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James Sharp - Hash Browns, High Pressure & Finding Your Flavour
42 Plays13 days ago
This week’s guest is James Sharp — chef, entrepreneur, and founder of Hash Hut, the street-food concept turning the humble hash brown into a fine-dining obsession.
From the chalet kitchens of the French Alps to the pressure of MasterChef: The Professionals and the buzz of BOXPARK London, James shares his story of graft, guts, and finding joy in playful cooking. We talk about balancing precision with personality, the grind behind street-food success, and why comfort food can still carry a Michelin-level mindset.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Check On Podcast. I'm your host, Kasei Fraser. If this is your first time listening, then welcome. If you're a day one listener, then you already know how this goes.
00:00:12
Speaker
Today, I'm joined by my good mate from MasterChef The Professionals, James Sharp. James is the owner of Hash Hut in North London, and he's dishing out some killer hash browns. He cut his teeth at Alcamilla's Michelin-starred kitchen and brought that heat to his MasterChef semi-final run.
James' Culinary Journey Begins
00:00:28
Speaker
we're gonna dive into his history a little bit so please enjoy James Sharp.
00:00:44
Speaker
it's so exciting to be on your podcast. Thank you, thank you for coming. have you been? This is sick. Have you been good? I've been all right.
00:00:54
Speaker
I've been all right. I've been busy, but busy is good. Busy is nice. I've been fine. What's your down season? What's your downtime? no There isn't really down season. Like it's, I suppose like at this festival season, it's like the hyper busy season, but cause we were building a new site in Christmas that became a hyper busy season. And then for the last couple of years, we've been having a,
00:01:16
Speaker
almost like winter one land events as well so cool so it's kind of like january february february last couple years we've got away in january um but like we're gonna try chill in february a little like when i say chill take like a week off maybe hopefully fingers crossed where are you gonna go uh morocco oh who Yeah, I know. Nice.
00:01:36
Speaker
I know, right? on the beach, lots of tajine, try chill, try and relax a bit. Get some surfing in. Yeah, exactly. exactly isn't it There's wicked surfing there. We're going to head down to the coast.
00:01:48
Speaker
And it's just like, last time I went, it was... I was so small and I just remember the center of Marrakesh being absolutely nuts and all I wanted to do was to eat like sheep's brains and crazy things and my mum and my sisters didn't want to so my dad took me down to the middle of the the big square and we just went and ate all these nuts stuff so I want to kind of go probably yeah it was sick oh young young I don't know like maybe like 10 8 or 9 ah or no And you wanted to eat sheep's brains?
00:02:17
Speaker
yeah Yeah, for sure. My dad was just, he was fearless. He was just like,
Family Influence and Culinary Philosophy
00:02:20
Speaker
yeah, sweet. it um My dad's like me. He'll eat anything. So I just kind of completely followed his lead on it. like He used to take, instead of bringing like crisps home, he used to bring like seafood salad home and like really spicy peppers from the corner shops and like the Turkish corner shops.
00:02:36
Speaker
that's kind of what that That was my like afternoon snack. Wow. So you had like pretty bold flavours from pretty young age. Yeah, massive. like And I love that. Tamasolata was like my sour cream.
00:02:50
Speaker
People are like, oh, fish cuts. I'm like, it's delicious. o Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, that I don't know. But my dad brought me into bold flavours, probably. I reckon.
00:03:02
Speaker
I reckon. Are your parents real foodies? My... don't know. I don't think my dad knows he is, but he probably is. And my mum... Like she kind of taught me like the value of hospitality, I'd say.
00:03:17
Speaker
Like she worked in restaurants growing up, um kind of like in the hospitality sector and before she kind of, before she joined her current career. And yeah, I'd say like she she she taught me the value of kind of like being able to entertain through food.
00:03:33
Speaker
which is like an incredible thing, isn't it? It's like, it's why we all cook really. It's lot of make people feel good around the table. So it's a really nice thing. But I think Malay, my dad's like an accidental foodie. He's just like, oh yeah, I ate some like crazy like beetle or something. And he's like, that's absolutely nuts.
00:03:48
Speaker
Yeah. yeah How funny. No, I don't know. I feel like that's um that's a really cool thing to be trying all those different things and be brave like that at that young of an age. Like would eat everything that was put in front of me, but I think at 10 years old, if you told me to eat sheep's brains, I might have been a bit squeamish about it. You know what I mean? I think that's unusual.
00:04:11
Speaker
yeah well Yeah, suppose I suppose yeah suppose so. I mean, like... It depends what environment you're brought up in, I think. I was lucky enough to be brought up in quite like a transparent environment about where your food comes from. And think that's like so, so important. like Transparency around origin of food is is something that is not taught enough in schools, in in just growing up. like Everyone should know like what a cow or chicken looks like. Everyone should know that...
00:04:39
Speaker
People eat eat cow's tongue, you know, you can eat an oxtail, ah like chicken feet are served in like Southeast Asia on barbecues, you know, like all these things. It's just not common knowledge, like for for a lot of people, especially in the UK.
00:04:54
Speaker
And it's like it's something I was very lucky to be kind of exposed to early on, which was cool. Like it it means um I don't really get scared of any food and I've really have been.
00:05:06
Speaker
is there anything that you wouldn't eat? Like i'm I'm pretty similar, i would give everything a try once even if it was a bit strange and I didn't really understand it or i didn't know what it was or if it was a really weird part of an animal that I'd never tried before, I would still try it but I would i would still have that little bit of hesitancy in me I think.
00:05:25
Speaker
For what? and For like anything weird? No not any, yeah I mean I don't know, in ah in Barcelona, we went to a restaurant and they served us a tuna heart taco.
00:05:37
Speaker
And in my head, I've had heart lots of times, so it doesn't really bother me that much, but tuna heart, I knew it was gonna be quite a strong flavor. yeah for sure There was that little bit in me like, I'm gonna eat it, of course I'm gonna eat it, I need to try it.
00:05:50
Speaker
But that small part was like, oh God, is it gonna be gross? yeah yeah i mean like fair enough if you don't like stuff you know i don't think there's any shame in saying you don't like something i think it's just set like prejudging the flavor of something before you eat yeah like to the point where you won't eat it i think that's just like it's childish you know like come on it's like Like, even though you thought it might be gross, you still ate it. It's that little chef pressure brain in me that says it's a piece of food because you have to at least try it.
00:06:23
Speaker
Yeah, people put it on a plate for a reason. So that like whatever kind of culture or origin it has, like people have put it on a plate for a reason, whether that be kind of because it's delicious or because they had to like preserves or ferments back in the day.
Exploration of Culinary Boundaries
00:06:39
Speaker
or like dried stuff um like the uk sucks at ah curing stuff as i think i think because we don't have the environment it was all far too rainy so we're really good at just making mead but i mean like a lot of countries that make incredible kind of dried produce like dried tuna bonito kasubushi stuff like that like you can freak out about it but if you eat it it's fine it's like freaking out about food to the point where you're just like i'm not actually gonna eat it i'm just like i again People say we don't like mushrooms.
00:07:09
Speaker
Just eat the mushroom. but so I find people make blanket statements about that all the time. I think the biggest one that I hear is I don't eat fish. And it's like all types of fish, seafood included. like And I think it's just because, i don't know, their mum overcooked a piece of cod once and it was awful and dry. And and they've just kind of had this really weird food memory.
00:07:31
Speaker
um But then it's just a blanket statement. Like I won't touch fish from here. Yeah, it's nuts. And then when people like, don't know if I'm sure you've had it ah where people have been like, oh, I usually don't eat this, but you cooked it and I ate it and I really enjoyed it. I'm just like, yeah, because you've not eaten it in 27 years. And the last time you cooked it, it was really shit.
00:07:50
Speaker
like lift up Like, like, you put a lot of love and care into the dish. So it's going to be nice.
