Summer 2009
Just Jamie
So what about someone like Ferran Adria (recently named the ‘best chef in the world’) at his most inventive? What do you think of his style of ‘molecular cooking’?
I’ve never tried Ferran Adria’s cooking but I am friends with Heston Blumenthal, a specialist in molecular cooking. I am genuinely impressed, even if I could never imagine getting into an adventure like that. He plays with your sense of humour, with textures, with egg and bacon ice cream and snail porridge. And I can assure you that it’s incredible. The tastes explode in your mouth. His cooking is an art. He pushes the boundaries. In the space of a few hours, you discover a new world, break the rules, and learn about cookery from a different angle. But it’s not real food…
You’re on television, publishing new books and opening new restaurants – can you be both a chef and businessman at the same time?
It’s compulsory! Too many chefs are unable to run a business. Plus, you’re never good at everything. It’s important to know how to delegate. My dad manages his restaurant on his own; he’s one of the older generation who thinks a good businessman is one who can do the work of five people. For me, somebody who can employ twenty people to do the work is even better! I love what I do, being out making documentaries and offering inspiration. And who couldn’t be excited by the School Dinners campaign? We managed to get £400 million invested in school canteens.
That was several years ago, what’s changed since then for school children?
The education system is a huge machine: 5.5 million students, 24,000 primary schools, 3,500 colleges. Half of these have progressed incredibly; fresh produce is cooked on site. There still remains the question of wider education, though. The government has not yet done anything about that. I know we can make a change there, too. In time I will launch a new programme insisting on the need for children to be taught how to cook, making them more aware of tastes. Two years ago, there were more rules regarding dog food than there were for food distributed to children. OK, it’s true we’re a nation of dog lovers, but that is ridiculous.
Do you still cook for your children?
Definitely. When I’m home, most of the time it’s me who cooks. Not because I have to, but because I enjoy it and I want to. Last Sunday I did a big, home-made Minestrone soup. I picked the vegetables from the garden with my kids. We picked whatever we could find and threw it in: peas, beets, tomatoes, new potatoes, leeks, it was a real treat!
You created the Fifteen Foundation in 2002 to train disadvantaged youngsters. In fact, you were assisted by trainee chefs from the Fifteen restaurant in London when you cooked for world leaders, including Barack Obama, on the eve of the G20 Summit earlier this year. Since we’ve just taken the new Insignia Sports Tourer to visit Fifteen Cornwall I have to ask, are you able to spread your enthusiasm for home-grown to the young apprentices there?
Absolutely. At the Fifteen Foundation, 80 per cent of the apprentices have spent time in prison, 99 per cent have grown up without their father present, or with their father living far from them. They are quite tough! I may sound a bit like a hippy, but taking them to the countryside and a vegetable garden really helps, I swear it does. The majority come from rough parts of town and so the further we drive out of the city, away from the concrete and the housing estates, the more uncomfortable they feel. Thrown into a new universe which they are completely unfamiliar with, even for just one day, they become vulnerable and malleable. And we all need to feel a little bit like that sometimes, to get out of the comfort zone. Especially if there’s not a dining table in the house…
