me to be involved in how the business develops as a whole and how the ethics and the identity continue to run through what we teach and how we cook, keeping true to the
original roots and ideals of River Cottage. It’s actually quite a challenge to maintain the wonderfully simple style of domestic cooking River cottage is so well known for as the company gets bigger. It’s an interesting juxtaposition, on the one hand you’ve got the original River Cottage concept – preparing and cooking very simple food at home, using what you’ve got, with no waste, supporting local producers who are doing good things and keeping everything fresh and vibrant – taking that idea and scaling it up it to a profitable and growing business is a unique challenge.
Writing and media work are a big part of what you do; there must always be a new challenge and a new thing to learn around the corner here?
Yes, I’m just finishing off my own handbook which will be part of our River Cottage Handbook series; this one is about pigs and pork cookery. It’ll have a rough guide to keeping pigs and a lot of
recipes. Writing cookbooks is just one of the things I’ve learnt being here. The thing about working at River Cottage is, there’s so many people involved and so many experts that come through and so many authorities on food that you get to work with and learn from, the learning curve is just massive.
Since I’ve been here I’ve learned far more than I would if I’d been head down in a restaurant kitchen and that’s one of the reasons I’m still here after all this time because one day you’ll be down on the seashore finding seaweed with John Wright, whose a fantastic forager and wild food expert, and the next day you’ll be butchering a beef steer and the next you’ll be writing recipes for a book and the next teaching someone how to open scallops; it’s great in that respect.
For a cook, a foodie and a nature lover, and for someone who loves to learn, this seems like the perfect job.
They say with food you never learn everything and it is true that there’s always something to learn. What’s interesting in this kitchen is that we always have different chefs coming through whether they’re on work experience or doing a stage or an apprenticeship and every single one of them has their technique to share, their approach to preparing something, or an interesting view on an
ingredient whether they’re junior or some big shot from some other restaurant; it’s just constant learning.
Why do you think River Cottage is so important in today’s world?
We live in a society where people don’t have a lot of time; lifestyles are very busy; jobs are high pressured and hectic and the majority of people live in busy cities.
I think originally the River Cottage idea and ideal enchanted people and captivated their imaginations. That has carried through from 15 years ago. It still entertains people and captivates their imaginations and now that we’ve developed a cookery school, the fans are able to come here and engage with what we’re doing on a practical level.
The awareness of cooking has massively increased. People want to see it; they want to read about it; they want to be part of it – whether it’s just growing some herbs on a window sill or keeping a few chickens – connecting with what you’re eating, understanding where the ingredients have come from is very important and at the top of many people’s priorities. Maybe we offer a way into that world that a lot of people can’t find.