Early Career and Fine Dining Experiences
00:07:56
Speaker
like like as chefs you don't put things on plate which aren't delicious or people most people try not to yeah most us try not to yeah exactly i mean like there's a shock and all factor of course um like crazy flavors but i mean like in general if you're putting piece of fish on a plate it's gonna taste nice um so yeah those blankets don't they are each to their own I mean like I'm not here to tell anyone what to eat and what not to eat but at the same time just like don't say you don't like fish just unless you're a deadly allergic and then which case power to you please don't eat the fish then but I mean like I think I wouldn't eat dog like I've been in environments where I've been offered dog a few times and I've not ah not eaten dog and then chicken sushi me
00:08:41
Speaker
Like there's just something that doesn't sit right with me. But then it's one of those things that I would probably just, because of how I feel about eating food, I'd probably have to try it.
00:08:53
Speaker
But I can't see myself liking it I can't see myself liking it, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't not eat it for the, like for the reasons of getting sick or anything. Cause there's definitely, you know, like you're making a ah chicken mousse or a chicken fast and you're too busy to try and cook off a piece to taste if it's seasoned. So I'm sure most of us have tasted raw chicken fast just to taste a little bit of it. i don't know. Maybe it's just me.
00:09:15
Speaker
Maybe. ah Yeah. Cool. That means you have a really strong immune system. There you go. no I know what you mean. Like I would, I feel, it's the same thing. Like if, if it's going on a plate somewhere, like it's the chances are that people people eat it don't get ill.
00:09:35
Speaker
So don't be scared of it. I mean, it's like, like eating people. I love eating street food in crazy places or whatever I go traveling or on holiday. Like eat the street food.
00:09:47
Speaker
Like don't be scared about getting ill from any food because people put it a plate and no one's trying to make you ill. Like the chances are, if it's good street food, it churns out and it's, it's probably healthier than most Wetherspoons kitchens.
00:09:59
Speaker
If you see the street food, you know, it's going to be an incredible journey of flavour. And people like so many cultures and foods are based around stuff that we're unaware of or uncomfortable around eating. So just try it.
00:10:14
Speaker
opens you up. hello Don't ask what goes into the sausage. Yeah, literally. Don't ask. Yeah, just eat it. Exactly. Where did you – because you you sometimes cook with quite a lot of Asian ingredients and Asian flavours. Where did that come from?
00:10:33
Speaker
have absolutely no idea, to be completely honest. i I've just always absolutely loved – I've just loved umami tastes, like big flavours.
00:10:46
Speaker
and ah like I like kind of things that – I like things which you don't eat very often. um Now I eat all the time, but I mean, back back in the day, like a Chinese takeaway was our big kind of like treat, you know?
00:11:02
Speaker
And um like the little crispy seaweed with the pork floss and like the char siu pork and all all that, that used just get me going as a kid. yeah i used to absolutely love it And it was that kind of like rarity that made me really appreciate those flavors.
00:11:19
Speaker
um so when I could kind of get my hands on different sauces and condiments that was where my my brain went and I just kind of developed my cooking style through that I think just from the things I like to eat um and it's just like I just think it's iss some of the most incredible precise produce creation in the world like the art of making soy sauce, like the art of making katsubushi, like and how kombu is cured. It's just, it's fascinating. And the people that do it, ah they dedicate their lives to it. I just think like the there's nothing cooler than trying something that someone has dedicated their life towards.
00:12:02
Speaker
Like wherever that's like making wine or making like cured meats so so or sausage or sily so or like vinegars, like, You can you can like kind of taste the passion in it, 100%. And I think a lot of Southeast Asian and Asian-influenced ingredients have have that level of kind of dedication, 100%, especially Japanese ingredients.
00:12:26
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. i think um last year we sort of really dabbled in trying to make our own misos and it was the most fun ride ever. Like anything, anything we had, we were like corn's in season, corn miso sounds great.
00:12:41
Speaker
Persimmon, persimmon miso, let's give it a give. Honestly, like the amount of different jars that we had sitting on the top shelf of our kitchen, it was just, it was getting ridiculous. But it was so much fun to read up on how to do it and kind of like unlock a new thing for us. Because as I'm sure you know, like when you start working for yourself, you're kind of responsible for your own learning. Nobody's there telling you how to do new things anymore.
00:13:06
Speaker
So it was just this really fun little ride of being like, could we turn this into a miso? ah that So much fun. How many of them worked? Did you get any absolute bangers? The corn one was an absolute banger.
00:13:17
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we need to make that again next year and we need to make 10 times more of it. um The persimmon one was a little bit weird, but I still really liked it. It was nice to like finish off a puree or a sauce or something. for sure. Weird is good. We like weird.
00:13:32
Speaker
The next one was a we we had leftover rye bread and we had um some overripe bananas. So we made a rye bread and banana muso.
00:13:42
Speaker
That's wicked. I can see that working. It goes into ice cream and it goes really nicely. So yeah, I mean, there's been some ones I can't even think about them that haven't been that great, but um you know, we only remember the good ones.
00:13:53
Speaker
yeah but Yeah, we try anyway. Where was the um the first kitchen that you started working in? The first kitchen? ah Proper kitchen or just like cooking job?
00:14:06
Speaker
Because I had had a my first cooking job ever. I was a road trip after school. I just took a car and drove around Europe with a mate of mine.
00:14:16
Speaker
Like we had no plans. No, like we just were like woke up in the morning. we literally like slept in the car seats and pop-ups are like, let's go this way. and was great fun.
00:14:27
Speaker
um Ended up in the Alps and I got a job as a pizza chef in ah kind of a... a French deli on like on this in this mountain resort called La Tanya and I just made pizza and I made the massive pots of tartiflet out the front like you know tartiflet's like the robochon cheese and the onions and the was amazing so it's so good yeah I got called uh I was just called pizza boy like people call me pb and it was great and like I may have to go home because he didn't get a job but I've just stayed there making pizzas and tarty for like five months it's fantastic awesome and then I kind of realized think that was kind of like I can cook and travel and go anywhere I want which is really fun um and then I'd
00:15:12
Speaker
had to go back and did a bit more traveling, went to university and then left. And I was like, quite like that cooking thing that i was doing. That was really fun. And let's, let's do that again. So, um, I start the first proper brigade I was in was Dean street townhouse in Soho under the Soho house group.
00:15:30
Speaker
And it was like baptism of fire. Like nuts. Like I went under a head chef called Jimmy. He was a wicked guy, like really, really experienced.
00:15:41
Speaker
Um, He left quite soon after I see, but he taught me a lot in the short, but he probably doesn't know, he taught me a lot in the short period. He was, uh, and, um, I had, I was in his breakfast chef and I used to get in at five, quarter past five in the morning and kind of just poach thousands of eggs and pre-cooked loads of bacon and make the avocado for the avocado on toast.
00:16:02
Speaker
And there was this dude called Chicho who was like my little mentor and he was nuts, like crazy dude, little kind of, five foot nothing Italian guy and we just kind of like had a croissant and a double espresso in the morning and just got our way through breakfast brunch service. It was wicked.
00:16:18
Speaker
Yeah, it was a nuts place and I completely fell in love with it. Like, when you go in in the morning, like five in the morning, there's no one in there and it's quiet and you just have a pastry and then slowly the place ramps up. And it was a brigade of maybe like 25 chefs. It was crazy.
00:16:33
Speaker
That's huge brigade. Massive covers, massive kitchen, lots of shouting, like crazy, like proper, like your stereotypical London kitchen, like loads of Italians, crazy pot wash, like well all the, all the fun stuff you read about, you know?
00:16:49
Speaker
and yeah It was just a baptism of a fire. fell in love with it. was wicked. And then how long did you stay there for? I'm not sure. you know I can't ah wasn't there for too long because I was there for a few months and then they moved us to open this other place called Ketner's Townhouse.
00:17:07
Speaker
ah So I went with a smaller team of chefs over to there, owned by the same people, kind of like a private member sort of thing. um And then stayed there for another few months and then I went travelling after that um again.
00:17:20
Speaker
So I kind of ah did a bit of time, loved it. went to kind of discover some more things, some more flavors. um And then after that, I just thought I could do some private stuff. So completely blagged my way into private works and I'd worked in two kitchens.
