✅Check out the latest episode of Hospitality Insights with Christian Got, AKA An Island Chef.
➡️A few words about today’s guest:
“I am a food and drink writer, chef, some-time publican, and restaurant manager.
A qualified ASET trainer with over thirty years of experience working in hospitality.
I’ve worked on six islands and in probably just about every type of business you can imagine.“
source: https://anisland.cooking/
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We’re not all going to be Jamie Olivers and uh Gordon ramsy and we’re not going to get to the top of the tree one skill in being a chef is actually understanding your customer and and that comes back to knowing your limits but yes so going back hard work it’s
Probably 5% lock 10% talent and then the rest of it is is just you have to do it you have to put the hours in and you have to do the work if I write a recipe I haven’t invented that so who has the copyright on a recipe or you
Know if you look on the on the web and somebody will say well this is my crumble recipe it’s not really CU it’s a you know it’s it’s a generic recipe so I I I think there’s very very few you know there’s dishes that chefs do and they do
This and this and this and this but recipe writing is a bit kind of like cuz no it’s it’s it’s it’s out there and so what you taste and I taste is we can be tasting the same thing but how we taste it is completely different so somebody using a language is you’ve
Got to connect with that today’s episode was brought to you with the support of our friends at Kyoto Resto bar from the rakaya dishes to the most delicious sushi in Jersey Koto Resto bar is the place you should have in mind for your next on island Japanese experience
Whether you choose to dine in or order online I promise that you won’t be disappointed and now back to the episode Christian go AKA an island Chef welcome to hospitality insights oh thank you very much great to have you it’s great to finally be here we’ve been trying to do this for
A long time haven’t we I know I know I know but you were busy you know we’re going to get to it you know what what you’ve been busy with now we’re going to begin like we always do on this channel we want to give a bit on this podcast we
Want to give a bit of context of your life like how you going into Hospitality because this is the main subject so how was how was the beginning um so I’ve always been fascinated by food I’ve loved it and I was very lucky to grow up in the country Countryside so you know
People used to drop off pheasants and partridges and and you know ants and and my mom and my grandma they would you know I can remember looking over the table and seeing these things being prepared and I think it just started from there I’ve always been fascinated
And I’m very lucky that I’ve got three amazing sorts of cooks in my family and a my mom and uh and Annie and they were all incredible in different ways they were all doing it I mean my my then she used to do icing of cakes very formal
You know when you see those wedding cakes that St so she used to attention to details attention to detail my aunt she could cook anything but would use an entire kitchen to do it she was she was just one of those you know like oh my God like a wedding just happened yeah
How many pens have you used to make that um but and you know we like a lot of people we it revolved I grew up in the the countryside it revolved around food so we’ve just come out of Christmas Christmas was always a big in the UK I
Guess yeah yeah yeah it was literally and one of the reasons I’m an island Chef is I grew up about as close in the UK as it’s possible to be from the sea so I think the stats are you’re never more than about 60 mies anywhere in the
UK from the sea that’s where I was right in the middle so you know when we used to go to the seaside it was a it was a two I’m used to people talking now you know and they travel hundreds of miles but used to be a sort of 60 70 mile
Journey just to get and then it’s over there somewhere and the Sea would be out and it would just be like so all of a sudden then you know I’ve just gone the complete opposite and and now lived on island number five but we will come to
That later so yeah food’s always been there it’s been huge and so I kind of I did I did some studying I did a levels and but I always wanted to get into it and I did I went to college and I and I learned to be a chef did you go like
Straight into cooking was that your cuz you know some people they they don’t really know what they want at younger age was that you know your Pursuit right from the beginning was like you know what this is what I like I like what my mom does I know they they inspired you
To go that I think it was I think there was a little bit of dare I say there was I’ve been talking to somebody today about it there’s always a little bit of pressure when you you kind chefing wasn’t always seemed to be the thing to do even now
It’s not yeah you know and and um I remember my stepdad he he took my um he took my CV into the college because i’ applied to do to do catering and they they thought he was joking they thought he was having a bit of a laugh they were
Like but you you know he’s he’s he’s he’s got a levels and he’s he’s quite and he said no that’s what he wants to do so you know give him chance to to to do what he want and and it was and it you know and that’s wrong I mean it it
Shouldn’t have been but it was all seen to be a little bit of a why why do you want to do why why you I have to say it’s the best thing you can ever do but I know we we’ll get to that as well cuz
You know you you you can always find employment if you can cook oh no absolutely you can travel with this job like very well like so many shs I know you are the perfect example six island or yeah six you know six islands working five living yeah of course and you know
You can I you know if anybody says to me now why do you want to cook well you can you can backpack around the world you can go off to Australia and if you can if you can pour a a beer make a cocktail and you can cook a burger then you you
Know you’re guaranteed that you can get a job somewhere it’s a life skill as well it’s it’s almost like we need to eat right I mean it’s it’s on the daytoday helps not even talking about getting professional you know getting to to a level that you are professional
Even if you know it for yourself and as s was saying you know he almost should be like a national service because even if you do it for a short period of time it teaches you so many things Hospitality in general well I mean Simon Simon’s actually and we can you know
Simon’s um a director of the company that I work for now um and and he’s really passionate and and I totally agree with him and it is a life set and it’s a skill and one of the things I’m lucky enough to do now I I’m a little
Bit older and a little bit more experienced is give some of that that inspiration back and I’m I’m glad they still got that inspiration but you know there are people and and on the island there are people they haven’t got those life skills and it’s very important that
And we you know we can do all about how expensive food is and whatever but you know it’s important just people don’t even know the sort of right end of a knife or what to do and let’s focus on things that we can change right in know
Way yeah because it’s not point crying well to a degree it’s not point crying about taxes they’re still there let’s try to see what we can do with what we’ve got or with the yeah there there is you know there’s there’s a point and and there’s a thing
To say that you you know we should attempt to look at Cost of Living and why does it cost so much and but equally we live on an island in the middle of the sea so there is always going to be an additional cost to what you eat
Compared to wherever else you go because there’s there’s it’s imported and there’s freight cost um but yeah just don’t get me wrong everybody likes it we all like a meal from the supermarket we all like a takeaway but you know an onion a stick of celery some
Tomatoes and a few other ingredients and you can make some soup yeah and you buy some soup it’s expensive so that that just those skills and and again going back to where we you started the conversation food’s a great leveler and you know I’m used to like I
Say that the big family gatherings the 14 and you you you’re there and people are cooking and people are tasting stuff and then it gets passed around the table and it’s it’s just that big social um sort of glue that sticks families together and friends together I mean you
Get it in restaurants and it’s great but it’s also good to do it yourself no absolutely but you mentioned about passing your knowledge on to to maybe younger generation to other people that need these skill are there people that want to get that information from you because do you feel like it’s
Challenging you know finding those people that actually want to learn from you it I’ve been in a meeting today um and we’re looking at locating in a site in town we’re going to actually do some cooking lessons for people who are who’ve been in care people who haven’t perhaps had the opportunities people
Haven’t gained the life skills and we’ve got the first cohort of people coming through at the end of the month so there are people out there that’s amazing and and and you know they they need and they want those skills and and it’s great to
Be in a position to do it we we reckon I we were talking today you know there’s there’s probably about 200 people who who are in the sort of 16 to 25 year old age Gap that haven’t had that that have been through care being through the
System and and and need to have some of those skills that that up to now there isn’t so yeah there are people out there and I think there’s lots of people you know for different reasons you might have difficulties you might not fit in with the school system you know
There’s there’s ways of of teaching people that is slightly different to to what’s accepted of you must go to school you must do this you must do this whereas we’re looking at at options with some of the schools to to just bring them in to give them some train more
Relaxed way of kind more relaxed way but you can you can be about it so I’ve I’ve got my post 16 teaching qualifications so there’s there’s interesting ways you know you a chef so you’ll know if you’re looking at a recipe you’ve got amounts of of products that involve so there’s
Some Mass involved you know are we going to scale that recipe up are we going to scale that recipe down so there’s Mass involved there um one of the things on the course that we’re we’re looking to be doing at the moment is we’re going to take people around the shops we’re going
To say well look what’s the better value you know you’ve got this at this price you’ve got this at this price but it’s using other skills as well that’s not just about this is an onion this is what it does it goes in these dishes we’re we’re going to teach other skills as
Well so and yeah I like I like showing off a bit so there’s lots of weird like any Che like any yeah but you can bring science into it you know I mean um turmeric you know turmeric yeah so turmeric is bright yellow and when you
Use it you use it to to to color and flavor C but if you put it in an alkaline solution and heat it it goes dark red I didn’t know that no neither did I until a couple of years ago and somebody was using it to color fish
Batter so they were putting a teaspoon into a big bucket of with some beer and some soda water and flour and I can’t quite remember why but they must have changed the acidity of it so they put some baking powder in um and when they were putting the fish in it
Was coming out looking like it was burnt so I did some research and the reason was was because the turmeric was turning red and it made the batter look it wasn’t burnt it was still perfectly edible but it didn’t look appetizing and it was just like why has this happened
And see I I surprised you but that so you do something like you know you can put some turmeric in a pan you put some bicarbonate of soda in there you heat it up and everybody goes oh wow that’s a bit clever yeah it’s just simple but but
There’s so there’s science there’s maths there’s a whole lot more to it than just you know cooking no absolutely yeah and making it interesting I guess you know you can even Target a younger audience because I think those are the ones that are to be more like a this is boring
Give me something else but I feel like you know doing this kind of almost experiments you know that it it it catches the eye and you be like you know what I want to kind of like see what today and he’s coming again and again and again and he probably just by
Playing you know he already understands how to make a few recipes to cook something at home well I I mean I don’t want to get too preachy cuz I’m I’m I’m conscious that you know you can get over like or um Karen Cooks I I’m not involved in the side there but they
We’ve got three or four lovely people who go around the primary schools and they teach so my daughter my youngest daughter was at primary school yesterday she brought back some Mediterranean scon with uh black olives sundried tomatoes and cheese on the top so we’re actually teaching down at sort of like the seven
Eighty old level trying to bring people on and give them those skills as well um I have to say they were really tasty she hated them she hates but they’ve got these black bits in dad I don’t don’t like them but you know that it’s important and you’re right but if you
