Recipes from Michelin star winner Mark Jordan

Mark Jordan had never eaten an oyster before he came to Jersey (as a teenage apprentice chef in the West Country, he witnessed a colleague becoming seriously ill after eating a bad one). Nor had he written a book or won a Michelin star. ‘I knew nothing about Jersey, except Bergerac,’ says Mark, who was the head chef at a country-house hotel in the Lake District when he was headhunted to run the Ocean Restaurant at Jersey’s Atlantic Hotel. ‘I assumed that everything would have to be flown in by helicopter.’

Seven years later, Mark is better acquainted with Jersey’s fishermen, farmers and food producers. Not only has he based his award-winning menus on island produce – more than 90 per cent of his ingredients are locally sourced – but he has become a high-profile ambassador for Jersey food, both as the author of a new cookbook, Ocean Voyage), and a guest chef on the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen. ‘Everything I do is based on the freshness of my ingredients,’ Mark says. ‘I can ring my lobster man at seven o’clock in the evening and eight minutes later there is a fresh lobster in my kitchen.’

Mark has no doubt that the knowledge and dedication of his suppliers was a key factor in his achievement of a Michelin star in 2007. Another influence was the late Keith Floyd, who gave the 15-year-old Mark his first job at the Maltsters Arms in Devon. ‘He always encouraged me to put an emphasis on the ingredients, and cook from the heart, just like he did.’

The recipes...

See Mark Jordan's recipe for pan roast sea bass with lobster risotto

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Atlantic Hotel & Ocean Restaurant, Le Mont de la Pulente, St Brelade, Jersey (01534 744101, www.theatlantichotel.com).