00:17:36
Speaker
it's um But those were the first kind of like crazy places I worked for sure.
Venturing into Private Dining and Festivals
00:17:43
Speaker
Like that was a proper taste of like the chef life. you You sound like it was very fond memories, but I imagine it was probably quite hard at some points as well. Or was everyone just kind of in it together and it was just a big party?
00:17:58
Speaker
don't know. it was i was probably too young to kind of, at that time, to kind of have like a massive amount of... To be completely honest, I didn't take it massively seriously then.
00:18:10
Speaker
Like it was only when I went into fine dining kitchens after I'd done a bit of... uh private stuff which i realized like this is some serious shit like and however fun and games it is like it's a real passion project and i think like you know like you have to be massively passionate to be in a kitchen especially a kitchen of high of a high caliber and back then i was just kind of dipping my toe and it ended up jumping in but it's it was it was kind of yeah everyone was in together but it was also nuts like
00:18:43
Speaker
it was There was no kind of screaming and burning each other, but there was ah just a lot of crazy stuff. and there was there was There was this one dude who's like... After you made the avocado mix, you had to give him a pint glass of the oil.
00:18:59
Speaker
And he used to see this massive dude, and this massive Croatian dude. And he would just sit there just drinking the oil for the rest of service. It was on veg prep. um And he used to like show you, oh he had like the biggest knife roll I've ever seen. Genuinely, he had about 40 knives in there.
00:19:15
Speaker
And God knows what he did like what what after he left. But yeah, it was a kitchen full of characters. And it was kind of sink or swim. And I learned a lot. But I've got no bad memories from it.
00:19:27
Speaker
ah I mean, I had to throw away a massive pot of cheese sauce once. So didn't cook out the flour. Apart from that. It's about as traumatic as it gets. Yeah, yeah, oh, for real, because the pot wash, like, I just walked over and I put it there, and the pot wash was just like, what the fuck is this?
00:19:44
Speaker
Like, what do you want me to do with that? like a Like, I'm sorry. Like, I don't know. What do you do with mean, you can't really pour it down the sink. You can't really put it in the bin. I was kind of... You know those moments you're a little bit traumatised and yeah um things just move really fast?
00:20:02
Speaker
and And I was just like... I can't really remember what happened, but i just remember the guy shouting at me a lot. um But yeah, I mean, it was good fun. Learned a lot. I feel like we really skimmed over the whole guy drinking a pint glass of oil part.
00:20:16
Speaker
yeah, was mad. It was a tasty dressing, but like, not a pint glass worth. That's so bizarre. Yeah, I mean, like... It might have fueled his, like he was a big guy.
00:20:27
Speaker
Like Gareth Ward, like I would not, he could have been a bouncer happily. You know? What a weird thing to do. If you have to, used to keep it for him.
00:20:38
Speaker
And if you didn't keep it for him, you'll get properable proper nuts. It was like his little breakfast morning thing. He came in to do a veg prep, a lunch service. And he always like always, did I only ever saw him on veg section, just prepping veg and mashing potatoes and stuff. But yeah, he was a monster, monster of a man.
00:20:55
Speaker
Feed him his oil or heaven help you. His insides are going to be well lubricated. that is how fiber needed. um And then from, from there, when you said dipping your toe in the water for sort of the more fine dining side of things, is that when you went to Alcamilla?
00:21:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think I am and did a lot of private stuff. And like you said, when you work for yourself, it's like you have to kind of kind of tread your own path and learn things for yourself, which is great.
00:21:32
Speaker
But it's definitely got a ceiling, I felt. And I thought I'd had a very kind of brief stint in kitchens. I was hungry for it. Like I used to come home after...
00:21:43
Speaker
double shifts from Dean Street and just read up on books and watch YouTube. This was like before Instagram was really massive and I just watched YouTube of how to like Ballantine quail or how to like do a farce or anything like that. So i was like really hungry for it.
00:21:57
Speaker
and And then I just kind of did all these private jobs and just realized was cooking the same stuff over again. i could make a nice like beef bourguignon. I can do really nice game birds and can make a nice paté. But like I was lacking the finesse, which which I really aspire to.
00:22:16
Speaker
and So my actually Phoebe, my partner found found the place. She was like, look let's go to Nottingham. It's got some cool restaurants, got a cool art scene. and Why don't you try this place? And I applied for two restaurants, Sat Bain's and Alcamilla.
00:22:31
Speaker
Sat never got back to me. And Alex took me in for a trial straight away. so I was like, let's go there. And it was the the best thing happened to my cooking career, probably.
00:22:42
Speaker
like guess I learned so much there. It was wicked. It's a very well-known restaurant. um I mean, I'm pretty sure I knew about it even before we moved to England. What was it like working there? I mean, was it a bit scary sort of stepping into a completely different environment? Because I imagine it was very different from where you were working before.
00:23:01
Speaker
And even though you're hungry for it, um was it was it a bit scary? It was scary. I was apprehensive, I think.
00:23:12
Speaker
um It was one those ones where it's like i i've I've always been a massive advocate of say yes and learn as you go. yeah right ah for better or worse, if someone gives you an opportunity and and you think you can do it or you have the tiniest of inkling that you can do it or even if you want it a tiny bit,
00:23:32
Speaker
take the opportunity and if if you want it enough then you'll learn how to do it and you'll be you'll be good enough to do it um so i took the opportunity and it was it yeah it was massively different it was crazy like i didn't even know i didn't know what emulsion was like i had no idea i remember like even on my my trial shift they were doing like chive they had like a chimichurri emulsion on I was like, what the hell is that? He was like, oh, it's just an emulsion. was like, what's an emulsion?
00:23:59
Speaker
was just like, ah you make an oil and then you do egg yolks. I didn't even know how to make a mayonnaise. You know i mean? And I was going into CDP as a one one star. And like, I didn't know what a brimoire was.
00:24:11
Speaker
and Like, can you brimoire these shallots? I was like, can you show me? Um, But like, I think I learned quite fast and you have to think on your feet and the environment was perfect for me there. Because I mean, Alex was and would like the first, like one of first weeks I was there.
00:24:27
Speaker
And I didn't I had the brim wire and he was like, your knife's not sharp and enough. He took his knife of this massive lightsaber thing. He like, use this. and i was just like, that's so
Craftsmanship and Culinary Techniques
00:24:35
Speaker
nice. You always hear like, chef said, don't touch my knife.
00:24:37
Speaker
Put his massive knife out and he showed me how to do it. Showed me a chopping board, showed me how to set it out and let me use his knife. And he put me on the right path for it.
00:24:48
Speaker
So, i mean, it was all, it was like a very good learning environment for me. but Alex and Liam, the guy that was sous chef there at the time, were so supportive of me, massively.
00:24:58
Speaker
And I think ah um like I might have made a few hiccups to start, but I didn't get fired. so
00:25:06
Speaker
I think it's, um, it's one of those very underrated things. And I think it's probably, hopefully a little bit in the past of having those restaurants where you get shamed for not knowing things, but like there are so many people that might not know exactly what you're talking about and all you have to do is show them.
00:25:23
Speaker
But I think hopefully it's a thing of the past where chefs shame you and just expect you to know everything because it's such a fun learning environment when you don't know something and then someone goes, oh okay, cool, let me show you.
00:25:35
Speaker
Like it just pushes you forward and gives you so much confidence to try different things and gives the chef confidence to speak up and say, ah don't know what that means rather than saying, yeah, I know what that is and then quickly running into the toilet and Googling it or something, you know.
00:25:49
Speaker
of ah did did I did do that I actually did that I'll at least say that I did that in my interview for um Dean Street they asked me to make a hollandaise didn't know to make a hollandaise oh no so I ran into the toilet ah Yeah, and um yeah, we did a half decent job. But i mean, like, yes, ah think there's the thing that I've always loved about a kitchen and like the thing I think is like super poignant with kicke cooking and cooking it and in big brigades, small brigades and anywhere on the line is and like there' there's nowhere way to hide with it.
