What’s in your kitchen?

A Britannia oven with a grilling rotisserie which makes fantastic chicken and on top you’ve got a wonderful long wrought-iron piece you can heat up to grill vegetables.

As for ingredients, I always have a really nice olive oil for cooking. Inside my fridge I keep some capers and cornichons (baby gherkin pickles), as well as a very large pot of Dijon mustard, which I often use for my salad dressings. I try not to snack; life is a constant struggle against snacking. I’ve completely banished biscuits.

My emergency standby ingredients include a can of tinned tuna and a tin of cannellini beans. They’re great for when I come home very late, I just chop up an onion and some flat leaf parsley and it’s done.

Expert View

It annoys me when young chefs overwork food and people buy recipe books for their coffee table

Terry Laybourne

• More

• Post a comment

England's best pick-your-own farms

PYO is the freshest, tastiest, most eco-friendly way to "shop" and the birdsong's free. Find out what's ripe for picking

• Strawberry fields for ever: Pick your own returns

REal Food Pioneers

• Real food pioneer: Guy Watson

• Real Food Pioneer: Geetie Singh

• Real Food Pioneer: Carlo Petrini

• Real Food Pioneer: Alice Waters

• Real Food Pioneer: Sophi Tranchell

Related Links

• Market Leader

I also stock a good range of different fruit vinegars. From a Persian shop I know, I’ve got a pot of lime powder, which I think is made from dried limes. It gives food a wonderful sharpness. Also from the same shop, I have dried tangerine peel which I add to stews, which adds an element of fruitiness and an interesting complexity.

How would you sum up your food philosophy?

Keep it simple and always buy the best you can possibly afford. Allow the true nature of ingredients to shine through. People come to my house with certain expectations – they expect to eat well. So I always put on a pretty looking table. I like to mix and match antique plates, for instance. A good display is important.

How has British food and our attitudes to it changed in your lifetime?

I think our attitudes have changed hugely. People are much more aware of the origins of food nowadays. Although with 70 per cent of all food still bought in supermarkets one must stop and ask just how successful the change has been. I find, as a society we tend to talk about food a lot more often than we used to, we eat out a lot more and we tend to think about where our food has come from.

What annoys you about Britain’s food culture?

The fact that price dictates what we buy. Of course, pricing is hugely important and not everyone can afford to buy top-end produce, but what really irritates me is that people don’t make the connections. For instance, when you come across a good bargain where you can get two packs of meat or fish for the price of one, we need to ask ourselves what has been done to achieve that level of pricing. What standards have been cut to get there?

Why don’t people realise that certain corners have been cut and yes, we’re all tempted to buy good value but people must assume a certain level of responsibility. I guess it’s comparable to flying. There are the same kind of implications and the same kind of responsibilities involved. People just don’t take the message on board.

What is Britain’s best-kept food secret?

This is a “tricky” question. Is this a secret or not? I guess my secret ingredient is salt. Good salt. Another secret ingredient grows wild in so many people’s gardens. It’s a sort of wood sorrel and looks like a clover leaf, except it’s a much brighter green. Many people tend to pull it up thinking it’s weed, but is in fact absolutely sensational and grows wild all over the place. It makes an amazing addition to salad. It just gives you that hint of good things to come. I first read about it in Joy Larkham’s book, Salads All Over the World.

Do you prefer eating in or out?

Both. Sometimes I adore eating out, although sometimes when I do, I get so irritated. I think, golly, I could have done this better myself. Nevertheless, I do enjoy eating out, either by going to an old favourite or somewhere new and exciting.

Although I do hate eating breakfast out. I’m not at my best first thing in the morning. I’m so bad tempered. Breakfast is certainly the one meal which is better to have at home.

What is the next big food trend?

Have you come across any of the pop-up field kitchens? They open up on-site in barns, literally in the middle of fields and surrounded by pick-your-own vegetables or you can bring your own home-grown vegetables. I went to one recently in Northumberland. A beef farmer had set up his own beef cafe. Food should be elegant and eloquent and ideally locally sourced, that’s the trend that’s known as locavorism.

The whole idea about the pop-up field kitchens is about you going out, buying some jolly good produce that's been cooked with enthusiasm and food gets to keep its dignity.

For more information on Henrietta Green’s organisation, visit Food Lovers Britain

Times Recommends

• Champagne cocktail
• Food that's good for body and soul
• Joe McCanta’s never-fail hangover-relief shake