What is in your kitchen?

I adore eating seasonally. At the moment there’s lots of sweetcorn and lettuce in my fridge. My first apple of 2008 last month was a delight.

I like to pig out on a particular vegetable or fruit while it’s around, then wait for the rest of the year for it to reappear. It makes you appreciate the produce so much more. I buy nearly all my produce from farmers' markets, often from farmers who I know well, whose farms I've visited, so I feel very close to the food. I love that.

Almost everything is organic in my kitchen with a few exceptions like Marmite and Tabasco sauce. This is an environmental stance more than anything.

BACKGROUND

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How would you sum up your food philosophy?

It’s all about eating in a way that is gentle on the environment and preferably beneficial to wildlife. Food can have such an horrific impact if we eat in a greedy and all demanding way. If we eat in harmony with nature and the seasons we can sustain a delicious and varied diet, which will enable nature to look after us.

This year has been pretty disastrous for insects; there have been so few butterflies and bees. At my veg patch the other day I discovered all my Brussels sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli plants being eaten by caterpillars. I had to leave them; they needed it more than me. But it does make you wonder what farmers go through.

How has British Food and our attitude to it changed in your life time?

My god it’s changed so very much. It’s depressing and thrilling to watch. When I was a kid all the "mums" knew how to cook. Most kids didn’t learn those cooking skills off their parents but there is resurgence in interest in learning about cooking.

Travelling around Britain today you can find a great place to eat almost everywhere. Whereas when I was a kid you could count the good restaurants on two hands. So although home cooking skills have declined, the increase in eating out in good eateries will help to change that.

We can be incredibly proud of the producers and restaurants in the UK now and it’s up to us as consumers and businesses to support them.

What annoys you about food culture in Britain?

Wastage is absolutely outrageous. Food has such a huge impact on the environment and throwing away a third of our food contributes to landfill, packaging and wasted energy in its production. The supermarkets have a big responsibility for this behaviour. They encourage cheap food, all year round supply, and keep the shelves stocked with a strategy that means they would rather throw food away than have empty shelves.

But in the end it’s the Government that has allowed supermarket manipulation to take over our food culture. So the blame stops short with them. Having said that, it’s really not that hard not to shop in supermarkets: you save money, food, and packaging and enhance your way of life.

What’s Britain’s best-kept food secret?

That supermarkets are more expensive and they deprive us of healthy food.

Do you prefer eating out or in?

Both. Dinner at home alone, with my man or with friends all have equal pleasures. Eating out alone, with my man or with friends the same. Actually I think its just eating good food that’s wonderful whereever you are.

What is the next big (real) food trend?

Grow your own. We sold more veg seeds than flower seeds in the UK this year. It’s brilliant; you couldn’t get a greener way to produce food.

To find out more about the Duke of Cambridge visit www.dukeorganic.co.uk

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