00:26:23
Speaker
And I've always said this. I think it's like when people like what you love most about kitchens and cooking, it's like if you fuck up, it's like it is you. And it's not like, ah no, like so-and-so didn't do this.
00:26:35
Speaker
Like, yeah that's your section. That's your responsibility. if the plate goes out and it's not how it should be, there's a very, like, clear line of responsibility there.
00:26:46
Speaker
And I think that kind of transparency is is so refreshing because it means you have to be good. And like you say, if you say you know something and you don't, you get found out real quick.
00:26:56
Speaker
Like, so, so fast. So... people that do that and just kind of try blag it past the point of like getting in art i blagged it to get in but i mean when i was in if i didn't know something i'd ask and then you get shared it once and if you could do it great if you can't then i mean you learn real fast don't you um Yeah, it is very much sink or swim in a kitchen sometimes, isn't it? Yeah, completely. But I mean, like, it' yeah, I think we're past the time of people being shamed for not knowing, like, old school French terminology for things, 100%.
00:27:29
Speaker
Like, you just wouldn't get people, you wouldn't get, like... some food hungry 16 year old in a kitchen now if they didn't know kind of lot of shimwa was or something like that or if you took the piss out of them saying pass a spatula like it's just like they'll be like well I'm out it's so true though I don't know I guess it's changed a lot my god i get that from Vincent all the time I'm like uh can i have a spatula and he's like you mean a more reese yeah shut up stop it exactly like well I even don't say we chef like you we've got other times where you can get good good young people in if you take the piss out of them for that um yeah ah I think anyway i mean like I think yeah like you should always be able to ask in the kitchen
00:28:20
Speaker
like ask once. I mean, if you ask like four five times and then it becomes a problem, but like if you ask once and you get shown and you get taught through how to do something you don't know how to do, um i think that's like, that's incredible guidance. And I had that Alcamilla, like from, from the brigade, from the other guys, from Liam, from Alex. and Yeah. I had a really, really good support environment, which like let really let me flourish. Like I, like I say, I was just about a cook when I ended there.
00:28:51
Speaker
Could make a Hollandaise though. Yeah, exactly. We learned that early on. Yeah. What do you think your, your biggest takeaway from there was?
00:29:03
Speaker
Um, I think just precision, you know, like being sharp, like the necessity to be sharp. I mean, there's ah there's a few like soundbites that I've i always remembered. Most of them from my suit.
00:29:20
Speaker
One was like, make it look deliberate. So... However the plate looks, if it looks deliberate, you're into a winner. Like if things don't go out, like if you're doing six plates and one plate is off, it's not deliberate.
00:29:33
Speaker
you're doing six plates and the first one's off and you make them all off, then you've got six correct plates. You know what mean? make it look deliberate. um If you're not set, look set.
00:29:47
Speaker
that was a big one if you're if you're set look set i don't know about you but like you could you couldn't you couldn't prep during service like service you set you set your station you so mean fuck i remember like there a beetroot tartare i used to get a two liter lid sometimes if alex listens to this i hope he doesn't maybe just get a two liter lid and uh victor knocks tomato knife just a
00:30:15
Speaker
a little mini chopping board set up oh my god yeah if you notice that looks that and then yeah just like respect respect for the the craft ah thank i think i think it's massively underrated just having a respect for doing things right and like taking your time to do things and making sure everything that goes on the plate is supposed to be there and you don't kind of corrupt flavors for the sake of it like and It was a very cool... like The flavour profiles used at Alcamilla is right on my street. I don't know if it's as a result of me being there or I just had the right restaurant and I just picked the right place to work. but i mean
00:30:57
Speaker
It was a perfect mix of incredible British produce with a few funky flavours some really nice forage ingredients. and Then started messing around with some koji just about the time I left as well.
00:31:10
Speaker
But yeah, it's just respect for the craft, like knowing how much time goes into things like and and how like how much passion goes into things is really, really important.
00:31:24
Speaker
And I think if anyone that's worked in a high-end kitchen will will completely understand that.
Street Food and Entrepreneurial Challenges
00:31:30
Speaker
So that's kind of I guess that's really what you were looking for when you, when you applied for the job there, you were looking to kind of refine what you were doing and learn some new skills and techniques. But you said before that you really wanted to kind of step up to the next level in terms of refining things.
00:31:44
Speaker
But did you, do you feel like you got a lot of your style of cooking and flavors and stuff like that from there? Or did you already kind of have your own style from doing private gigs?
00:31:57
Speaker
dad I think I had the only my flavor profiles I liked, I think. think in terms of the techniques, I learned a lot. I mean, so to this day, the only kind of one star I've ever worked in.
00:32:10
Speaker
So yes, a lot of my kind of more refined techniques I learned from that kitchen or off the back of that kitchen. Like, yeah, I used to i used to cook for myself for the weekends, like try everything. And I started doing pop-ups in my in my second year of Alcumola. So I wanted to do stuff outside of that as well.
00:32:26
Speaker
Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I think ah think it's a bit of both, to be honest. Like, I learned how to use a lot of ingredients properly there, but I knew what I wanted to use before being there, if that makes sense.
00:32:42
Speaker
And like when ah when i found out you've like, when I found out about Katsubushi, I was like, this is nuts. Like, like I didn't even... like we We used to do... i mean, I got the idea of hash up from it, but we used to do a little hash brown And on top, it had a smoked cuttlefish katsumbuchi. And it was just like, yeah, it was so cool. So he used to get the cuttlefish, prep it down, smoke it like five times. So we we used just used to use like a deep gastro to smoke in with hay in the bottom. Everything smoked on hay. It was wicked.
00:33:13
Speaker
And then smoked it like five times, like hit it real hard and then dehydrate it and then shave And I remember when we got the katsumbuchi shaver through, were just like, this so cool.
00:33:25
Speaker
like that's so sick yeah it was wicked fun loved it like little things like that like i think i always knew i i wanted to use stuff like that i just didn't know it existed so when i had to make it happen yeah like when i found out existed was like this is wicked do you have a katsubishi shaver now i i actually don't and i should really get one i put it out into the universe stuff like
00:33:55
Speaker
it's gonna dry smoke and dry and shave stuff on a cool slicer yeah i made a chicken heart hash brown with katsubishi on the other day it was amazing think it's so cool like and that goes back to when i was saying i just love things that are made well like i like you ever watch how the guys actually smoke and take that stuff apart it's like so cool I think that's what it comes down to. It's just decide the the like relentless pursuit of perfection in a singular thing.
00:34:28
Speaker
like And you can find that in kitchens. You can find that with people that make produce, farmers, ah vegetable growers, winemakers. And it's just it's it's amazing to be part of that.
00:34:40
Speaker
Is there anything that you're pursuing for the perfection? That's a big question, that. Yeah, a lot. Hell of a lot. Probably too much. Probably too much. i mean, I'm one of those people that ah I've never been able to kind of sit still on one thing.
00:34:56
Speaker
Like, I would have... you know You know how some people just focus on one thing specifically. I've never been able to do that. I'm too eclectic. So, I'd like to say everything, but...
00:35:08
Speaker
can have Nothing specific right now. Yeah. I don't have an answer for you. No, that's not true. I saw on your Instagram that you were pursuing the perfect fried chicken.
00:35:20
Speaker
The perfect fried chicken. Yes. but It looked pretty good to be fair. It is good. is good. It is, unfortunately, meaning I'm eating a lot of fried chicken right now.
00:35:32
Speaker
What a shame. Yeah, I mean, like, it sounds great, but, like, it does tiring. It's a tough job. But, I mean, yeah, it's those... that I think I get obsessed with little things in cooking, like, bit by bit.
00:35:47
Speaker
Like, a few months ago, I got obsessed with making a... yeahve seen I don't know what it's called. It's Chinese cured pork belly, but to the point where it's like beef jerky.
