The Dog in a Doublet

[prev]… chicken stock, add some madeira and reduce it right down with some thyme and some rosemary, and it goes so well with the pork. The mash is made with the taste of bonfire baked potatoes. Basically, it’s dishes that people would eat at home, but done in a way they couldn’t do at home.

GIVEN THE LEVELS OF TECHNIQUE ON DISPLAY HERE, I WAS A BIT SURPRISED BY THE PRICES…
We try not to make any dish above the £15 mark, for main courses, so it’s accessible, but we make sure it’s still got that wow factor. I’m really keen on making people feel they’re getting value, because they have to go out of their way to get here. So our fish and chips for example, is £8.99. Anywhere else, that would be £12. Our lunchtimes we do kind of go a bit fine dining, but we do a fantastic three courses for £9.99. Sourcing ingredients is a big thing – cutting the costs by growing your own stuff. So, this is a farm. We breed our own pigs and have our own chickens for eggs, have our own ducks and grow our own veg. And we’re surrounded by the Fens. That’s a good start!

HOW DID MASTERCHEF COME ABOUT?
I didn’t enter myself. The application was filled in by my friends, and I didn’t know anything about it until one of them said to me ‘We’ve got you an interview for MasterChef’. I was a civil engineer, working all hours, getting up early and driving all over the country, and then getting home at night and having dinner parties. But I’d never thought about it as a career. So, I went down to London and had to prepare some food for some of the team, and did a Thai crab papaya salad. I love my southeast Asian food. I lived out in Thailand for a little while. I’ve actually travelled to 40 different countries, and all those countries have given me a basis for my food. I impressed them, anyway, and then I had to actually go and cook for the producers. I think there were just under 10,000 applicants, and at this point I knew I was in the last 100 or so. Then they rang me and said they wanted me to be on the show, and gave me a date. Then, three days before they ‘We want you to be in the first episode…’

‘I was quite glad to get out of Masterchef in the end – I’d had enough!’

WHAT DID YOU COOK ON THE SHOW?
On the invention test I did a French toast with rhubarb compôte and Crème Anglais. So simple, but it blew them away, because it was the right balance. The next round I did rack of lamb with an anchovy and herb crust, with crushed peas, new potatoes en papillotte and a caper sauce. Then for my dessert I did a kind of desconstructed cranachan, with toasted oats and a honey ice cream and raspberries, and then made a meringue and toasted it on top. But my ice cream didn’t set…

HOW DID IT FEEL TO BE KNOCKED OUT IN THE THIRD ROUND?
I was quite glad to get out of there in the end – I’d had enough! At the start I could hardly sleep for excitement because I did really well on the first two rounds. But then that excitement turned into nerves, and by the fourth day of no sleep I was just wrecked. It kind of drags you into this world where cooking is actually just a tiny part of actual catering, of what being a… [cont]