Can make it and do it in a a fun way again that even we we involve ourselves in the curriculum so that they’re teaching again maths and how many of these or if you have a tomato and you cut it into four it’s dividing it so there’s there’s lots of great things but
Then by dividing it you also learn how to cut it and you know it’s it’s kind of like helping with M with cooking right but then do you think that this is the way because you know I have questions probably one of the questions is always
You know how do we bring people back into Hospitality you know I’m talking like the stuff shortage situation do you feel like this is one of the way that we could kind of solve the this problem presenting it you know to children at a younger age for them to almost get you
Know inspired and you know be like you know what cooking is actually quite cool yeah yeah definitely um I mean I I obviously I have my two daughters they they cook with me and I don’t you know they’re forced to cook with me they’re not they’re not forced to cook with me
But they have a thing and they’ve progressed from like okay we’re going to make something to now they chase me now um I know we’ll talk about social media and bits and pieces so one of the things that I do is is we do every year we do
Halloween baking and we’ve got a bit of a following and and we’ve been on Google and bits and yeah but it’s kind of got now that my eldest daughter starts scrolling sort of from the 1 of June through and then she goes look we can do
This we can do this and we can do skulls with axes and I’m like you know oh look just we’ll calm it down a little bit but we’ll do it so every year I have to come up with two or three different inventive Halloween bakes but again it’s yeah it’s
That firing that enthusiasm and and how do you do it and and so one of the things Karen Cook’s doing one of the things I’m passionate about is we’re getting the primary school children there we’re looking at how we can do that with secondary school children what
We need to do is we need to feed those children and exactly what you said get them inspired get them wanting to do it so they knock on the doors of of Highlands college and they go actually you know we want to do a catering course
We want to do this and then you know I know there’s plenty of people on the island and plenty of great chefs who run kitchens and and front of house as well who would welcome that influx and they they do it they help us out we do
Another thing at Karen Cooks where we did uh before Christmas we did um they went in and made um afternoon tea in some of the the seavoy and some of the other hotels on the island you know so a class went in from different schools and
They met met the chefs and they made afternoon tea and then their parents s came and sat and eat it what an incredible way of getting you know kids interested in cooking getting them involved but also showing them you know this is what a kitchen looks like and
This is a lot of kids don’t know even the home kitchen let alone what a professional kitchen so yeah it’s just firing you you’re I know you’ve got the passion it’s firing that passion up and just getting people interested n absolutely and you know I feel like
Probably this is now that I think about it you know this is probably one of the the solutions because okay Highland is doing its part but you know they already take people you know that are already like you know a b more mature so I feel
Like by then they should already be uh almost like pointed towards cooking or towards Hospitality by something like what you guys do which is amazing you know and have the option but do you feel that parents are on board with it in terms of like support supporting them not just for probably
It’s early to ask you know it’s early to kind of like know as well but then do they do it just like yeah do cooking a bit for fun but you know what I I I wouldn’t really want my child you know to do it for leaving because we know how
Complicated it is we love it it’s great it’s amazing probably for the same reason we both try to do something else which is still kind of in relation to cooking and you still do it MH you still work really hard and he’s still in Hospitality to a degree cuz you still
With with the schools what people don’t know what you just mentioned earlier before starting the podcast you do some high numbers in terms of like uh covers which some people probably think oh yeah he got out of it you know he’s not working for a for a pub or for a
Restaurant for a number of restaurants managing them but you still do it at a really high level but do you think that the parents are on board with this for the long run I no and that is a very good question and and and no I think probably not and that’s a shame
And and there is still a social stigma um there are countries I think France Italy where if you work in Hospitality you know if you’re the matro D in a restaurant or you’re a head chef it’s accepted it’s valued it’s seen as a as a really uh big career to do you know
And if you’re seen as a head chef whereas over here it is not over here I’m talking more about England or the British Romania is the same for example I know quite a few countries it’s not it’s not it’s still perceived as being a a secondary option and and that’s you
Know there it’s wrong because you can if you can get to the the top level but I mean I you said about what as a parent I would encourage my daughters to do whatever they want I was going to ask what would be your so no I would never
Stop them and I would never say and you know I I did the 90 hours I did the whole thing I did 90 hours for for a very long time a week and probably more sometimes um and we’re not all going to be Jamie Olivers and uh Gordon ramse and
We’re not going to get to the top of the tree it’s an incredibly fulfilling lifestyle it’s an incredibly uh opportunistic lifestyle like we’ve already mentioned about traveling um and you you can you know you can do very well out of it uh especially sort of over here as well
You’ve got that culture now where a lot of people are opening their own restaurant so you you know if you’re out of an entrepreneurial sort of mindset you know you open your own restaurant so I would never I would never stop my daughters doing it what I would what I
Want to do and what I’m trying in my own very small ways to to encourage when you say about parents is to say look don’t view this negatively it’s it’s a great career it’s a great opportunity yes I’m slightly out of the the sort of the the
The original business that I was in which was pubs and restaurants and hotels but then again that’s it’s another opportunity you know and it’s great I’ve started to write about food and drink now um and you know that’s that’s brilliant I’m uh I’m a member of
The The Guild of uh food writers which is you know the like of um Rick Stein and deia Smith so you know when we have a big Christmas du that’s that’s a shindig and a half you know you’re talking serious um chefing and and and food
Knowledge there you’ve got to be on your top game because these These are the guys at the top of the profession it’s the top 500 food Professionals in in the country in terms of communication so yeah it’s but it opens that it doesn’t have to just be I in the kitchen cooking
It’s there’s a whole world of opportunities well this is something that we we talked about previously and I think it was with Simon again he was like when we mention you know don’t do it for even if you don’t do it for a long time you know I’m talking like
Waiter chef and stuff try to see to work around maybe Hospitality like like you currently do with with you know you move from as you said from the 90 hours to something a bit more manageable whether with the age whether with the family you know things change in life right you
Need to adapt and make them all kind of like work together so I feel like that’s again something that people should understand there is a lot more I mean look to a degree I know it’s not my full-time job but I I miss Hospitality
So I left for a few years I’m like I really miss you know like I don’t really see that I’m I’m actually doing something you know I don’t I don’t do something with my hands and it was really hard because with it because that’s what I left it for at the
Beginning now I’m I’m I’m with marketing and stuff like that and videography and everything else but I feel like nothing really came of my hands you know it felt like I’m not useful in a way yeah so that’s when I started the Cooking Channel and it was just for fun at the
Beginning and I’m like you know what we’ll do a few recipes and then few recipes turn up being like 200 nothing crazy I never really thought that I invented anything it was just more of a like open the fridge see what’s in there cook maybe somebody likes it you know
Maybe I help someone with it and then that was my way of keeping you know connected and with this podcast with you and with other chefs and with restaurant manager and hotels and stuff like that because hospitality is a lot bigger so I feel like that’s the answer you know
Don’t feel like it’s just chefs don’t feel like it’s just waiters don’t feel like it’s just this and that there’s a lot more to it you know it’s crazy it’s it’s it’s difficult to explain we don’t have that many chains over here so we don’t
Have in the UK and I’m sure in in in different countries if you know some some places are they’re in Hospitality but they’re they’re more like retail units now again I don’t want to I don’t want to name names and they’re very good at what they do but they’re very precise
Everything is is made or served to a certain standard it’s a spec um it’s it’s mass-produced that it’s like the the Ford motorc car company but they’re doing it with food um and you can still be very passionate about that but from what you’ve said and and and I and I
Hope I’m the same is you’ve got that that passion um I mean my family when I finally said you know I’m going to do this and I’m going to get evenings off and I’m going to be able to work weekends they were like great great and it’s wonderful and I’ve just had a
Really nice Christmas with them but I know exactly what you mean and if you do hospitality and it takes not takes over your life but it’s such a big part of your life you’re like I need to and and to me the blogging and the bits and
Pieces they they help fill that and that that’s like I said to you it’s that initial passion I was I’ve been very lucky that I’ve been able to do the job that I like for such a very long time if I ever got to the stage where I didn’t
Go home and didn’t want to cook dinner then I always said it was the time to leave but obviously as you get older it’s difficult then because what am I going to retrain what am I going to do I’m I’m not like you I’m not a technological wizard like I say I’m
Starting to write writings you know if anybody said to you do you want to do it it’s quite it’s quite awkward and difficult to get how did you get into that because that’s that’s interesting not many chefs are doing that part you know it’s you have to be so
Persistent so there’s a thing like I don’t know if you’ve ever heard about it when you’re when you’re an actor you have to get a green card or an equity card before you can act so you can’t act and go in a movie until you’ve got a
Card but they won’t give you a card until you’ve been in a movie or act and it’s a bit like that with writing so you say I’d love to really write for you and they go well can you show us some articles that you’ve you’ve written
Before and you go well no CU I’m trying I’m going to write for you and they go oh well if you haven’t got anything so you just have to keep knocking and knocking on doors um and I will say one thing there’s a a lovely lady over here
Called Sophie and she prints a magazine called Manor it’s a lifestyle magazine um and I said do you want can I write a few recipes for you and she said yeah so I I did that for about two two and a half years so then I kind of got this
Little body of work and then I did a couple of bits for the for the Jersey Evening Post and so literally you build up it’s a bit like you doing your recipes you know or you have a repertoire of dishes that you go you build up a small body of work and then
You can actually turn around and you can go to somebody and they oh what have you done before well there you go you’ve got a portfolio you’ve got a portfolio exactly you know um so then I started so it then went uh and it got down to lockdown and obviously everybody did different
Things in lockdown and and I decided to push it a bit further so I did quite a lot of courses and training so I did my y set which is all about wine level one and two I used to work for The Liberation group so I work for a brewery
So you know I can probably hoof that gave you a different perspective I can hoof it a little bit and talk about beer um and so now I’m the chef in residence for camera which is the campaign for real ale so I write their monthly so
Beer related recipes so I have to come up with a recipe every month that has beer beer involved in it so I’ve been doing some research uh over the last couple of weeks next and and we do a podcast as well camon does a podcast so we’re we’re talking about maltt which is
One of the key ingredients of beer um we’re going to do um I don’t know if you’ve ever been to America where they do so right so they do floats they do like a soda or a a beer and then you stick ice cream in the top now it’s a really weird