00:36:03
Speaker
It's amazing. It's so cool. It's like incredible. It almost tastes tastes like almost sweet and smoky. and this crazy idea to make like a sauce with it. And I just spent so long trying to make this like sauce. Probably a couple of weeks.
00:36:18
Speaker
Every time after work, I was trying to make this bloody sauce. It was really good. I just get obsessed with little things. And then I just have to make... quite nice though. It's quite nice. Yeah, it's quite nice. But then I just had this mega sauce I was like, what do I put this with now?
00:36:32
Speaker
back And then I go and find it. No, but you can you can keep that sort of in the basket for when you have a dish that calls for it, I guess. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think I wanted to put it over a really nice piece of steamed cod.
00:36:45
Speaker
It's like just a super punchy sauce. I don't know. I kind of have little sprees of obsession, I think. So what was the magic recipe for your perfect fried chicken?
00:36:58
Speaker
I can't tell you that. Oh, sorry. this Can you WhatsApp to me later? I'll WhatsApp to you later, yeah. The secret seasoning, the secret seasoning. don't know. There's a lot of people doing crazy fried chicken right now.
00:37:12
Speaker
Fried chicken, i've always said, fried chicken is like pizza. Like, people get obsessed with it. So in the street food game, it's like... Pizza is it's like it's lack a religion, you know?
00:37:23
Speaker
People that make pizza love making pizza. Like, love it. Like, pizza chefs, they just love being pizza chefs. Like, people that make fried chicken, make proper fried chicken, like...
00:37:34
Speaker
making the best fried chicken really obsessed over tiny little things just like pastry it's it's like how long you ferment the dough for it's like the fried chicken equivalent it's like what your ratio is like tapioca flour rice flour corn flour like what tweaks you can do to make it more perfect um but yeah i mean like it's you can you can do thousands of iterations of it like over and over and over again and at the end of the day it's all bloody subjective isn't it I don't know. I could get on board with the whole like pursuit of perfect pizza.
00:38:06
Speaker
think I could be the the trial, the guinea pig for that. what's your what's your pizz What's your pizza vibe? You sourdough, New York slice? I don't know if I've ever had a proper New York slice, so I can't say, but I like a thin crust, wood fire sourdough pizza.
00:38:22
Speaker
think So you like the stiff or the floppy? very personal
00:38:30
Speaker
We might have to edit that out. Sorry, Mince. um In terms of pizza. What dough do you like? I kind of like it floppy.
00:38:42
Speaker
You like a floppy dough. I like to be able to like curl it up, like cut curl the pizza up in half and eat it like that. See, that's that's, that's blows my mind. I mean, like, have seen that dude?
00:38:55
Speaker
No, I mean like each of their own. Have seen my did that dude that puts ice on his, on his pizza? No. He's a New York guy, and to to make sure it's soggy in the middle, he puts ice on the top of it, like three parts way through the cook.
00:39:11
Speaker
just put ice in and put it back in the oven, so it keeps that like sogginess in the middle, because ah a Napoli-style pizza is supposed to be floppy, isn't it? yeah Yeah. It's supposed to be sloppy.
00:39:22
Speaker
I like it sloppy. Sloppy and floppy. I'm a stiff guy myself, to be honest.
00:39:32
Speaker
Oh god, everybody's happy to know, I'm sure. I'm sure. You're the better thing to do, right? Oh my god, right. Pizza though, pizza's of amazing. um Moving on from stiff and floppy, um what made you what made you open Hash Hut?
00:39:51
Speaker
Did you do that directly after you left Alcamilla? No, it wasn't straight after actually. We'd done like a pop-up in Nottingham, which was like good fun. It was just like a fun idea. I'd never seen anyone doing anything like it before. So I was like, I like the idea of being the first to do it.
00:40:10
Speaker
I was like, this is quite cool. and And then it might have been just a stupid idea. That's why no one else has done it. But who knows?
00:40:21
Speaker
But yeah, it was, um we actually started this, me and Phoebe started this thing called Palette Dining, um which was a fine dining tasting menu and then paired with art.
00:40:33
Speaker
So there was this concept that I would do a menu, Phoebe would paint ah abstract art around it and then we would invite people to sit down And each course would relate to a painting. And then you would kind of had this um have this bridge in art forms between the food and the art. And it would really kind of be a great icebreaker. And everyone would be able to talk about and what they thought the food was and what they thought which painting it related to. And if they could see the relevance in it, yada, yada. And it was really fun.
00:41:07
Speaker
and And we thought it was like a, actually, it was a great idea. it was a cracking idea. and So we did a few of them. And that was really, really good fun. And the idea originally, we were going to make that into a full restaurant.
00:41:21
Speaker
um So we probably got quite ahead of ourselves. We started looking at like 2,000 square foot restaurants around London. It was like huge. It was like during COVID, commercial rents, we just went way, way down because no one could get a central, no one could get tenancy in central London spaces. So landlords were just like,
00:41:44
Speaker
I'll give you like two years rent free and I'll give like all these incredible incentives to move in. And i me and Feef were like, that's pretty good. Little did we know the stresses that running a restaurant has and what like running a gallery entailed. We were just like, yeah, let's do it. let's see Let's see if this works.
00:42:03
Speaker
So we just started doing pop-ups and looking for spaces. And we had some amazing pop-ups, but it was a bit of a reality check. One day we sat down, we were just like, Never run a restaurant before, never run a gallery before.
00:42:17
Speaker
It's incredibly make hard to make money in either of those things. Like, and however fun it's going be, like, we also need to pay some bills. And it'd be quite nice to go on holiday every now and again as well.
00:42:28
Speaker
So we decided to kind of reincarnate Hashart, which had been on the back burner for a bit. is it So Hash Up was something that you had in your mind before the art pop-up idea came through?
00:42:44
Speaker
yeah Yeah, for sure. I mean, like we ah the first Hash Up we did was a drive-in cinema for Netflix. So it was this thing at this cafe called Albies. And after that...
00:42:56
Speaker
we got a call from one of Phoebe's cousins work for Netflix. And she was like, you guys do street food, don't you? And was like, yeah, I do street food. Like one minor street food event, about 30 covers. like I was like, yeah, do street food. Sweet. You know, like, like, do you want to do this drive in cinema for Netflix? Because we can't show, we can't like premiere films in the cinema. So we're trying to do them with drive in cinema. So i was like, yeah, sweet. Let's do that. Sounds great.
00:43:20
Speaker
um made all the hash browns up in our flat in nottingham and drove them down to london and when i went and got like boxes from bnq and it was like mine is two outside so i just stuck them in a van in the box i was like sweet fingers crossed it's like it's gonna be all right potato is gonna be fine yeah sure and then yeah drove them down to this driving cinema in london And yeah, it went down really, really well. We just, I did, um God, I made some crazy stuff. Like proper miso barbecue sauce, how we used to do it in the restaurant.
00:43:51
Speaker
I made like different emulsions, like stuff that people just, People would probably just prefer Heinz ketchup, you know. and I was doing all this kind of quite techy stuff.
00:44:02
Speaker
Anyway, the organizers loved it. And they asked us if we could do anything. They asked us, like, can you cook anything else? And I was like, what do you want me to cook? And they were like, we do these boxes for the premieres as well, because we probably not going to able to drive and cinema as much anymore.
00:44:18
Speaker
um They come in about boxes of like 100, 130 sort of boxes and you just drop them off around London like and they're usually tailored around a movie. Can you do that? And was like, yeah, I could do that.
00:44:33
Speaker
Sounds great. like What do you want of them? Tell me the film. Tell me the theme. And each box was supposed to be for two people. And the first film we did was a thing called Malcolm and Marie. And it was a black and white film, like really artsy. It was Zendaya's like first big break and had like a mac and cheese in. And I did, I did like a mirror glaze chocolate ganache with a little crispy bottom. It's mac and cheese with fresh truffle, fresh truffle, like vac sealed.
00:45:00
Speaker
And then did like a mushroom caramel, like a fermented mushroom caramel and this crazy little like put together mushroom dish to start with. And it was just absolute chaos.
