoys me is fusion food. If you're cooking Italian, cook Italian. If English, stick with English. Adding Asian and Mexican flavours simply because you can or it's trendy is just wrong.

Who or what is Britain's best kept food secret?
Samphire, also known as sea asparagus, which grows on the mud flats in tidal estuaries on the East Coast. I used to love going out there in my wellies and picking it. I get it delivered in season - which is late spring/summer - from Secretts and Andreas. I still like picking it when I'm on holiday. It's great with butter.

Do you prefer eating in or eating out?
Definitely in. Being a cook, I enjoy my cooking more when at home. It's more family-oriented and there's no pressure.

What's the next big food trend?
Championing British food is going to contunue in a big way. National dishes will continue on the rise - look at Scott's seafood restaurant in Mayfair and places like that. And that's what I'm doing at Bumpkin, of course. On Sundays we do Aberdeen Angus beef with roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding; another great British dish is Charter pie, made with chicken, leeks, bacon, white wine and cream in puffed pastry.

Do you have any eco-tips?
It's important to think about how we dispose of things? I get 40-50 boxes per day coming into the kitchen - plastic, cardboard, polystyrene. So I now ask my suppliers to deliver in plastic crates that they own, and collect the next day. No boxes. We're also insisting on small things such as switching off electricals in the building instead of leaving them on standby. I'm going to buy a compactor too which can reduce 1,000 boxes to a simple square, making them far less wasteful to dispose of. We use recyclable aluminum foil and cling film, and try to come up with environmentally friendly alternatives to the heavy duty stuff we use to clean the kitchen.

Bumpkin
209 Westbourne Park Road, London W11 1EA
020 7243 9818

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