Combination but it’s a you know in you know in the movies when you watch them and they they’ve got the soda fountains and they’re all in so that’s what they do and then you stick ice cream at the top it they root beer floats but you can
Do it with beer so we’re going to do some some beer floats and everybody gave me the same look that you’ve just given me you’re you’re you you’ve lost it Chris in my I don’t know I mean it’s hard to tell because if well how do I so
Uh okay getting really technical a little bit you you you you have a uh Continental wheat beers you know and they’re quite citrusy they’re the Cloudy beers hog Gardens the probably the biggest name that everybody knows but wheat beers are very popular on the continent but they they normally have
Lots of orange peel flavors lemon um so you just have a glass of that but then you stick a scoop of orange um um SB in it h and he’s just think no that doesn’t but it does and it works but there’s so many things even in cooking that you
Think like H this wouldn’t work but then when you taste it so that’s why for me it’s hard to say completely not CU in my just really you know on a hot summer’s day instead of having some ice you’ve got an ice cold beer with some orange
SOB on the top and it’s just like no that won’t work but well if people drink already you know these recorded links and stuff you know so I’m not saying is the it’s going to be the same but that’s flavored with yeah so so it it’s it kind
Of started like that and now it’s it it’s gone a little bit further so like say I do a beer podcast with the the guys camera um I’m right for them and then you just keep going and you keep going and you keep going and um there is
A journalistic thing you can you you build your portfolio and there’s a couple of websites and you put your details on there and then people contact you and say well you know I I I’ve got this business we’re going to make this product could you write us some copy for
That or whatever so there’s there’s lots of opportunities but it was it would you have to be persistent in the in the start it’s a real kind of do you think that this is cuz what I want to kind of get VI with this you know with the
Writing is do you think this is Talent OR is hard work because for example I’m just talking my situation I feel like for me is a lot more hard work than talent because being self-aware I don’t think you I I can recognize people where are like man this is completely like so
Talented I’m talking like podcast video I’m talking from in my in my area or videography what I do I feel like for me is a lot more like hard work like almost like uh try and fail try and fail try and fail and then as you said being
Persistent and you know I have for example I don’t know like 200 something recipes out of 200 probably only let’s say 30 of them kind of do well on YouTube that they they keep getting views so for me it’s not like I I feel like hard work for me is what what kind
Of like keeps me you know not not Talent how do you find in your situation I I can’t remember who there was a famous quote isn’t there and and they said um uh the harder I work the luckier I get and I can’t remember who who did it but
They basically explained that no I think you’re right you do need a little bit of look and you need to be in the right PA or occasionally know the right person um I’m I’m by far I am not the best chef yeah my daughters go Teddy you’re the
Best chef in the world I go yeah I’m not the best chef by any stretch of the imag and I know my limitations and I’m I I’ve worked at top level I was n comfortable with it uh I know you’ve had guests on you know and the tweezers come out and
No it’s it’s not me I did a bit of M myself like working as a she been done it I’m I am where I used to be Liberation you know I would class myself as a as a good Pub Chef I I one skill in being a chef is actually understanding
Your customer and and that comes back to knowing your limits but yes so going back hard work it’s probably 5% luck 10% talent and then the rest of it is is just you have to do it you have to put the hours in and you have to do the work
So you know I I know you have the knowledge and skill set but it’s it’s the persistence and it’s a track you said about recipes so Island Chef uh has lots of recipes on there’s there’s charitable stuff I do there there’s all the bakes that I do with my kids I
Haven’t got my Niche quite sorted yet and you know you said you do marketing and everybody because you need a niche you need a niche and you have to do this yeah and and and going forward you know I’ve got a lot more people now I know on
The island in contact and we can talk about this in a minute I want to do the suppliers and there’s so many great people on the island and and doing wonderful things but I like Chinese food I know I was going to say because on your channel you you specifically say
That I do CH I like Chinese food so every year we’re just coming up to it now I always do like recipes for Chinese New Year now on an island Chef there’s like I’ve said there’s Halloween baking there’s Seafood cuz I live on an island and we need to do Seafood you know
There’s lobsters dishes there’s muscle dishes there’s there’s lots of different recipes there’s seasonal recipes you said about how many of your recipes get followed my number one recipe for a man who lives on an island near France is peaking style Chinese roast dug and I open if I and I don’t do it
Very often cuz you get it you shouldn’t and you get a bit like you know you look how many people have followed me today when you first start you you just have to stop doing it but occasionally I look at the stats and I go what and it is
Just literally month after month by far and I mean by far the little graph goes and it’s like that I remember seeing the picture I was on your I was on the on the website I was there you know seeing it and it looks amazing even the picture
Looks really and it’s so bizarre that it’s just like and you know there’s there’s hundreds of people in in in Canada America and every day and I get you know comments back and could you explain to me because there’s there’s golden syrup in the recipe we don’t
What’s golden syrup so I get emails you know and I have to answer back well it’s a it’s an inverted you’ve probably got a sugar syrup or corn starch that you can use but and seriously it’s just the most so you know that’s where I’m saying it
Comes down to look you’ve got to have you got you’ve got to put the work in and you’ve got to have the knowledge but you’ve got to put the work in but you just need that little bit and why why do people ask me about Chinese roast you
Know there’s there’s there yeah it’s just I’ve got a few recipes but you know sometimes you have a feeling was like this is going to absolutely kill it and it never does I mean not never most situation it doesn’t for I don’t know at least in my situation I’m like you know
You feel like he’s got the right thumbnail he’s got the right title I say the right things you know it be like I felt like I’m in the mood you know for for that kind of dish and in my mind was like oh people should kind of see it you
Just post it 100 views Max 200 300 Max and it down and nobody ever sees it probably again and then other videos you you just find like okay I need to do a video oh my God I I didn’t do um I didn’t do my shopping let’s see what’s
In the fridge open the fridge like I don’t know like a few months back like chicken wings okay chicken wings let’s do air fryer here let’s do some air fried chicken wings boom and I think that gets like I can’t remember now I don’t want to talk nonsense but it gets
A few thousand views a day and I’m like how you know it wasn’t even I didn’t even try much you know it was just one of those days when I when I didn’t even plan it so it’s a really interesting internet and yeah I mean I guess and and
This is for another discussion that we could have you could do a complet different podcast you know um there’s Trends and there’s chefing bits and what you so air fryers and what and and that’s why I’m saying with an island Chef it is very very much me and it’s
Not it’s not done to to follow you know we should do this or we should do this or we should do this it is literally a bit like yourself you know what I’m going to make that today yeah and yeah in so many situations I’m like I don’t
Even care what’s trending I’m like these are the ingredients I’ve got you know whether this does well or not I’m still going to do the next one I’m still going to do the following I’m still going to continue doing and out of 10 there’ll be
One that does well and if it doesn’t I still love doing it I still eat something okay something that I like and you know and you’re saying about the applying yourself from the hard work again you know it can be you know you sit there sometimes and the kids go to
Bed and and your partner she’s watching telly or whatever or you’ve got your headphones on and what are you doing I’m writing a recipe and and it’s quite intense you know it’s it’s quite a without getting into the whole setting it out and how you have to do and you
Said you know like taglines and bits and and SEO and all those other great things that you kind of have to do on to get yourself noticed but um yeah you it’s it’s a whole different skill set and I’m learning I mean for instance when I do
The recipes for camera about the beer I normally got about a 600 600 to 650 word limit and you think well that’s easy but it isn’t if you do a recipe and a method and you’re telling people to be very detailed yeah to be very detailed and bearing in mind that I
Could probably explain something to you and you’d understand it because you’ve got that chefing background but you’re not so you you know you you you go back and look at the recipe and you go no I can’t say that I can’t just say that I’ve got to explain it in more
Detail and then when you want to put in some details about the dish and maybe why the beer you’ve chosen goes into that recipe and the flavors and you try and put a little bit of history in there or a cat or whatever all of a sudden
Then you you’re going back and you’re like knocking words or can I make that sentence a bit shorter or can I take that so it’s a completely different skill set but no it’s great it’s it’s interesting you mentioned about Chinese food I’m not big into Chinese food but
Let me tell you something I go every now and then because I work for for a big company here in Jersey and I’m part of the marketing and design team and I’m in charge with the videography on the videography side and we’ve got an office in uh in gy
So China red I know what you’re going to say I know where you’re going to say so again I was talking to somebody today I was talking um I want your opinion on that well I was talking to Tommy you know Tommy uh yeah yes I was talking to
Tommy and we were and he said you know yeah what do you really miss and I said I there Chinese he said oh no you in look there’s two Chinese opening on the island I like really haven’t heard and he said yeah yeah no there’s one hening
Here and one here and I went try to you just and everybody I know sort of goes and funnny enough I used to work with another guy over here called Steve who runs number 10 and he knows the guy who runs China red and he when we went over
There said we’re going to go to China red and he went thought so and so he said you don’t want to go there I used to work with him and I was like what do you mean he said no he he wouldn’t know what to do with China but it’s about the
Fourth best Chinese restaurant in the country I’m talking the UK oh I no it’s it’s up there in I thought that he was absolutely mind it’s up there in the top top definitely in the top five I mean it is just yeah sorry thanks Big China you
Know we’ll get an invite now next time we not even possible but yeah you know what you know they they deserve it it is a really good they really deserve it I and I’m not I’m I’m a b more towards Indian I like my Indian I’m I absolutely
Love it I feel like you know there are a lot more like flavors that kind of confuse me I I love that I’m want I just want to be kind of like sent into a wall that I don’t understand almost I I want to say there are other restaurants
Available I feel we need to do that one and other Cuisines and if anybody else wants to invite us we’ll quite happily go um yeah no it is I I like Indian I I don’t know what it is I I just got funny enough again we’re going back
To Christmas it’s just been Christmas and when I was in London I worked in a big hotel and it was a big function Hotel so we could do 2,000 people at a time and sort of for the whole of December well for the whole of November
And December about my third year in I literally just cooked turkey all I did I went into work I cooked turkey I sliced and these are the days where you did um you know so you do a slice of the breast meat the white meat and then you boned
And rolled the legs so you have a slice of the dark meat and then you made some stuffing and then you had the little chipil and bacon roll on the top and then you’d put these onto trays and they’d be heated and they’ be taken down to the function room so 2,000
How many portions have we got today Chef you you need to do 1500 for tomorrow thank you very was almost like automation so it was and it got to Christmas Day and I literally went to Chinatown on Christmas Day and I had Chinese for Christmas dinner that was