00:45:12
Speaker
Like, chaos. Like, I rented like two commercial fridges to go up into our flat. and And so it was 130 boxes for two people. Each box was 260 covers I was making from my flat to drive down to London.
00:45:26
Speaker
Oh. my god I was just like, yeah, sure, we could do that. So we started doing these boxes and we just became like a a weird like delivery service for Netflix premieres to deliver influencers and actors and stuff like that.
00:45:39
Speaker
Awesome. So that was like the in that was like the interlude between... When Hashout started and then it turned into that for a little bit, just like doing box deliveries, which was like nuts because we used to make it in Nottingham, drive it down to London. used to get like five or six mates like ready to go in London just to unload all the boxes at the bottom of the andi give everyone all their addresses to go to and then track them on an app.
00:46:02
Speaker
Like goes it was, was chaos, but like we turned out to be quite good at it. It was like Phoebe's organization mainly. And that was like a weird interlude that allowed us to move down to London for the money we made with that.
00:46:14
Speaker
Move down to London, try open pallet. And then off the back of that start hash up. It was like, it was a crazy time for everyone, wasn't it? Everyone was doing weird shit. Everyone was doing weird shit. did you You enjoyed it, though?
00:46:28
Speaker
yeah. It sounds stressful. It was super stressful. It was, like, so stressful. Like, first the first one... I suppose it got less stressful after the first one. The first one, though, it's like... We made sure they were really good.
00:46:42
Speaker
That's the thing. like They were all really, really good because I had that... that kind of pride around doing it. Like they weren't just kind of chucked together. Like we spend a lot of time curating what was in them. Got like, like ah I got fresh black Italian truffles, like imported. And you know how hard it was to import stuff in COVID. Like.
00:47:00
Speaker
That's true actually. Yeah, like a whole truffle, like an eight gram truffle in every box. And, yeah, it's just, we can grossly underestimate the time it took to pack 130 boxes.
00:47:11
Speaker
So, like, one in the morning, we've got, like, pizza, and we were kind of sitting back with a beer, like, ah we've just got some ganache tamiraglaze, you know, and then we'll pack the boxes. Like, six in the morning, we're still just like...
00:47:23
Speaker
frantically trying to load a van yeah like we learned we learned fast and it was really really fun and that i think that kind of it gave me a bit of kind of passion for the entrepreneurial spirit after that it was like this is cool you know this is fun this kind of haphazard madness and then getting told you've done a good job is really weird it's really fun so it's good enough The madness is really fun though. Like I, I didn't do anything nearly to that scale, but we did our first kind of delivery drop for new year's Eve and it was three course meal kind of thing.
00:47:59
Speaker
And in your head, you're like, Oh, it's not that many people. I think maybe we had 50 people that ordered in the end. So we had the list of everyone and we we'd prepped everything, but like the packaging of everything, packing everything into their own individual little containers, making sure that each bag has the right amount of everything in it, packing it in. And oh my God, having like the list of the delivery drops. Vincent must spend an hour on the delivery drops to be like, okay, so working out on Google Maps to be, i go here and then I go here and then I go here. And like, it's almost like a little game following. It's so much. There's an app you can get for that though.
00:48:36
Speaker
Is there? Yeah. And it tell it tells you, it programs your route so you can, it does it perfectly. It's what like the Amazon drivers use. Really? I'll have to look into that because I'll probably do the dessert boxes again.
00:48:49
Speaker
Mate, 100%. But like, you know, like 50 people doing that is like a lot. and It's a lot of stuff to pack, isn't it? It's so much to pack. It's so much. And then like you pack it and you you know how much the people have paid for it and then all of their meal for, don't know, three of them packs up into ah bag and you're like... Yikes.
00:49:10
Speaker
Because, you know, like when you go and do private dining, you've got crates and crates of stuff. You've got massive fridge boxes to take things in. And it's so much stuff. And then for a three-course meal, you just pack up into a brown paper bag and you're like, yeah we have we got everything?
00:49:25
Speaker
Have we found that? It's very stressful. I mean, I kind of get, sometimes I do, so if I'm doing like a fine dining private job for like 10 people, sometimes I'll literally just have like one thermobox and I'll be looking i'm like, am I forgetting something here? Honestly.
00:49:42
Speaker
Like, ive there's got to be something that's not in this box. You know, most time it's fine, but... Most of the time, yeah. I mean, we're pretty good now. We've been doing it for a year solidly. So we're pretty good in saying that in December.
00:49:57
Speaker
We, oh my God, i don't know if I should say this, but. Exposure. Exposure. In December, we we were in such a mad
Collaborations and Industry Insights
00:50:06
Speaker
rush. Like dis December was the busiest month for us. It was amazing, but it was so, so busy.
00:50:11
Speaker
We packed up the car. We packed all the plates, all the small equipment and everything like that. The freezer bag was in there to keep the ice cream frozen. We started driving. We got pretty far. We got like 20 minutes away and it was a 45 minute drive to where we needed to be.
00:50:25
Speaker
And we were kind of, we we played this little game where we go through and we're like, oh, did you pack this? Did you pack this? We check everything before we go, but we kind of double check as we're driving. It's the worst game ever. Cause you're always just like, oh my God, did I pack it?
00:50:37
Speaker
And then Vincent asked me, did you pack something? and I'm like, yeah, it's in the fridge box. And then he kind of just turns his head and looks back on the backseat of the car and he's like, where's the fridge box?
00:50:49
Speaker
no I thought he was pulling my leg. I was like, no, no, no, no. This cannot be happening. So, yeah, we forgot the fridge box at home and we had to go back home and get it.
00:51:01
Speaker
And it was all fine? It was all fine, yeah. I mean, we we always leave a little bit early, but still that heart-sing moment of being like, if there's one thing you've forgotten, you can kind of like work around it, but like the whole fridge box? Yeah, that was game over, there yeah. Yeah.
00:51:16
Speaker
Definitely game over. We're just having pedgehog dessert tonight. my god. You're just having ice cream and whatever else is in the frozen bag. yes but yeah Yeah, those little things, kind of it it makes you kind of question your sanity, doesn't it?
00:51:31
Speaker
Honestly, so funny. But do you still do private dining then? I do every now and again, yeah. I like to do it. It kind of keeps it keeps me engaged like that with that level of cooking, which I love.
00:51:47
Speaker
And I still do a couple of pop-ups here and there. like I've got a couple coming up this year, which will be really good fun. and And I had a couple last year, which which kind of like I pick and choose. And most of my time is spent doing the hash art and street food. But I think I need to do it to keep my sanity there.
00:52:05
Speaker
Because ah like i love cooking like good food for people. And obviously I do that with street food and with Hash Art, but i like the intricacy of the things like the fine dining side. So yeah, i will I still do pop-ups every now and again.
00:52:23
Speaker
Yeah, I guess that it must be quite nice um to not feel, i don't mean this in a rude way at all, but to not feel pigeonholed by having Hash Hut. Because I imagine that, yeah, it could potentially, like, you're James the Hash Hut guy, who's got an amazing street food vendor.
00:52:40
Speaker
Yeah. But like, I know that obviously you're still passionate about um other aspects of the industry as well. um So does private dining and pop ups and stuff like that, let you get that side of it out?
00:52:54
Speaker
Yeah, of course. yeah I mean, it's like, yeah, you're you're very right. I'm like me and Thieves, we've got the hash brown company. It's like, I'm a hash brown guy. So it's like, ah need I need the outlet. um And now we've got the proper kitchen at Spittalfields. I'm doing once a month, I'm doing slightly more kind of techie dishes there, which would be good fun. But yeah, like pop-ups also like collaborating in the industry is really cool, especially like the scene in London.
00:53:19
Speaker
Like there's some amazing people and amazing chefs and Not all of them have restaurants and are settled down that are so keen to collab and there's some wicked spaces to get into. So it's something I'm really passionate about doing more this year and kind of focusing on collaborations and pop-ups, which I've had my eye on for a while and and people that I can kind of really get on with and our food stars connect.
