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What is in your kitchen?
I've just moved house, so not that much yet. In an ideal world, I'd come home to find a fridge full of cheese from La Fromagerie, some veg from Whole Foods Market, and a lot of steaks from the amazing butcher at the bottom of Brackenbury Road, Stentons. I've recently rediscovered my love for herrings and rye bread from Scandi Kitchen on Great Titchfield Street. To polish it all off, a great bottle of Barolo from Lea & Sandeman.
How would you sum up your food philosophy?
Keep it natural. If you can't understand the ingredients list then it probably isn't worth eating. I think people are really waking up to the advantages of eating simple food from great raw ingredients. Why bother taking some juice, boiling it up, and then having to add back flavour, colour and vitamins to make it what it once was. Buy an orange, squeeze it. Simple. And far less environmental impact. When we first made our smoothies with nothing but fruit, people couldn't understand why we weren't adding preservatives, or watering them down. We just knew that wasn't the right way to make the best quality stuff.
How has British food and our attitude to it changed in your lifetime?
I think awareness of what we eat has totally changed in my lifetime. People are suddenly reading food labels, and really caring about what goes into their bodies. Whether they've been inspired by Jamie Oliver's first cooking programmes, or scared by Gillian McKeith, the UK is food aware in a way it wasn't even eight years ago when we set up innocent. We are living in exciting times. Rose Prince has written a wonderful book about how to encourage people to shop more cannily to get great value from food. Also, consumers are being provided with a range of healthy, convenient foods such as ready meals for little kids from the people at Little Dish. If you don't have much time, you can find natural, good quality shortcuts, but you do need to check the label to ensure it isn't just marketing spin.
What annoys you about the food culture in Britain?
People who think it is OK to pay £3 for a whole chicken. You can't expect that animal to have had a good life. Eat meat less often, and buy the good stuff. It makes sense in the long term. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall did a great programme making people cook a shepherds pie from scratch and then compare it to a ready-meal equivalent. The ready meal came out more expensive and tasting worse.
What is Britain’s best-kept food secret?
My mum's traditional Polish fish feast. It wouldn't be a proper Christmas without one.
Do you prefer eating in our eating out?
It depends on the occasion. There are times when there is nothing more exciting than firing up the bbq and cooking a great meal for your mates in the garden. But equally there are some fantastic restaurants in London - Lucky Seven near me for the burgers, Fratelli's for good Italian food and Skylon for the view. Part of the joy of eating out is exploring new cuisines, and having someone else do the washing up.
What is the next big (real) food trend?
Specific varieties/breeds. When we taste every single type of strawberry here to check what they are like and find the best one (we use mostly senga sengana) you realise what a difference the variety of fruit can make. The same is true for meats - bringing back rare breeds, and veg - finding old-fashioned veg that has simply gone out of favour. As more people grow their own in gardens and allotments again, they are realising how exciting having a range of the same fruit or vegetable can be. And the supermarkets are really waking up to this. It's no longer just a mango, it's an alphonso mango. That's great news for keeping consumers excited about what they are buying.
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But - if you buy any meat/eggs in a supermarket, don't necessarily believe that it's truly freerange just because it says that on the label. If you want real freerange, buy it from a local producer, find yourself a farmers' market. There's plenty of them around now.
cheryl, swindon,
I am really shocked and saddened at how unfeeling and cruel we have become as a society. If we don't see it we don't have to think about our actions, more exposure is needed to these things then we are less able to detatch ourselves from the choices we make and we are more able to make informed decisions. I have bought cheap chicken in the past and often congratulated myself on the bargains I had bagged. I will not do this anymore. My Mum who is 80 has told me about when she was young how chicken was a luxury food for the table. Chicken will be much more considered and thought about now in my home and I will only buy the nore expensive free range variety. I have infact just cooked my first ever free range chicken today and have to say there is quite a marked difference in the meat, I honestly never realised before what 'real' chicken was all about until now. I am disappointed that Tesco only had 2 free range birds on the shelf when I did my shopping. Keep up the campaigns!!
Lyn Waters, St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan
I cannot get free range chicken. I have tried my local tesco, sainsburys and even travelled to the next town and still no free range. These supermarkets should realise the business they are loosing. A member of staff should be allocated to monitor how many customers leave the store without their free range chicken, they might then realise what the customer wants.
Jackie, Kettering,
Hi we have been watching all about the chicken run and we have been in two local supermarkets with in thirty miles away of each other both of them had no free range chicken it seems though everyone is going mad
Jen Roberts, Corsham, Wiltshire
thanks for people who are ready to make a difference. you are eating also 3 pound cries, 3 pound horror of life and i hope you love eating fear and you know that you do. i am not rich but i won`t eat 3 pound chicken any more. thats nothing worth it; it is deeply crazy to know about and to be ready to ignore for the rest of life. it is okay to be egoistic i deeply believe and that is why i prefer chicken for example who were allowed to have a life; that is what you eat. you eat a whole life of pain and that is what is in your body. for the next years, for your whole life.
alice, london,
Yes, it would be nice to afford a £10 organic chicken for dinner, but most people are fighting off recession, credit card bills and trying to pay the mortgage etc. Thank goodness for £3 chickens!!
jenna, swindon, wilts