Cuz I I Loy I loathe turkey with the passion I don’t even now I don’t you’re not the only one I know most of the most of the chefs cuz you just get and and and it started so I was very lucky that I lived near Chinatown and when you live
Near Chinatown in London it’s a completely different experience because it’s just you can and and you go and you eat where Chinese people eat you know and they have the spoons and they um and they and they kind of sit very close to the bowl and and they eat really really
Quickly and really really like I’m enjoying this food cuz it’s delicious and you and then you know you’re there for about 10 minutes and you’re doing the same thing dimong restaurants you know absolutely brilliant and then a few years later when i’ left there was very
To go back and um I was taken out to haakan which is the melin stard Chinese restaurant and we blew an extortionate amount of money on on a Chinese meal you know and it was just out of this world they did they did steamed scallops and to this
Day I can’t I can’t work out how they managed to do a scallop in a in a in a rapper and it not be chewy you know it was just that yeah it’s those that’s really interesting and that’s something maybe just to touch on when you when you’re cooking you restaurants that I
Really like or chefs that I really like is just how did they do that like I say I I said earlier I’m not the best chef but I’ve got enough grounding and enough understanding that I think I can hold my own with it a great amount abs and it’s
Just and it’s just like if you can’t understand how somebody does something it’s just like oh I need to know how they made that and that’s still one of the dishes you know um I don’t know I don’t know what you do it’s and again I suppose it’s different cultures it’s like Pate
Yeah if I see Pate on a menu I’ll always have a pate because I want to know has that restaurant made the Pate or the terrain is it and it’s easy to tell as soon as you see it of course yeah is have they made it and and then you can
See the level of skill in that restaurant you know it’s it’s I I’d probably even go to to the extent of having two starters I’ll have one starter but yeah yeah we’ll just have a pate just to see or a terine or whatever and it’s such a simple you know it’s if
You do a chicken liver pate it’s chicken livers Brandy garlic thyme loads of butter little splash of cream salt and pepper and it’s done that’s all you need do but to get it right yeah and then you know you should really Blitz it you should pass it so that it’s smooth and
Then put the butter on the top and you know but just but it’s that balance of flavoring and I think that’s what sorts the real sort of chefs out seasoning and again going back with Tommy and I had a good chat today so we we were talking
You know it’s that that people seasoning things when you when you’re taking chefs on do they taste it do they when they’re making something do you see them trying it are they tasting it are they seasoning it even simple cuts of meat you know and again I’m sure from your
Background you know and I’ve had people I can also remember I I used to run a restaurant and and somebody stopping me once and saying you know your chicken where do you get your chicken breasts from she said they’re the most amazingly tasty chicken breast right yeah and it
Was like they weren’t any particular they weren’t cornfed they weren’t French they were good but it was just season generous when my mom watches this my mom’s still now if I go home and cook for my mom she’s the only person that I
Know and I go mom I used to run a 3aa rosette restaurant I’m pretty sure I can season things and before she even tastes the food that I’ve put in front of her she’ll get the salt pot and she’ll go I know a few it’s an old it’s an old
Kind of I think it’s same some people with pepper I’m like why you never you not even tried it I might have had a ton of it in there it’s a different generation but but yeah so it’s you know there are those Basics it’s it’s understanding the the the simple things
Um you know you can’t go wrong by adding too much butter to anything but helps yeah butter helps it helps at least with flavor it might not be healthy yeah but the flavor oh my God yeah yeah no absolutely I agree it makes so so much difference and um yeah one of the
Biggest mistakes people make are not adding enough and I think in in general I’m talking whether it’s bay leaves whether is uh enough butter whether is enough oil I think it’s being afraid of like oh it’s just a pinch you know I’m not not touching it again but I think
Yeah that’s that that’s what separates in most situations chefs from someone doing it at home I also remember oh not not long after I came on to the island and and and Liberation asked me to do we used to have a food festival I don’t if
You can remember it in the square and they did in demonstration kitchen and I can’t remember who’d been on before but they they they’d been on before and they were doing it and they they’d got the soused and they were putting it in the water bath and doing
Everything and then I went on afterwards I think it probably helped that everybody in the audience it’s got a free half pint so I’m not saying it was basically my cooking probably the fact that I gave everybody or was able to give yeah I went but I just I I I can’t
Remember I know I did I know so I did again it was beer related so I did um like a a carbon Ard to both and I did something else and I did something else but I was I was going through it and I
Was like right so you you you need a you know you need a decent glug of oil in this one and you need a a a big knob of butter and and somebody stopped me afterwards and he said you know I really liked what you did I said that’s really
Nice he said no cuz he said I understood it he said I know what a glug of oil is and it’s a bit like you say it’s that not being afraid but it is you know when pinch and you see people do that you may as well not bother you know that’s not
Doing anything if you’re going to do it you’ve got to be bold and you’ve got to put those things in one of the wisest bits of information I ever had about cooking and ande menus is if you say something on the menu it should do what
It says on the menu so if you say something is spicy it needs to be spicy not sort of like you know well oh there was a hint of it there or you know we’ve done it cuz grandma doesn’t really like spice if you say it’s got chili in it it
Needs the taste of chili if you say it’s cumin roasted um carrots they need to taste of cumin and all too often a lot of you know even just basic if it says it it should do what it says on the tin no fake news yes yeah absolutely now you
Have an amazing you know career you know working in all sorts of places six different Islands settle settle in Jersey what do you think changed from when you started in cooking or in Hospitality to now how do you see the years you know that passed over this industry you know what was changed
Whether in good or bad I think we’ve touched on it briefly so you know we you did lots of hours hospitality is understanding now wages are better conditions are getting better you know it’s it’s it’s intensive it’s it’s it’s creative and anything that’s creative is draining you know you’re
You’re you’re giving yourself to doing something and if you’re doing that at the end of the day it’s tiring you know not just the physicality of especially if from my well I’ve done front of house as well so but from my perspective as a chef you know if you’re standing in
Front of a hot range and you know you’re getting older s at you it’s it’s physically tiring but it’s also you’re giving emotionally when you’re creating things so conditions are getting better we’ve we’ve touched on that is it still looked at as something that you
Should aspire to no I don’t think it is I I I still think unfortunately that you know and you’ve had so many great guests on and so many Fantastic people and we’ve all said how much of we enjoy it and the passion and the opportunities it
Brings but is it no it’s not and and and I think there’s a there’s some work to be done by all of us who involved in in in Hospitality to to make sure that people understand it’s it’s a great thing you know and to give of your time
Particularly when you’re you know at weekends or Christmas or Easter or and to give of your time to make sure other people enjoy themselves I think sometimes people need to be a little bit more sympathetic to to that whole um sort of ethos and and an understanding
That people are doing this so that you enjoy yourself um it’s it’s quite interesting people can be quite you know a lot of people work in catering Hospitality they’ll do the job maybe they’re at college or you know like and and they’ll be a waiter or they’ll work
In a kitchen maybe even just as a KP they’ll do it and then they’ll go on to their career and they kind of it’s almost like they forget what it was like or I don’t know they want to kind of wipe the memory out but you know what I mean just have a
Little bit more understanding for these people who are are stood there and they’re doing you know they’re doing a fantastic job making great food and serving it I have so much respect especially thinking I know especially like whenever Christmas comes and and I’m sure now in your situation having
Your first Christmas with your family like fully being home you must have like think well like a year ago or I don’t know how many years ago or like years after years I was in a kitchen cooking you know I it’s emotional to degree you know thinking that you put so much like
Blood Sweat and Tears into it you know and and it’s difficult I I know when I left the industry it was like I it’s all it’s all I ever wanted to be a chef and for me I’m like okay do I move now because I know you know I’m going to
Have a family at some point it’s going to be complicated how how am I going to do it was a really challenging time when I when I left but then I came back as as I said you know with the cooking uh you know with the YouTube channel with this
And I felt like this is so much better you know even being in touch with some people that still do it you know I I love it I genuinely do I mean it’s it’s you know I and I can see how passionate it’s one of those things you know I used
To do it um and my partner would say you know why are you going at this time and you go well because I need to do that and she go but nobody else will be there you’ll be going but you know you get to that level and especially when you start
To sort of Rise through the the ranks and you become like a head chef or whatever and you’re like no this is what I want to do I want to make a name for myself I want people to recognize it so you’d find yourself going in you know at
At sort of like 7:00 in the morning when everybody else starts at 10 but you want to do it because you want to fillet the fish out yourself or you want to prepare a stock or you want to make those things and and and those little extra bits I
Think excuse me I think those little extra bits are the bits that like I say people don’t always seem to a lot of people do I’m I’m not saying but you know even now I I still get um oh I I get offended by some really really you
Know the way people talk to people and the way people behave sometimes and you know and I can be sat in a in a pub drinking if you write about food and drink it’s terrible you know you kind of have to go out and eat and and and go
And have beers in pubs and yeah you need to so you find yourself in it but and you’ll just think why are people talking to you know the the the serving stuff like that or even simple ones and I think this is cuz I used to run pubs and whatever
Is they get up and they leave the glass and that one really gets me it’s like walk past the bar and just put the there thank you very much it’s lovely thank you there’s the glass you know whereas other people go they’re paid to pick the
Glasses up off the table it’s it’s just they can’t we respect it’s not even you don’t even need to be in this industry to understand that something nice to do yeah it’s just it’s just really simp but people people can be quite you know they can be quite rude sometimes and it it
Yeah it’s it’s it there is there is I I mean it’s not you know we we shouldn’t really there’s there’s a dark side to the industry there’s still a dark side to the industry there’s lots of hours there’s people having to work an incredible amount of hours for not vast
Amounts of money not everybody has great accommodation in it um there’s still a culture I think one of the reasons I left working in in in London was that you know there was It was a big culture of drug taking um I have vies I like a beer
We’ve said it I like a glass of wine it was never my thing but you know to do those hours and to get through it there was that and and there’s still you know there’s still a dark side in catering and and people are still I think used
Too much and not so much on Jersey I don’t think it’s but but it exists and and that that’s not good so you know that’s the other side of when you said how’s it how’s it changed I mean the the biggest change I I think really is wow
The food has changed you know when I first started if you’re a vegetarian you kind of like oh we’ve got a vegetarian dish on what have you got well we’ve got veg chili or we’ve got veg lasagna and the veg lasagna was the same vegetables that was in the veg
Chili but it was just layed in pasta and the veg chili was the same vegetables in the with just some beans and some chili thrown in it you know now you can have vegan there’s every sort by the time I think people chefs also adopted because
