What’s in your kitchen?

Here at St John’s, we had tripe in this morning, unbleached Irish tripe, which is lovely. We had some ox kidneys, which is always encouraging and a good beginning to the week. There’ll be quite a few birds being game season. We’ve got grouse in, for example, which is always a joyous moment when they’re around; there are all sorts of good things falling from the sky. We’ve also got all the usual bits and pieces, such as carrots, lettuces, potatoes and cabbage – being the best greenery available at the moment.

As for equipment, we just rely on our hands and knives. I’m a bit of a Luddite when it comes to machinery. People crave machinery and then they get it, but it doesn’t seem to change their lives like they thought it might do. It’s a bit like when you were a kid and you really wanted that toy because you thought it was going to change your life, but it doesn’t.

As with the St John kitchen, I’m rather cold-hearted at home when it comes to equipment. All you need is a decent flame, set of pans, knives and a few wooden spoons. My love affair is with the food rather than the machinery – I just don’t get too emotionally attached to tools. Having said that, I do like a good corkscrew. There’s nothing worse than an inefficient corkscrew, but an efficient one is always a treat.

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

Terry Laybourne

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My wife [Margot Henderson of Rochelle Canteen] picked up a rice steamer recently; but I don’t understand it much.

Family favourites are lead by the fact there’s only one good shop near us – I Camisa & Son on Old Compton St – so we work our way through Camisa’s repertoire: zamponi, pasta, Italian sausages. That leads our culinary home adventures.

How would you sum up your food philosophy?

Nose-to-tail eating is not just nose to tail. It’s also about enjoying the limitations of the British seasons. Use what’s good at the moment. Don’t look for strawberries at Christmas time, for instance. It boils down to common sense. It’s just polite to use the entire animal as it is polite to use vegetables that are in season. When chefs say they’re going to cook something seasonal and local now, I always wonder, well, what were you doing before? The problem is food gets turned into something trendy, so it suddenly becomes hot to say “seasonal and local”, but that’s just the way food should be.

When we first opened the restaurant, people asked: “So, how did you come up with the concept?” There was never a concept. It just seemed like the most natural thing to do.

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

Hugely. Yet I have this slight anxiety. There’s been this strange leap; now London seems to be the culinary capital. But when it comes to people’s kitchens, I’m not sure that revolution has happened so much at home. I mean, supermarkets are full of anonymous meat in plastic, we’re losing our butchers, which suggests people are happier with the anonymous, pink, wobbly meat. If people were really keen, they would all be hugging their butchers and fishmongers.

I was in Italy, talking to some young, groovy Romans and we were discussing Italian green chicory. When the same happens here and we can talk and proudly say that’s London cabbage, that’s when I’ll feel there’s been a real change.

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