00:53:43
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, last year it was it was a lot of fun to do it. And I had some great events. Like, and one of the coolest restaurants I've ever been to, place called The Sea the Sea, um literally opposite where I live in Hagerstown, unfortunately shut down now. Where is it?
00:54:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's devastating. They've got a place in Chelsea as well, a little counter kind of fishmonger place. But I mean, like, this it was so, so cool. Like, honestly, it was sickeningly cool. Like, a dry-aged fish place on the front and then a wholesale fishmonger as well. A guy called Alex that owns it, and it's just like...
00:54:18
Speaker
They've got their own boats and the like the quality of the fish and the passion behind everything they do. It's absolutely amazing. And it was, i think, a 14-seat counter restaurant, all just in this essentially like a fishmonger, but it was like a fine dining.
00:54:36
Speaker
I can't describe it. like it's It's wicked like and it's really sad. It's gone, but yeah, let me cook in some cool places and stuff like that. I think pop-ups are, well, collaborations where, you know, sort of chefs get invited to other people's restaurants. It's definitely becoming, or maybe it always was when I was just off trend, but I've seen it happening more and more often now, more sort of your everyday restaurants, still nice restaurants, even in Bristol.
00:55:00
Speaker
They're doing like a once a month kind of collab with other chefs. I think it's a really sort of cool way to let people who potentially work for another restaurant but don't ever get to do their own food. They get to have a little bit of creative expression.
00:55:14
Speaker
and I think the public are really kind of calling for it now, which is really interesting. Yeah. I mean, I think, like, social media is a huge player in that game because, I mean, there's so many people which...
00:55:26
Speaker
have an incredible talent and and kind of had the outlet through social media, but don't have a location to do it with. And they can bring crowds. And there's something that restaurant will never say no to is bums on seats, you know?
00:55:40
Speaker
So, I mean, if if there's a place that has a cool space and there's a creator or a chef, which wants to put an event on there and they can sell alcohol and they can, they can sell food from a purely commercial aspect, that makes sense. But it also makes sense to collaborate in the industry, like you say, because It's an amazing thing to do for restaurants and chefs, and but it's also an amazing thing to do for customers to be able to experience that.
00:56:04
Speaker
And like in a world where everything is kind of, everyone wants the next best thing, isn't it? It's so hard to stand out for customers to be able to experience something unique is really cool.
00:56:15
Speaker
like and the collaboration between someone that doesn't have a platform like a chef who doesn't have a restaurant and the restaurant was willing to lend that space that's really special um so yeah big up to any any restaurants actually doing that because it's it's a very very cool thing to give someone an opportunity I know it's becoming really popular in Bristol, which I think is really exciting to see. There are quite a few restaurants sort of mid last year that I really noticed sort of putting out there on their socials saying they want to do a once a month pop-up and they're looking for chefs to come and do it. So maybe you should come to Bristol and do a pop-up there.
00:56:48
Speaker
Yeah, was not ruling it out. I'm not ruling it out. Maybe, let's do it. I'm keen. Sounded like a solid maybe. Yeah. Yeah. the Yes, I'll do Bristol, I'm coming.
00:56:59
Speaker
I don't know if sell seats. don't if one of those chefs that put bums on seats, but maybe will be soon. Who knows? You're going to be the kick-em-in-soy man soon. Hash-hot kick-em-in-soy man.
00:57:11
Speaker
Hash browns and soy sauce. It's my bad. And crispy chilli. And crispy chilli oil, yeah. It's pretty good. Do you have a high tolerance to spice? I saw you eating spicy stuff on Instagram the other day.
00:57:24
Speaker
um I think I do. but then um I sweat a lot when i eat spice, I can't lie. like i i look like I'm having an awful time, ah but I'm genuinely loving it.
00:57:40
Speaker
Right. ah nerves that I I know if it's like... I don't know. I love to be in like pain through spice.
00:57:50
Speaker
I know what other like clear where I can put it. don't know how else I can describe that. It's just a great feeling isn't it? Maybe it's a weird kink I have.
00:58:02
Speaker
like nice
00:58:05
Speaker
What has it been like running Hash Hut? I imagine it's incredibly busy. you do You do things like Glastonbury Festival and stuff don't you? We've not done Glastonbury yet. We've applied for it this year.
00:58:17
Speaker
have you? Yeah, but we were we didn't think we were kind of ready to do to do it last year, so we didn't apply. a crazy festival to operate at. I mean, it's like you're only allowed eight or nine team members.
00:58:32
Speaker
You have to use certain suppliers. The site is like a city. Yeah, I mean, the logistics is mad, but we've applied this year, so fingers crossed.
00:58:42
Speaker
ah But yeah, I mean, it's like, it's fun. It's crazy. ah It's nuts. Like anyone that's operated food vendors in festivals know it's like, you always say you're not just a cook, you're a mechanic, you're a driver, you're a plumber, you know you're a fire marshal.
00:58:58
Speaker
Like you gotta be bloody everything. Cause things always go wrong and nothing is ever streamlined. Whatever organizers tell you, like there's always problems, but I mean, that's, that's what makes it such a fun space to be in.
00:59:09
Speaker
Yeah. Saying that, like, there are a sense of humour failures. like It's easy to easy to, like, lose your nerves sometimes. But, yeah, it's wicked. It's really, really good fun being in that scene.
00:59:24
Speaker
Have you ever lost your nerve doing it? Never. Never, never.
00:59:31
Speaker
No, I never. um There's been a few, like massively. ah The thing is, i think it's something i I learned from just services as well, being in kitchens. It's like whatever's happening,
00:59:44
Speaker
just you know that it will come to an end. but This sounds like quite like a doomsday way of thinking about it, but and if you're ever in like ah if you're ever like balls to the wall in like a really sticky situation and you just do everything you could do in that second, that will, it will finish.
01:00:01
Speaker
Yeah. know Whether that's a tough service, if you're like deep in the weeds, if you're going down like a sack of shit in service, like, or if you've got like half a basket going and you need six fryers to operate, like,
01:00:13
Speaker
that you just do what you can in that moment and then it will eventually finish. but It will finish. And at the end of that, for better or worse, be able to sit back with a coffee or a beer or a cup of tea and say, bloody hell, that was tough.
01:00:25
Speaker
But here we are. Um, And if you could do that at the end of any any sort of experience like that and everyone could still be friends, then that's huge. so It is true, though. It is true. it Sometimes I guess it's really hard to get in that mindset when you're really in the weeds.
01:00:43
Speaker
But it is very true. Like, it always comes to an end. You've just got to get through it. And I think, like... Maybe it comes with a little bit of maturity. I don't know. But there's never been a time in the last couple of years where I'm like, I'm not going to make it.
MasterChef Experience and Personal Growth
01:00:57
Speaker
Like if you don't have enough of something prepped or if you're absolutely slammed in service, like, or even just getting ready for private dining and, you know, we're kind of running it to the wire. There's never been a point in my head where I'm like, we're not going to make it.
01:01:10
Speaker
Yeah. you know You get it done. yeah you find another gear and then i get really mad at myself because i'm just like oh my god if i went this fast the whole time i wouldn't be in the shit in the first place it get really upset no i completely feel that i know you're just like why didn't i do this the whole time but i mean like that's what is it was it richard branson said you give give yourself five days to tidy your room you'll tidy in five days give yourself five hours you'll tidy in five hours like you the the rules are that you'll always go down to the what rock with the wire like them just be the rules then be the rules like you'll use every second however much time you have that's just the snowball i don't make the rules go and play by them
01:01:52
Speaker
It is true though, but there are some people are really sort of really amazing at time management and they say to themselves, I'm just, I need to do it. I'm going to do it. But I'm definitely the kind of person that I just leave it to the last minute for things that I really shouldn't. I probably, it's probably a bad character trait. I need to get rid of that.