You had a vegetarian a month uh you didn’t have OT lingi doing his his uh you know Persian and and uh Moroccan and and African style cuisine you you know you you had you know a High Street when I was growing up in in the UK would have
An Italian um it would maybe have somewhere that did some French dishes but it was a very sort of anglicanized version there’d be a takeaway a Chinese Takeaway and there’d be an Indian you know and again the Indians were kind of like uh yeah I mean I grew up near Leicester
And so most I think something at one stage there’s a there’s a really fascinating statistic that 80% of all the curry shops in the UK buy their key Curry B bases from two factories in Leicester oh wow yeah so you know okay each restaurant can then add things to
Them but the basics come from these two main factories that and for from about the 70s most of the Indian restaurants in the UK were run by uh Bangladeshi refugees so there’s a whole different thing there about Indian restaurants but you know but the Indian food has come
Along so much now it used to just be quite you know you went in and you mom had a mild Curry and we had Sam from cish Spice talking exactly about the same thing and dad had you know Dad would have it with something that you he
Wouldn’t even really be able to identify what the meat was he just wanted it to to sort of like be really hot and then he’d have yeah exactly yeah and it was also seen as some you know now people go for Valentine’s Day to an Indian place
They go to C for and but that’s what I’m saying so the the biggest thing has been this shift to and now you know especially in the UK if you want to go and have Lebanese Cuisine for breakfast that you can find somewhere if you shft of VAR yeah
Um there’s a downside to that there’s probably people who feel the pressure that they have to put too many things on their menus and and and I’m a it says the man who has the the duck recipe I do think you should kind of you know yourich yeah find your Niche stick
You’re knitting a little bit but no you experiment by all means but you know there are there are there are limits to everybody’s abilities and knowledge so yeah it’s just it’s it’s one of those great things I mean I I I’m lucky I like Chinese cookie I I I love Italian food
But Italian and Greek food is about the Simplicity it’s about the quality of the ingredients it’s about the the the freshness and and it’s not having you get into French food and French is about those incredible sources and the richness and the depth of flavor through
You know putting some bones in a stock pan and and and and roasting them and then cooking them and extracting the flavor and then adding wine sometimes low quality ingredients cooked to Perfection and brought to a different level can use you can use your your your
Cheaper cuts and do it um but there’s also a Renaissance in and there’s a lot of great chefs doing it now you know there’s there’s there’s British English cooking and when I again when I first started I guess nobody kind of knew what that was so there is that kind of a
Little bit more pride in in in dishes that originated funny enough I was doing some research today and I was looking at at something and again it was another beer related one did this PO podcast is going to come out and sound like I’m an alcoholic isn’t it but it’s just one of
Those um and I’d made a soup uh just before Christmas for for for the podcast and it was a cheese and beer soup and then I found almost identical recipe but it’s it’s gone back about 200 years and it’s called a cheser soup so chesa is an
Area in England it’s a vegetable soup you smash the vegetables that thickens the soup and then they crumble cheser cheese in it so I was like oh I haven’t really invented anything there somebody’s already done it but but it was just interesting you know but you know there’s dishes I mean funly enough
Sort of if you really go back to English Cuisine it was actually kind of quite with it and then when we had the war with the French the French kind of these big Wars that we used to have with the French one of the one of the outcomes if
You look at it historically is they kind of they kind of stuck the knife in English Cuisine and said that all we were interested in was eating you know roast beef and that it’s a little bit more complicated than that but you know if you go back about 3 400 years of
English Cuisine they were the guys that had all the spices they had pepper they had saffron the the so surely they us way or another they they they cooked with a lot of herbs so if you didn’t have access to the to the spices that
You would do as a rich person the the people in the countryside they’d make a stew or a soup but they they’d gather herbs and they’d flavor it with herbs and then you had to jump and you sort of went through a very Bland period of English cooking and then we’ve come back
But you know you’re talking 400 years ago they would they were using more herbs than we do now and a lot of things from hros that would go into that we probably don’t recognize recognize stuff that we wouldn’t even use now yeah exactly but um yeah pepper
Pepper was certainly one I mean there’s a town in England called Saffron Walden that was was named after the the saffron growing so you know those ingredients were there I mean I I get interested in food history that’s another I’m interested that’s amazing I’m interested in you know far
Too much things but then I guess you got to be if you’re a writer you you need to kind of like know just know it for yourself kind of express it to in a way that other people well it’s like we said it’s it’s having that hker and it’s
Having that information sometimes just to drop so you know well I’m going to be doing some teaching in the next few weeks you know you you you want to oh we’re going to do this you want to make it interesting of course you do so you
Want to tell people I mean it’s like um the word salary comes from Salt in the Roman and Roman soldiers used to get paid in salt or part of their wages was in salt um cuz it was very valuable right but if you tell a kid that they’
Be like what salt and you go yeah because they didn’t have they didn’t have access to it so it was it was an expensive product and it was yeah so there’s all sorts of kind of great things rabbits rabbits were introduced to the UK by the Romans oh W yeah I had
No idea didn’t have rabbit didn’t have rabbits before then they were introduced by the Romans so there’s all sorts of you know culinary culinary history is brilliant I just did something before Christmas about mint pies you know mint pies were originally made with meat to be to be completely honest as a
Romanian when I came here I thought they were with meat right away me yeah well it’s confusing isn’t it because there’s that English minc had idea so originally it was a pie was a way of keeping something in an airtight container so the the pastry case was was
A sealed unit that made kept the interior fresh but to help keep it fresh they used to mix um dried fruits with the filling because they had a high sugar content and that’s itself is a preservative yeah yeah oh wow they know that one I mean I I I get the point you
Know in terms of how you preserve you know with salt with sugar you know you can do with vinegar we can do with all sorts but obvious I didn’t know that meat in those days was it’s such a premium and only really the very top hierarchy and the king and
His immediate Court were allowed to to to hunt and kill animals and the the local land owners so meat was at such a premium that it would be cooked and that that’s where your term rof comes in in French cooking where you reheat the dish
So I mean the best example of that is now when you do say in English cooking you cook a leg of lamb and then the next day you mince it up and you make shepherd’s pie so a proper shepherd’s pie is made with cooked meat not fresh
Meat and then you put your potatoes on the top so that’s rof it means to reheat something so meat was roped several times so when you see those amazing movies of of like Henry VII or the equivalent and they’re having this big bone and meat and eating it and there’s
A c and there’s pigs with apples stuffed in their mouths and people are all dressed in finery we don’t realize is that meat was at such a premium that it’s probably been reheated about five times before you’ve eaten it which is why they probably all died at the age of
About 30 cuz you know there were so many diseases yeah there’s a wonderful place in London called Hampton Court which is a which is uh one of King Henry VII’s palaces and the big oven in in Hampton Court is 12 people across the back so you could stand 12 men across the back
And they used to have a spit and you could roast two whole oxen on and this bit would turn around huge huge and obviously if you can imagine how much wood would be needed to heat that so it was so hot in the kitchens that they
Didn’t wear any clothes all the all the people in the kitchen just wore big leather aprons okay and they were allowed to have a bath once a month so when you see this image of kenry VII eating his wonderful piece of meat it’s been reheated five times it’s been
Cooked by 200 naked sweaty men who haven’t had a bath for a month take that for your health and safety yeah yes so the next time I have a health and safety inspection I’m just going to meet them in an apron nothing yeah he crazy and you know as
You said you know washing up you know yeah it wasn’t a thing really it was just like yeah even for from what I heard I mean I’m not I’m not that knowledgeable by the way when it comes to this but from what I heard it was
Even for the for the reach it wasn’t really a thing that they would they would wash you know themselves you know like every every other day not even just like I I mean they got to the St yeah they didn’t obviously they didn’t understand about germs and hygiene but
There there were cases where um I was reading about it’s not quite the same thing but yeah people almost their clothes they their clothes started to grow onto them that you know they wore them for that long that yeah they couldn’t actually take them off cuzz
They kind of stuck in their you know their t-shirts or vests yeah just stop now it’s just but yeah they didn’t understand but you know and again that’s that’s a whole another aspect of you know what people did and why and the the traditions and the the reasons people do
Things and yeah it’s fascinating and it’s interesting to take it right from the beginning you know as you said you discovered that there was something similar you know to your recipe when you thought I kind of invent news but why for me really I I don’t really feel
Like well a recipe for me is not really especially for like my the cooking channel is not really award that I use wholeheartedly to a degree because or I don’t feel like my recipe because I’m sure someone has done it already a thousand times probably even better so
It’s just more of like cooking with whatever I feel like is appropriate I think that makes sense I mean it’s a whole it’s a whole new other Avenue so so as a writer you know right I’m going to make apple crumble really traditional yeah I’m going to write the
Recipe Now I off the top of my head and this is I I would normally phone my mom because she has a thing with the recipe written down cuz I can’t remember the ratio of crumble it’s 8 O I don’t do it in grams sorry I’m oldfashioned it’s 8 O
Of flour it’s 4 o of sugar and 2 ounces of fat I think that’s right there’ll be people moaning if I don’t get it right but you know that’s a basic crumble you can throw some oats in there you can throw some cinnamon there if I write a
Recipe I haven’t invented that so who has the copyright on a recipe or you know if you look on the on the web and somebody will say well this is my crumble recipe well it’s not really because it’s a you know it’s it’s a generic recipe so I I I think there’s
Very very few you know there’s dishes that chefs do and they do this and this and this and this but recipe writing is a bit kind of like because no it’s it’s it’s it’s out there and you had your touch I guess you know you had your
Touch but that doesn’t mean that you invented the structure of the but then you get to the other side of it and then I guess and this is um I used to work with Two Chefs both used to run kitchens over here one was Hungarian and one was
Austrian so I kind of guess where you can think where I’m going this one the goulash Wars and I used to egg them on and there was we had the great goulash Wars so I would go yeah he good you didn’t get any Romanian because we kind
Of like oh well that’s why I kind of thought I’d bring this one up so I I used to say you know you can’t make Kash only only the hungarians they tell me only hungarians can make goulash this is ridiculous question I will show you and
He’d show me how to do it and then I’d find the other one like go you can’t do anything he’d show me and and fund mentally the recipes were the same but then I learned as you’re going on the base was the same but there are hundreds
Of different ways and like you say there’s probably Romanian but you know there are there are thick goulashes there are goulashes that are more like a soup the basics there it’s the bitter onions where you almost burn the onions the paprika but then CU I started this
Then one of them went on holiday and bought me a book and then the other one so then the goulash was just ES escalated but this is going back to who owns recipes and do it’s a bit like bnes in in Italy you know no no two places
