Who’s cooking at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show?

It’s Chris Warwick, head chef at the fabulous Colette’s restaurant at The Grove in Herts – and boy has he got some gorgeous summer recipes. Karen O’Grady caught up with him at the show and asked him some foodie questions…

Q: Tell me a bit about what you're doing here today?
A: I'm in the Growing Taste Theatre and I'm demonstrating a bit of ‘plot to plate' using some of our beautiful produce from the Walled Garden in The Grove; and showing people how they can turn garden ingredients into gorgeous dishes.


Q: Do you really think it makes a difference using home-grown produce? Isn't it what you do with produce that counts rather than where it comes from?
A: You can really tell the freshness of the flavour in home-grown produce. What gives me a great advantage over other chefs is that I can go out and pick vegetables when they're at their best, whereas if you get a delivery at your back door, they could be at any point of what I call the ‘peak point'. We can go into the garden, and if the asparagus isn't ready then we won't put it on the menu. Three days later it might be fantastically, perfectly ripe so then we'll take and use it.

  English strawberries with Turkish delight syllabubQ: What are you cooking today?
A: English strawberries with Turkish delight syllabub. It's something which is quite simple. It's fine to buy Turkish delight, although I've made my own. I’ll make the syllabub with white wine, orange zest and vanilla - I'm going to put that over the strawberries, top with Turkish delight and then serve it all in a martini glass with slightly sugared candied rose petals, taken from my garden. I'll be handing this around the crowd for people to try. I've tried to keep with the theme of Hampton Court Palace flower show, using flowers from the garden.


Q: How do you feel about cooking in public?
A: I'm a bit of a rookie, so hopefully the audience will be nice! Trying to cook and talk is not easy but I'll do the best job I can. I'm a pretty humble guy but I'm just trying to be proud of myself, my garden, and proud of what we do.


Q: You've worked at amazing restaurants in London, Los Angeles and Dubai, now you're at The Grove, where would you like to work next?
A: Well, this is a really hard question. Coming to The Grove and having your own kitchen garden with a three-acre plot is wonderful. So really I see my immediate future at The Grove, working with my garden team and trying to grow the best produce I can for our guests in our restaurants. Hopefully I will still be at The Grove in the future, growing my own produce. I've found my true vocation, For the first time in my life I'm actually growing my own produce and cooking with it as well, I'm looking for something that can better that, and at the moment in my life there's nothing that can better that experience, as not many chefs throughout the country have that privilege. I think I'm probably the luckiest chef around at the moment.


Q: If someone has never grown vegetables before, what do you recommend is the first thing they should grow?
A: I haven't got a garden at home, so I've started to grow a few herbs on the windowsill. Start off slowly and then move on to a small grass box. Vegetables don't grow overnight, so it's best to take your time with veg growing. Plant some and when you're ready to do more, get some professional advice. There's no need to do everything at once, you have the whole of your life to grow vegetables - start in the house and then move out into the garden.

 

  Chris cooking at the Growing Taste TheatreQ: I know you're interested in heirloom vegetables, please explain what these are, and why are they important…
A: They are varieties with seeds over 50 years old, so it's important to keep their flavour and heritage going. There are lots of new varieties around, but I like to stick to some of the traditional varieties as they're healthier, that's the main thing. Heirloom vegetables will never become extinct, but it's up to chefs like me to keep the tradition going and make sure the seeds are used. We have heirloom tomatoes and heirloom beetroots at The Grove, although it's not all heirloom vegetables at The Grove - I like the romance of the tradition more than anything.


Q: Do you think it's possible to eat completely in season?
A: When we talk about seasonal, is a pineapple seasonal? All restaurants are serving pineapple - we still get things from different parts of the world, and that's what we have to appreciate. It is possible, at The Grove we are eating seasonally all year round, yet we still have things on the menu like pineapple and passion fruit - things which can't be grown in this country. We will always have things from other parts of the world.

Q: Do you ever eat convenience food, if so what?
A: If you'd have asked me that question five years ago, I would have said, ‘sometimes’, but now, I don't eat any convenience foods. I make sure I buy in from top delicatessens, maybe I couldn't have afforded it a few years ago, but now I make sure I've got fresh produce in my cupboards at home.


Q: Which TV food shows do you watch?
A: Gordon Ramsay is big on the TV at the moment, but then there's Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver, I quite like what they're doing. Also, Marco Pierre White has a British Seasonal show at the moment, he's another chef who has a great appreciation of British produce and he's going out there and sourcing it and doing all sorts of great things throughout Britain.



Photos: Karen O'Grady