Cooking with Jeremy Lee: Recipe and Conversation
Jeremy Lee, British celebrity chef and chef proprietor of Quo Vadis, is one of Britain’s most loved chefs. The voice of a thespian, the heart of a lion, a warmth that fills the room and generosity that knows no bounds. Famed for his peerless smoked eel sandwiches, golden crusted pies, pitch perfect martinis and exceptional puddings, lavishly adorned with the holy trinity of ice cream, cream and custard. Jeremy is quite the distinguished figure.
Now he has brought out his very own book “Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many” which Nigella Lawson describes as an “instant classic that is every bit as exuberant and delicious as the man himself.” Brimming with recipes and stories that recount a lifetime of cooking from a Dundee childhood to the menus of Quo Vadis, with chapters led by ingredients offering a masterclass in simple dishes done well. There is a section dedicated to “a list of great stockists” demonstrating a reverence for shopping for the best local ingredients, and many of the recipes are naturally frugal and resourceful whilst delivering comfort, joy and indulgence a plenty.
Jeremy Lee joined us at Wilderness Festival 2022 to host one of the Long Table Banquets for a feast that went down in spectacular style. Here, we caught up with Jeremy to discuss his fabulous new book, his approach to cooking, and how to be a wonderful host:
A conversation with Jeremy Lee and his new book, Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many
Your book is a love song to simple dishes crafted with the finest ingredients – where does this approach to food come from?
I reckon this was honed at home by mum and dad whose approach was a table laid with delicious, wholesome good things for their family. When I started cooking with Simon Hopkinson, Alastair Little and Terence Conran, it became abundantly clear that the food I loved most echoed these sentiments and sat very well in restaurants that I loved most, and this I brought to Quo Vadis.
How is the food you cook at home similar or different to your food at Quo Vadis?
Home and restaurant cooking are inextricably woven together, one feeding the other.
What does it feel like to cook for yourself versus to cook for other people – whether that’s friends over for dinner, or a restaurant service?
Be the dish as simple as a pot of moules mariniere, or a grand braise, I love cooking simply and deliciously as much for myself as for my friends.
Your book includes a brilliant ‘list of great stockists’ that people can source their ingredients from. How important are the ingredients you start with to the end result when cooking? And how important is the act of acquiring your ingredients (shopping, foraging, hand-selecting etc) to your enjoyment of cooking as a whole?
Ingredients are as key to recipes as the inspiration itself. Produce inspired by the seasons, from favourite suppliers, producers, growers, shops and markets, inspire just as much as the thought of sitting a great crowd of friends down around a big table, or sitting solo at home.
Are there any ‘dark horse’ or ‘unsung hero’ recipes you’d encourage people not to overlook and would most like people at home to try?
Folk often ask in the restaurant “what do you recommend”, and we invariably respond – “all of it”. No cook enjoys cooking something they don’t love, so it all matters and I hope very much that each recipe strikes a chord with someone.
Your restaurant, Quo Vadis, is situated in a member’s club – how has this shaped the food you cook or your approach to feeding people / hospitality?
Quo Vadis is unique in that regardless however you look at it, be it a members’ club with a public dining room attached, or a restaurant with a members’ club above, all within eat the same food, and this is key to all that we do.
If you had to choose, would you class ‘cooking’ as a ‘science’, ‘art’, or ‘act of service’?
I am a devoted fan of Artusi’s masterful book, “Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well”. This title of a favourite book by an estimable epicure sums it all up for me.
You are known and adored for being a fabulously exuberant, extravagant, generous host, and throwing spectacular dinner parties – what do you think is the key to giving people a good time around the table?
Generosity and abundance are key, heaped upon the warmest welcome.
What season/ingredient do you most look forward to each year?
Autumn. Everything within the autumn larder, I adore. From wild plums, to game, mushrooms, grapes, truffle, et al.
If you were to host a dinner party with Social Pantry, what would your dream menu be?
Langoustine mayonnaise, grouse and everything, followed by a sheep’s cheese then a great bowl of freshly churned vanilla ice cream with a great pile of Scottish raspberries.
Arbroath smokies, sea purslane, green beans and potatoes
Extract from “Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many” by Jeremy Lee
Arbroath smokies, also a protected food, are delicately smoked haddock from the eponymous town just up the east coast of Scotland from Dundee. The Spink family, Arbroath fish merchants, have made Arbroath smokies their own, so much so that Spinks appear at fairs and fêtes to smoke the fish on site. It is quite a show seeing a pit covered in jute sacks while the haddock smoke within. The resulting fish are wonderful eaten hot from the smoker with bread and butter.
Away from this happy scene in eastern Scotland, the smokies are stiffened by refrigeration and their delicacy somewhat diminished, for haddock is not an oily fish like herring. They are best warmed slightly and served with a salad. Removing the skin and bones is a simpler affair than with herring, and when warmed gently in a little water and butter, the smokies’ qualities are reawakened. Cooked potato and beans are added with leaves of sea purslane, mixed lightly, then served. Consider, too, samphire, monksbeard, peas or a mix of young spinach and watercress for this salad. Should a smokie prove difficult to find, by all means use smoked haddock of the palest hue.
A note on sourcing Smokies from the team at Social Pantry:
Oak & Smoke produces smoked fish products with sustainability and conservation at the heart. They sell Arbroath smokies at Borough Market Thursday-Sunday and via Borough Market online, which offers London and nationwide delivery. Find out more here. You can also order Arbroath Smokies from a number of online fish suppliers including The Fish Society , Inverawe and Bradley’s Fish.
Feeds 6
4 Arbroath smokies (or 600g smoked haddock)
40g unsalted butter
750g cooked new potatoes, such as Jersey, Ayrshire or Cornish
300g green beans, cooked
10–15g sea purslane
Remove the skin from the fish. Carefully lift away the smoked flesh, and remove any bones. Place the flakes of haddock in a wide bottomed pan with 100ml of water and the butter. Lightly season with salt and pepper. Cover the pan and place over a gentle heat to warm through, with only the gentlest movement to keep the haddock from breaking up.
Cut the potatoes into 6–8mm-thick slices and lay them on the fish in the pan. Add the cooked beans. Strew with the picked sea purslane leaves. Cover and simmer a further 2–3 minutes. Serve in bowls.