Make the same B you so different Villages or towns or areas have different goulashes so one would be garnished with a a bread and milk dumpling one would be garnished with a fried egg one would be garnished with this and then they all had different names and and combinations and so yeah
You you’ve got one end of the scale where you you cannot say well that’s a crumble it’s just generic I can’t put my name on it but then you’ve got the other one where you can go down to well this is my family’s recipe for this and we’ve
Made it for five generations cuz that’s how Grandma did it and that’s how her mom showed her and it’s this you know it’s like like say bolog I’ve got recipes for bnes that have got chicken livers in it milk milk’s quite a popular one actually oh wow yeah you yeah yous
Put yeah you a couple of SPL a splash of milk in the bolog it takes the edge off it I never make it the say I’m one of the guys that I honestly say you know because that that’s the part that I love about cooking and for me I’m quite easy
For anyone to judge what I do because and I I take it you know no problem because I feel that’s how I felt on that day yeah if like I’m like today I had uh I don’t know half teaspoon of uh black pepper and tomorrow I don’t I’m okay
With it because that’s how I feel yeah you know so I I I’m like it’s not it’s not even a recipe it’s almost like you feel on the day and if you feel like chili works well chili works because that’s what you like so it’s a bit of
That and as you said about the goulash water you get to a point where okay they both follow the same recipe but then the ingredients one is from Hungary one is from so there’ll still be a differentiation between but that’s the great level and that’s why we’re here
And that’s the great thing about food is it’s like you say your Bolognese has a teaspoon of pepper in mine has a splash of milk in some people have chicken livs in some is made with pork and beef some just made with beef some made with ve
And beef does it have garlic in you know if you talk to Italians and then you talk about garlic in in polles it’s a whole new can of worms you know you can you can be there for for same like with the carbon God no I once made the mistake of making
Carbonara with cream and and oh no no no I’ve done one I knew I’m to piece of quite piece of quite a few people I’ve done the two versions you know like I’ve done the well classic I mean I did the use Guan chali which most people say
That that’s how you should do it I I use petta but I did did one with egg yolks only and one that I use cream cream in it too and you know what I kind of like the one with cream I’m I’m I’m I’m going
To I’m going to say it you know it’s just the way it is I kind of I it just feels it’s not as heavy in a way as well can I I use single cream as well and it makes it it cuts a bit of that heaviness
From like the egg yolks well again you’re going back and that’s what we’re saying about owning food it’s that you know you you’re owning something and you you you go to you know there are purists and there will always be people and that is that recipe and that is how it should
Be and it should never change and you go well yeah but I don’t like it or it doesn’t sell or people don’t buy it or people don’t want it like you taste change you know things are different and it’s also like know your PE know the
People you serve it for right that’s why just a I guess a good example chicken Tika Masala it was adapted to the British taste yeah so your whole new dish was invented which you can’t as far as I’m aware you can’t find it in in India they actually bring people over
Now do you know this so there’s there’s a dispute whether it’s either in Glasgow or Birmingham where it was made but most people accept that it was made with a tin of Campbell’s condensed tomato soup which gave it the the tomatoey flavor but they actually now bring people over
And I think it’s the Mumbai Hilton and they were shipping people over to Birmingham to learn how to make it to then take them back to Mumbai so that they can cook it in the Mumbai Hilton so that people can have when because obviously people are international when
They go they want chicken TI and masala wow that’s something else that is just frightening though isn’t it you know you’re actually saying to a guy who’s you know we’re going to take you how to show you how to make a curry I’m sorry yeah especially if you
Go on there quite traditional in in his beliefs and recipes you know like for Generation to generation you know how some people are some people are in then you I’m going to send you to learn the proper way well we talked about we talked about you said about the the
You know interviewing people about cures we talked about cures earlier and the English thing about hot cures there’s a famous guy called kit Chapman he runs a thing called the curry club and they did a a journey once through India from Northern India to Southern India and
They went on a train and they did every single Cur they were there for about three weeks they did you know they did the the traditional CES in the North and then as they got near to the coast they had the seafood CES they had the V vegetarian CES they they they were
Curried out they had three weeks of cures they flew back into England a legend has it that when they got to Heath thr and I used to work near heo they went to a a curry Indian restaurant in Iva in buckinghamshire because none of them had had a curry hot enough in
India and they all ordered the same curry in this little and and he you know the guy was there with these 30 guys sat around the table he where have you just been we’ve all been to India for three weeks you know you’re quite and you’re
Right with this because I had man vinda for for from bollyood bites M the head sh from there and he said uh that from okay India is a big place I mean for people to understand you know like every Big Country will have like variations it’s it happens all the time same like
With the language you go from north to south they’ll be almost like talking a different language uh so same with food so he was saying that from the region he comes from you know the food is actually not spicy it’s actually very mild for for taste so he he says that it
Shouldn’t be [ __ ] the traditional Indian Cuisine is actually not that [ __ ] it’s not it’s not hot sorry not it’s not hot I’m going to say you have to qualify it spice and hot is difficult exactly exactly yeah so it’s not hot in terms of like it doesn’t burn your throat you
Know like some how some probably some people expect it uh he that’s what he was saying and I’m like I was kind of expecting because I’ve not been to India to be even stronger in not just in spice but also in terms of like in terms of
Hotness no no no and apparently not no and they do adjust it for for English taste and and ramp it up and you’re just like that’s just yeah and I guess that’s why we also see a lot of like cream I don’t I I might be wrong I doubt that
They use that much cream that some of the restaurants here to use just a guess yeah no I yeah it’s uh um yeah it’s it it’s a completely if you look at proper Indian cooking it’s it’s a very I mean I know the guys again that
Prob but it it’s another one of those great things and it’s it’s fantastic when you they use um so they call it a gravy but they use a base and it it’s getting the flavor into the base where you roast the spices in the pan and
You’ve got your ginger in there and you maybe put some green peppers and some tomatoes and then that gets all blitzed down and that forms that key kind of flavor based and then you you alter the profiles by putting it in but I mean butter chicken which everybody when you
Have a butter chicken and it it it appears to be quite creamy it’s it’s it’s not you know you can use uh you can use almonds and there’s various different ingredients but no I don’t they don’t use a lot of I guess and this is purely speculative I guess until
Recently you wouldn’t use a lot of cream in in the cooker because they wouldn’t have had a way of of keeping it safe true you know with the with you know it’s only in the last sort of maybe 20 years that rural India got to the
Point where they they would have a way of so if you did have milk it probably got used pretty quickly I’m not even saying about bollyood bites I’m talking in general I guess they adopted I guess they some of the restaurants adopted he was like oh they W the was like quite
Creamy and you know yeah so they yeah they a bit of but it’s that hybrid but I I would have to look it up but it’s and I will do now cuz it’s one of those things where it’s going to burn a hole in my but I’m just thinking you know I
Can understand they’re making it into paneer and into cheeses but you know you’re talking India hot country you’re not going to want if you’ve got a cow you’re not going to want to have loads of milk just sat there waiting for you to make a yeah yeah I mean even here I
Remember working in a restaurant cream most of restaurants as far well you can kind of tell when to a degree to a degree you can kind of tell when they use JY dairy cream or proper cream or they use the vegetable base crap you know that’s a totally different story so
When I was when was still in the restaurant you know I remember ordering the 5 liter uh stuff you know from from Jersey da and even with that even in Jersey was kind of challenging a cream you know we need to find space for it um
So yeah I I I get the point you know in terms of the challenge with with storing it yeah and I think you’re you’re right with that because even here where it’s not it’s not that hard comparing to or it’s not that challenging and obviously
A lot of it would get um converted into ghee as well which they use so obviously because you’re getting rid of the buttermilk and then it’s all it’s all of the butter fat that’s going to keep better so yeah um yeah know it’s yeah I mean again that’s another reason you you
Look at at at at catering you look at so you know when you’re saying your Romanian background if you look at northern European backgrounds they tend to fry things in animal fats so you know you’ve got that British tradition and you probably still see it here where
People like triple cooked chips and then you might hear them saying is it is it fried in beef fat which is the the ultimate but it has a very high smoking point so it gets a very crisp chip but it was the fats that they had available
Whereas Southern sort of Europe tends to rely on olive oil from Spain from Italy because again that’s what they had available so you know a lot of cooking until recently it was about perhaps more seasonal seasonality and and the ingredients that you have I I mean there
Is a bit of a kickback now and I have to admit I I’m one of those people now you know if you go into a restaurant and they go oh we’ve got a piece of fish on with asparagus and go well it’s it’s it’s not asparagus season sorry yeah I
Don’t really it doesn’t really taste right it’s not it it looks it looks like it yeah exactly it works it works in terms of combination but it’s not the right taste for it because he’s not season yeah I mean if you have and we do
Have a few Growers over here I mean the thing is with asparagus it’s six weeks yeah it’s very short and you’re kind of like there’s a glut of it and you kind of like right make soup salads Lees everything asparagus what are we going to do for stter we’re going to have
Asparagus what’s a main course we’ll do a crab tart with fresh asparagus what’s the dessert where can we do it with barus um you know so it is but again that’s one of those things but I I you know strawberries and and oh what’s what’s the demon fruit that
Everybody used to put on for a while um the you know with the the the Chinese gooseberry and you open it up and they used to dip them there you go I can’t remember remember exactly Chinese gooseberries but I can’t remember the other name but you know everybody for for at one stage
Every dessert had one of those put on the top and you’re just like nobody eats them yeah we just used to put them on I guess it was it was a period you know where well it probably still is you know where everything has flowers whether he
Works or doesn’t you know just Chuck some flowers it’s going to do better or you know so you know and and where we live we should really take notice of seasonality so much because you know we live on this almost Mediterranean island there’s another a wonderful lady I know and she’s she’s
Into doing regeneration and and farming and and I was she was telling me there’s there’s now the suppliers on this island can supply over 200 different grown products that’s quite a lot different might be the same one but it might be different varieties of tomato or whatever but there’s about 200 products
That we can buy on the island and you just think cry you we should be able to kind of I know in the depths of winter it’s difficult but but even in the depths of winter you know you’ve got leaks you’ve got cauliflower so you can do cauliflower cuscus you can do
Cauliflower potatoes yeah you’ve got potatoes and and and you know we live on this fantastic almost Mediterranean climate where you know we’ve got incredible Seafood we’ve got salads fruits vegetables we should have the most amazing diet and food available and and sometimes we don’t you know we’re still
