Tag Archives: Interview

Adventure lamb with Mark Sargeant

British food has become more than just your meat and two veg as international flavours are influencing home cooking.

Research by Simply Beef and Lamb has found that British people, especially children, are more adventurous at mealtimes.

The Michelin starred chef Mark Sargeant has been working with Simply Beef and Lamb to create some easy lamb recipes and spoke to Siren FM about the changes in our tastes.

Chef Mark Sargeant chatting about exciting lamb recipes | Photo:  Robert Nunn via Flickr

Tagines, curries and enchiladas are just some of the international dishes that have become popular in our kitchens. Research found that parents are also making these dishes for their children, admitting that their kids are eating more exotic foods than they did at their age.

Mark encourages children to try new foods and says: “I get very excited by the prospect of my daughters growing up with a really wide and varied palate. It’s very important for me to get in there at a young age and that wasn’t done so much certainly when I was younger.”

Being creative in the kitchen helps when it comes to being more adventurous with food. Mark says: “That’s where it’s so good to be relaxed in the kitchen. Understand that you’ve got a lovely piece of lamb and understand what goes with it and what you like and hopefully you’ll end up with some really good adventurous recipes.”

Mark’s top tips when it comes to cooking lamb this spring are:

  • Quality  — “Try and get really good, organic good quality lamb. That’s the most important thing. If you start with good lamb then you’re going to end up with a fantastic dish,” he says.
  • Be adventurous — “If you want to keep it simple that’s completely fine… but try and be a bit more adventurous.” Mark mentions that the Simply Beef and Lamb website is filled with plenty of recipes  and promises: “Your spring lamb will never taste as good as it has before.”

You can listen to the full interview with Mark Sargeant below. This interview was originally broadcast on Siren FM.

Valentine Warner on Food for Thought

Celebrity chef Valentine Warner has recently been to Scandinavia to find out about the food and the culture. He’s now sharing his experiences over on his Good Food show Valentine Warner eats Scandinavia and in an interview for Food for Thought.

Photo: UKTV

Valentine Warner is passionate about using local and seasonal foods — which is also a popular approach to food in Scandinavia too. During his travels Valentine went ice fishing with only a drill and bait, he also cooked with some unusual ingredients including blood and moss. In fact he enjoyed his trip so much he sounds like he wants to move there.

We also talked about why is so passionate about using seasonal goods, his inspiration when it comes to cooking and why he likes listening to music when in the kitchen.

Food for Thought regular Samantha Pidoux joined me for the interview and has written about it on her blog to get another take on our chat with Valentine Warner.

If you’ve liked this podcast then try listening to Food for Thought as it goes out live on Siren FM every Wednesday at 2pm .

Valentine Warner opens with a joke

Recently on Food for Thought I interviewed the television chef Valentine Warner. It was about his new show Valentine Warner eats Scandinavia which will be shown on the Good Food channel.

I’ll post the full show later but here’s a teaser of our chat. It’s always strange to start talking to someone off the television as if you’ve known them for ages, and this is how Valentine Warner started things off.

Chatting with Michel Roux Sr and Brian Turner

Mondays are stereotypically rubbish. Not this week though as Sam Pidoux and I chatted to the three Michelin star chef Michel Roux Sr and one of Britain’s most successful chefs Brian Turner.

Roux Scholarship 2013 | Photo: UKTV

The interview was a chance for the pair to chat about The Roux Scholarship, which after 30 years of providing support for British chefs, is being televised on Watch. We also chatted about the importance of being able to cook properly at home and educating and inspiring people about food.

The full interview with Michel Roux Sr and Brian Turner will be on this week’s Food for Thought on Siren FM, and online shortly afterwards. In the meantime here’s a little tease. It’s not every day that Michel Roux Sr says my name.