Bringing things in and um restaurants don’t but that goes back to our conversation that we really started we’ve come right round to it again is if people want to pioner lasagna you have to give people a pie in lasagna yeah I mean in the end uh restaurants hotels all the hospitality establishments are
Businesses they need to be profitable otherwise you know you can’t you can’t run it’s just the way it is right so you got to adopt yeah you have to give BS on SE yeah you have to give give the people what they want yeah which I guess it
Comes from the yeah it will come a lot from the from the consumer to change uh certain areas also from chefs like I was talking to Tom because you mentioned Tom he likes to add and I I feel like many people do that and I’m sure like many
Chefs do that you know when they have you know try with special see if they you know they can maybe incentify them you know try try to get them on a certain on a certain ingredient or on a certain um uh style of cooking you know
See if they if they bite you know and maybe continue with it because that chefs get bored as well you don’t want to cook turkey all the time right no no I don’t want to cook turkey ever again but uh yeah um yeah no you’re right it’s it’s there is that it’s not
Your job to educate in a in a commercial restaurant but it’s nice if you’ve got that freedom and the specials board and the and the ability to do that and it’s great if you’ve got customers who who are willing to try you know and that that’s always good that’s always good do
You have what what other restaurants would you like to see on the island that’s one of the questions I all also ask ask people so well we’ve kind of done it haven’t we we’ve said Chinese I know there’s we want a China there are Chinese restaurants on the island
There’s just not one that I really really like we’re very kind of Lucky we’ve got a couple now of Italians we’ve got a Spanish restaurant um oh what we’re very very lucky you know if it’s a bit of everything if we picked Jersey up and slapped it on the bottom of the Mainland
And it was a town with 100,000 people you would not have the diversity of restaurants and talent in catering that you have now some of that is down to tourism some of that that is down to finance some of that is down to just we’re very lucky in the Heritage and the
Ingredients so there’s a combination but we need we need to sort of kind of keep that going I think when I first moved over here we had three M St restaurants and we had we had the third highest number of AA rosettes after London and Edinburgh now I know it’s changed a
Little bit and people’s tastes have kind of dropped down maybe so much from the formal dining but you you know you’ve got some incredible chefs on the island not just in restaurants you know you’ve got the guys who do private parties mhm um you know uh but then again that’s
Kind of due to finance right cuz you got to afford to be able to afford so that kind of like shifted some of these good shows into that into that Niche the guys are panda catering oh just you know there’s some there’s some amazing we’re very lucky that we have two breweries
We’re very lucky that we have about seven independent wine Merchants which you know is just unheard of um variety and the huge variety of what we get so we’re very lucky again with all that product what Chinese we we do okay I mean I’m sure there’s lots of like Innovative little
But I I’m you know would would a would a I don’t know actually a really nice Turkish restaurant proper yeah Turkish I’m talking like charcoal and stuff like yeah doing it all yeah that would that would be good uh there is one in Liverpool I remember I went to one of
Those absolutely amazing I can’t remember exactly the name now but I have it saved on because I found it on T advisor I was blun the Quee of the entrance was like literally almost endless I guess because of property prices uh you know there is that restriction and and and we
Are lucky we’ve got so many you know and places turn over and guys are trying I do kind of miss that that when I do go to London there’s those or Liverpool or Manchester there there that that Vibe of the the little kind of you know they
Have the for M tables it the a lot of not a lot of money is spent on the joint but the people who do it do it with a certain amount of passion when I used to live in London there used to be a little Thai restaurant and I can remember being
Quite drunk one night going there with my friend and it was the first time we ever went there and we got really confused cuz we couldn’t understand why everybody was so well dressed cuz it was It was kind of about the size of your room here with just little for Mica top
Tables there was no table class paper napkins there were two TI people behind uh and it was a father and daughter and she took the orders cuz he couldn’t understand and I don’t know who was in the kitchen and it was the kind of place you know where they bring the food out
When it’s cooked so you don’t you don’t get it all together you get one dish that that’s ready now the next dish comes when it’s ready but everybody else was in bow ties and and like white dinner jackets wow what a contrast yeah and we were like why it look like it
Looked like something out of you know the Godfather because they were all extremely well-dressed and we eventually worked out through the sort of slightly alcoholic fudge that it was right in the middle of like where all of the big theaters are where people do the musicals and these were all the guys
From the orchestra pit they’d all finished work and they were all coming out all in their you know cuz they’ve all been played all in their bow ties and and and jackets and they were coming out and having a a tie and this was the
Place where they all used to go but it was just the most confusing but you know you so that’s the kind of I I don’t want to say sidd because Sid is the wrong but you know those mum and pot places where it’s all about family yeah it’s all
About the food and not it’s not about the fact that there’s a guy there when you walk in and he takes your coat that’s kind of stuff you see in Italy in like more like remote places and getes and you get those amazing um Camden in London you know
There’s the street food in Camden when you go out to Camden Market you there’s absolutely amazing again you can kind of get anything that you want you know and any combination so it’s yeah I just miss I guess it’s that little sort of Street mom and pop and I understand why because
Too it’s too expensive I always thought um I think it’s is it J no not JD Sports it’s the used to be B BH I was think if there was a big SP if I won lots of money what I’d like to do is get one of the sort of buildings that’s
Empty on and actually do like a place where people could do popups and do little restaurants and do little you know and have almost like cubicles yeah like well like a like a food Hall but you know you’d have five or six and you could just say you know I could say to
You okay Romanian come and do it for for a week you know come and do or whatever and and I just think I think there are so many opportunities um o over here so it’s that kind of food that I miss I think so not a specific type of restaurant but
That kind of experience Street yeah street food experience where you you can get one thing and then go get another thing and then you can go get a donut or a um whatever yeah but in terms of beverages cuz you kind of touch on that
That we have a we have quite a bit of variety here I see this like micro micro Brewery micro there is there is this guy I’m going to get on a podcast eventually that makes vodka and Gan or whatever from milk I’m like wow like there’s
Thing I didn’t know I mean I’m sure for you it’s not breaking news but for me there’s so many there there’s so many producers of vus on the island now um how do you see that how do you see that evolving because that’s to be quite popular becoming quite popular for the
Past years again it’s almost it’s like us going back to the food conversation there there’s kind of a there’s kind of a big word it’s a great word dichotomy there’s a split you know there’s always going to be the chains and the people and they want that and they want
Something that’s identifiable at a price they can afford and they’ll have it and then there’s the innovators and there’s the so I mean we’ve got the we’ve got the flute vodka we’ve got the the Jersey Royal vodka we’ve got the vodka made from milk we’ve got the vodka with the
Seaweed that no the Gin with the seaweed that’s collected off the beaches we’ve got that one is doing really well already in a lot of big establishments we’ve got uh we’ve got lenique which is the the one with the roses and the the pink one that’s that’s around the world
I mean you see that now in so many like really high-end establishments around the world and we’ve got some really great sort of sales guys there’s the tidal rum they’re now on cruise ships and they’re doing demonstrations because I always see these guys and I think I’m
I’m going to start writing a lot more about these guys and B and by the time I get actually get in contact with them they’re like you know well we’re sorry we’re on a cruise ship Christian um you know we’re a little bit too busy for you
Now but so there’ll always be that and it’s great and it’s it’s absolutely fantastic that people can do it um again for the population that we’ve got we’re lucky we’ve got Liberation Brewery and then we’ve got the the stinky Bay brewering Company so we’ve got two great
Breweries we Rand is not doing anything anymore Randall don’t brew beer no but they’ve they’re doing they distri they’re doing some really exciting so I was reading they’re going to do a a darts themed bar I heard town but they’re also going to do another coup on
I’m trying to remember what they’ve said but they’re going to they they’re really looking at what they offer and and again different offering which is which is which is all well and good which helps you know I think that’s the other thing you know bringing people onto the island
People want experiences last time I went to Bristol we went axe throwing you know great way to start an evening and level out friendships and aggression you know we were throwing axes for two hours don’t want to drink too much beer while you’re doing it but but um yeah it’s uh
So you know there’s all these things that you can do now and and and I guess Jersey you know you can’t afford to rest on your laurels and I I I guess Jersey can be a little bit stayed it’s interesting I’m sure you follow like I
Do lots of the Facebook you know Jersey this jersey that and you also get people going what can I do bring people what can I do when I come over and do this and you go well you’ve got the water tunnels you’ve got this you’ve got this you’ve got but
Actually if the weather’s bad and I don’t I think think the water Tel are brilliant I think there’s so many there are a lot of good things but you know we have to be realistic you can have more than one day bad weather in a row and
Then all of a sudden you’re a bit limited you know um you’re right so I think you know the more different things that we can have um you know we’ve got the 70s bar opening we’ve got we’ve got speak easys we’ve got I mean it’s it’s a
Really Innovative great place I think we need a few more of those little M and pop restaurants that we said drinks wise I think I think we’re there I think we’re doing the wine is amazing we’ve got yeah we we’re doing so so well cider cider robber Insider oh that’s that’s
Wicked stuff that’s absolutely fantastic um yeah I mean again for the for a size of the island what we’re doing and the producers that we’ve got it’s brilliant it’s amazing what other plans plans are for the island chefs in the coming months years whatever you know short medium
Long so the the big focus focus the big the big focus is going to be suppliers so we talked about this in Niche didn’t we so um and I’m going to uh not with all the gear that you’ve got but I am going to start going out I’ve I’ve
Invested in some kit um so I’m going to go to like the brewery and I’m going to go and do a you know so I’ll do a big feature on the brewery um and then so we’ve got I’m lining up the Jersey Tea Company we’ll talk to one of the guys
About the distilleries and one of it’s amazing so not quite in the area that you are but just doing a little bit talking to the people about it doesn’t need to be I mean if you got the right message talking to the people about their products and and what they do who
They are so there’s a little bit of a little bit of um sort of U stuff like that to to focus the nce down a bit um as a personal brand um I am so we mentioned about the uh British Guild of food writers they have a competition
Every year uh for like cookbooks and different things I’m one of the judging panel for their drinks book so I’ve got a pile of about 20 different books and articles uh winging its way through the post that I’ve got to sit and read through and review to to to judge that
And then we all go to the awards ceremony in the Royal Institution in in London in October and like I said that’s you [ __ ] jell Lawson and the the Great and the good of the catering world so that will be a great shind dig I’m doing some tasting for the Great Taste Awards
So I don’t think you ever see those you know if you like buy nice biscuits and olives and things like that they have a little black circle with gold stars on it’s called the Great Taste Awards so yeah you have one two and three stars I think right that’s right so I’m doing
Some judging for the Great Taste Awards W in the UK so yeah it’s kind of one of those things going back to the conversation we had about the hard work and the perseverance it’s it’s it’s paying off and obviously because I I’ve got this uh wonderful job with with
Caring Cooks in school term it gives me a little bit more time so yeah more writing and and and again it’s Focus I was a bit before Christmas I had to admit we had a few different issues with kids being ping bits and pieces um your
Focus goes off it is important to do it and you if you lose that edge you kind of getting back into it but but since Christmas two nights a week I sit down and it’s amazing how long it takes you know we’ve touched on this earlier while
We’re talking but actually to do 800 words or a recipe and to get it concise and to get it clear and explain it it’s it’s hard work it is you know it’s not something you just kind of sit there at the keyboard and oh I’ve got to write a
Recipe but do you think that your Niche will be more towards drinks because you do like this part and beards and is going to be an interesting one if you go that route do you feel like that’s heading that it seems to be heading that
Way um I can see my my my partner will be when she oh no it does seem to be heading that way um it it’s just I guess it’s the the little bit of me that’s going to be slightly immodest you know the the guys say you know why do you get
You actually seem to be able to do it and and it’s that communication bit and it’s that skill to be able to put across there’s there’s a big movement in in in especially wine but beer as well it can be very snobbish and a bit like the rest
Of the world you know it can be quite it can be quite middle-age white male dominated oh oh dear uh there’s a kind of a bit of a problem there isn’t it but I guess because I’ve got that food background you know there’s that link where I can
Kind of use the knowledge about food so we talked about malt earlier and saying we were going to do a malt ice cream float so when I’m talking to the guys who do the podcast they quite like it because they’re talking about it from a beer perspective well we’re going to use
This and we toast these grains and it has this flavor whereas I can say well actually it’s just like toast or it’s like moled bread or it’s like Ovaltine if somebody says to you what’s malty oval te or those Square biscuits with the frilly edges that’s what malt
Tasted of because they’re are malted milk biscuit now if you say that to somebody well probably English particularly but I you know if you explain that to them oval team they’ll know what that is and they’ll know that taste from their childhood as opposed to
You know and you when you get these Flor people it’s floral and it you’re getting newly moan grass then you know what it tastes of but if you just say to it it tastes like you’ve I don’t know got a big handful of herbs and just rubbed it
You get it’s it’s being able to communicate in a way that’s consumer friendly and there is a whole movement about saying actually and I and I noticed this when I was doing my wine courses is you everybody tastes things differently true so what you taste and I
Taste is we can be tasting the same thing but how we taste it is completely different so somebody using a language is you’ve got to connect with that now you can give you an example of say a a chardonay wine an oak chardonay wine from the new world it’s
Buttery what do I mean by butter it’s kind of got that vanillary slightly Smokey and I’m using all those whiny words but you might pick up on it but you might not but if I’m using some of those descriptive words it’s for you to then put that taste and those smells to
What that wine is it’s it doesn’t really matter what the the words are it’s what you perceive it to be and it it’s it’s quite again it’s another I guess I’m kind of try without signing too much of a b it’s another intellectual puzzle and it’s another thing that I’m interested
In is how do you describe that so I guess like I said because of the food background I probably find it quite easy to then describe relative terms for drinks does that make sense yeah no absolutely because you come also with a different perspective right yeah which I
Guess it also helps I feel like the way it also helps is because if let’s say all you know it’s wine and you grow up with wine and you’re good at wine but you know there are people that don’t really understand it you almost need to
Kind of like scrap that jargon you know to come with with with terms that people understand and they can associate you know very easily if you’re going to say biscuit you know the kind of biscuit be like I know what you’re talking about there’s there’s
Almost I used to run a pub and I wish i’ I wish I’d done it and and again if I had the money and I was going to run a restaurant to to to like open your dream restaurant one of the things I do is I
Think about drinks menus is I would not do it by wine and beer I do it by taste so you would say right fruity and there are fruity beers and there are fruity wines and you could just and you could just have a list and you
Can say um buttery or or or vanillary and again there are different and and you could do it or you could do sharp or you could just finding those or sweet or things that people can identify very easy but it’s yeah bitter you know so there’s a drink called bitter but the
Reason it is is it’sit bitter but there are wines that are bitter not unpleasantly bitter but they are they have that characteristic in in in the drink chocolate is bitter you know dark chocolate is bitter so if you go well ah oh actually yeah know I see what you
Mean now it is isn’t it yeah ah well now you’ve got it it’s it’s not disagreeable bitter doesn’t have to mean something is disagreeable coffee chocolate certain types of beer and certain types of wine all have those flavor characteristics so you could almost do a wine or drinks menu by flavors that’s amazing
Again comes to like knowing your I always say knowing your audience but knowing your customer if let’s say you’re going to do is it’s explaining it for for everyone’s kind of like mind because not everybody if you get if if you’re going to explain it that way
Probably to an expert they’ll be like this is kind of weird but most people and customers that probably you get through your door will be a regular jaw on the street that he will understand better by the way you explain in it you it’s you’re right it’s jargon it’s not
Professionals it’s it’s it’s clear but it’s also you don’t want to be patronizing you know again the other end of the scale is like I say you’ve got people when they start babbling and it smells of naked babies bottoms and whatever um I mean it’s one of my
Favorite I love Sherry now Sherry’s very underrated Sherry’s a great wine because you get more quality for your money than you do with most other wines cuz it’s not it’s still not incredibly popular it’s still not seen to be something that’s that’s people fashionable people drink but it’s great and there’s so many
Different varieties and you can get some incredibly good wines for good prices now there’s a particular type of cherry called Pedro gimenez which is named after the grape that it’s made from and a Pedro gimenez grape is is dried like a Sultana or A Raisin in the Sun shine to
Increase the sugar that makes this very sweet it’s it’s I I I I would like to describe this wine as been it’s it’s raisins squeezed between Angel’s thighs it’s the most wonderfully day I’ve just done exactly what I’ve said you shouldn’t do flowery language it’s it’s I’ll give you a try
Now if you like it if you like sweet things I’m not a fun but I’ll give you a try now pour some over some ice cream and it’s like a grownup milkshake it’s but it’s Rich it’s warming it’s dark it’s Tre it’s sweet oh it’s wonderful but the way sher’s made
Is they they have a selection of barrels and they pour the new wine into the top Barrel they take a bit out of that and they put it in the next barrels so you can buy it on the island you can buy Pedro himz Sherry that the original wine
That started is over 120 years old wow now if you were buying a bottle of it would cost a fortune yeah but okay it’s not it’s not and again I don’t want to go in because it’s a snobby whiny it’s not cheap cheap but penny for Penny
It’s nowhere near the sort of you know6 700 a bottle that you would be paying oh I didn’t even I didn’t know that I definitely didn’t know so Sherry is yeah and that’s what I’m saying but you can get incredibly dry sherry you can get nutty Cherry you can you can chill it
You can serve it on ice it’s it’s very versatile and it’s incredible I I I’m I’m so passionate about Sherry it’s just but when I grew up then again it goes back to taste when I grew up it was something in England that your grandma gave you know when when somebody came
Out and they had little glasses they’ be like would you like a glass of Sherry and they poor little you know when you watch detective movies that are sat in England in a certain era that’s what they’re always having little GL of Sher Vic and they and they do it like that
Yeah but it isn’t it’s a fantastically you know but there are that’s just there are hundreds of different wines so yeah I think I’m going wine and beer drink yeah wi yeah maybe I don’t know we’ll see we’ll see passion about too many things to to say definitely One
Direction that’s the problem there’s only there’s only one of me and there’s not enough time this is it but for people that want to know more about you uh get in touch with you maybe where do they find you whether on social media website and everything else give us some
Details so the easiest way is just to go www.an Island chef.com if you navigate around there there are links an island Chef on Instagram I have got the others but it’s mainly Instagram and the the website the website’s quite easy to navigate the other the wine writing
There is another one but you can find a link on the island Chef website so if you just remember an island chef and either look it up as blog or Instagram you can find me um and you’ll know cuz there’s a ridiculously silly picture of
Me with a lobster stood in the sea I like that I think it’s great I think he great somebody once pointing out and you get these people and you’re like all right so we did this for and we did this it wasn’t professional it was just me
And a and a lad and he did it on his camera he got a fairly decent camera on his phone and I went out and stood in the in the in the sea and I’ve got this Lobster in a pan and then somebody noticed they went why would you ever cook lobster in
The sea I noticed that was R was cooked but you don’t want to hold like I’m stood like 6 M out yeah you don’t want to be with the ler Lobster like you know come on guys give me a bit of credit the P was there so you could you could say
They was ready cook you just took it off yeah but then they’d have come away how would you be cooking a lobster out in the middle anyway yeah no it’s great so if you if you look there is a nice logo which has got like a little map of Jersey if you
Notice um there’s a there’s a a logo but there’s a picture of me so yeah an an island chef and then if you look it’ll either be Instagram or I’ve got all the LinkedIn oh you’re on LinkedIn you’re all over the place I’ve got I’ve got all
This I did the some of the great things that Jersey done I’ve done the the mentoring with uh Jersey digital so you got to have a brand Christian so I that’s my brand but yeah I I do it but Instagram tends to be the one that I I
Tend to post to and then it post more active on there and then the and then the website there is the casay which is all the beer writing but the links are on there from the island what an amazing conversation I really I I genuinely really enjoy this and I found out quite
A few things that I never had idea they ever existed thank so I hope hope that you’ll find time you know later in the year we’ll find more time to come back and talk maybe specifically on things that probably will blow people’s minds you know in terms of like history of
Food or drinks AB we can that be so good CU you have the knowledge you know what we should do actually we should do we we’ll do a maybe do a drinks not I don’t think anybody wants to sit and watch the pair of us drink loads but maybe we’ll
Bring something in and we can do like a drinks tasting that would be great yeah do we do a drinks tasting and then I can do a bit more I mean yeah we’ll do it I’ll save it the history of Jin do you know that in Victorian times Jin was a
Penny a pint wow I was born in the wrong era oysters and Jin both penny a pint so you would go and you would buy a pint of gin and a pint of oysters definitely born in the wrong era it did have the side effects that it
Would make your hair fall out and it wasn’t brilliantly made but nevertheless it was a pound for that price for that price absolutely so honestly keep them for keep them for for for the next oneth but I yeah we need to put something together because this was so insightful
And I like that we got we got into to a different route you know that we usually talk on this on this channel just like the daytoday hospitality it was something different with the twist something that you want to kind of implementing schools and you know for
The new generation which is amazing so absolute pleasure thank you so much appreciate it and we’ll see you in the next one thank you
1 Comment
Amazing videos . I aways watch all. You should invite Dominic Farrel from college for a podcast.