01:02:10
Speaker
2025. Get this podcast.
01:02:13
Speaker
yeah get off this phone
01:02:21
Speaker
um I guess we can't kind of go much further without mentioning Masterchef. Yes. How, why, why did you, why did you apply? How did you find it Why I apply? I applied, um like, same reason I went into Alcumella, I suppose, to kind of prove prove I could and to myself to kind of actually cook against some hot shit chefs and see how far I could get. Also, like, I'm very, like, I'm very, like, trying, if you say you can do something, try try your best to prove it. and
01:02:57
Speaker
So I've been sitting there for a couple of years being like, I can't bloody do Okay.
01:03:03
Speaker
So I was like, let's go try and do it. So yeah, I mean, a bit of fun ah a bit of fun, really, but also to to really prove to myself that i could still cook at that level and that my style wasn't something that I just liked, that could actually stand up to critique from from other industry, like titans, essentially, like some huge names in the industry.
01:03:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was it was wicked. I loved it. It was a lot of fun. It was kind of like a take every second as it comes sort of experience.
01:03:34
Speaker
Like, I know if it was the same for you. and I'm not going to say I found it fun in the moment. I find the memory of it fun and I find looking back on it fun.
01:03:45
Speaker
um But no, I was extremely stressed. I did not find it fun in the moment. Type two fun. type Type two fun when you find it fun after. Yeah. Yeah. Not too fun.
01:03:56
Speaker
That's it. It's weird because we we were like bang in the middle of our second festival season. So it was actually like a bit of a respite.
01:04:07
Speaker
I'm not even going to lie. I left and I went into that studio. You gave your phone into your little box. was like no one's contacting me gotta cook like three dishes you know let's go it's nothing yeah sick it was great um but i mean like the flip side of that is I was kind of trying to practice the dishes in the middle of festival season so it's like I would leave and I'd get another dish to practice and i'd have and then I'd have to go across the country and stay in a tent for like three, four days and cook hash browns for thousands of people. And then also be trying to keep the the brain whirring with the MasterChef stuff. And it was like, it was ah it was a real challenge for me to um kind of play both play both sides there, like trying to fine dining and think about new dishes and theyre also trying to like organize festivals
01:05:01
Speaker
uh it was a real pain but i mean like said it allowed me to when i got into that studio i didn't really feel stressed because the stress was outside that's interesting that's really interesting which is quite nice i mean like there's no one being able to call me tell me like your fryer's broken like fantastic eho's on the way and like the pork's not arrived or something you know what mean like no one's no one could bother me you put your phone away and i was like i know what i need to cook i think i can cook in the time like let's go and it was wicked i loved it did you have someone to deal with all of the the fire problems and stuff like that when you were there
01:05:46
Speaker
Yeah, pbe Phoebe was huge, like massive. Like she took on a massive amount that season, and like more than more than she should. Like she was amazing. and And then we had Struan as well, our old operations guy.
01:05:59
Speaker
He took on a lot as well. But yeah, Phoebe mainly. i mean, it was quite mad if I'd got through to the final, then we had like a doubleheader event. which we literally had no one to run try then i was just kind of worried. I was like, fuck, this would be really cool to get through, but at the same time, like this could genuinely me.
01:06:21
Speaker
What would you have done?
01:06:24
Speaker
it's one those ones where like we would have made it work somehow but I mean I would have been in the studio without phone so it wouldn't have been me ah yeah no I mean it's yeah it was um it was crazy ah I loved it but yeah Phoebe was Phoebe was amazing um Struam was great as well got got everything kind of done when I was when I was inside when I was sounds like I was in prison almost almost When I was in inside, when I was locked up with the gang, you know.
01:06:55
Speaker
But still, I imagine that that would have been really hard to juggle. I mean, i already found it very hard juggling trying to be in my first head chef role for a decent sized restaurant and do that at the same time. Like now, after running my own very, very small business, I couldn't imagine trying to do the two things. And and what you were doing, that was um like a very large scale. You're doing quite big festivals and having to organize it all and stuff like that. It must have been hard to switch off.
01:07:22
Speaker
I knew you had to because you didn't have your phone, but even still. yeah I think it's like very it's one those ones where it's like yeah and I feel sometimes where you're in a situation if you can't change anything don't worry about it so it's like if I if I went in there and as soon as I step foot in the studio I'm not changing what's going on outside the studio like as soon as I step foot in the kitchen and my phone's somewhere else like I'm not I'm not I can't do anything anything else apart from what I'm currently doing, you know, put, put a hundred percent of effort into your sphere of influence.
01:07:58
Speaker
It's like, it's bit soundbite from a book. whereas It's like, you've got your sphere of influence. And if you, if you, if you put all your effort into controlling your sphere of influence and that's all you can do.
01:08:10
Speaker
And then the more you control, the bigger your sphere of influence becomes. So it's like, if you step into a room and like I'll go into the studio and that my entire sphere of influence is what's going on in that kitchen. and then that's all I can be asked to do.
01:08:23
Speaker
and And before that, as long as I've controlled the controllables before walking in, I i e like get the team members sorted, make sure the orders are done, get the prep boxed off.
01:08:34
Speaker
um and There's literally nothing else you can do. Then it's just trusting people, having the right people around you. And luckily enough, I did. I really like that. That's real words of wisdom, I'm going to say.
01:08:47
Speaker
I'm not going to promise that I can live by them because I'm just not built that way. but Wisdom might be a stretch. It's all right. I think you stole it from someone. so Yeah, exactly. It might have been wisdom where it first came from. was Did you grow up watching MasterChef?
01:09:04
Speaker
Oh, I did, actually. um i loved it. Masterchef was class. used to sit there being like, oh, that looks a bit shit.
01:09:16
Speaker
No, i ah I did. I grew up watching the professionals. and and never really like got into the amateur one, to be honest. I don't know why. like i just thought, ah but I don't know, it just wasn't really my bag. like The Masterchef, the professionals used to love watching.
01:09:30
Speaker
Yeah. like took a lot of inspiration from some of the guys in there. Like Dan was an amazing chef, that Charlie as well. so There's some wicked, wicked chefs that's come out of that.
01:09:42
Speaker
ah Guys that still follow now and chat to every now and again, and who've who've been really, really fantastic. and But like Great British Menu was was kind of the other one that i watched loads of.
01:09:54
Speaker
Like those those two, MasterChef Professionals and Great British Menu were the two cooking programs. And they really went into like Hell's Kitchen and that lot. but Never in my bag. it wasn't really for me.
01:10:06
Speaker
was Was going on MasterChef what you had the expectation of it to be?
01:10:14
Speaker
I don't know. That's a funny question. i never Did you have any expectations? Yeah, I mean, that's just I've never really genuinely thought about that. That's bad.
01:10:31
Speaker
I don't think I did. you know I think I went in with a bit of a blank sheet, like kind of not entirely knowing what was going to come of it and what it was going to be like. I knew that If I didn't mess up the first round, i was to be Happy Bunny.
01:10:46
Speaker
And that was fine. and But I don't think I expected it to be kind of so bonding, such a bonding experience. And I don't think I expected it to kind of bear so much fruit in terms of my career and and stuff I can do now. But it it was just kind of like ah I didn't really think about what it might be.
01:11:07
Speaker
I just was excited to be doing it. That's a good way to be. Yeah. I guess you can't have any unmet expectations then or false expectations.
01:11:19
Speaker
I thought it would have been really cool. Like obviously everyone that enters thinks, oh, what if I went there? You know, like otherwise I'd, and I always thought like, oh what if I did win it?
01:11:31
Speaker
That kind of always strikes your mind, I think. um And that was obviously fun to think about that. But I mean, ah I never really thought about what the process was going to be like. Like I thought about dishes I might cook. And then obviously you obviously have the odd nightmare of people hating your food. And you know, um not I'm sure, do you have any MasterChef nightmares like not getting your food up on time and stuff?
01:11:52
Speaker
um There were a couple where i cut it quite close down to the wire. it was in like actual nightmares. Oh, actual nightmares. yeah i um I had dreams slash nightmares probably for, I don't know, maybe like three or four months afterwards about my final dish, about my final dessert and it not coming out.
01:12:18
Speaker
And I used to in my dream... think that I was dreaming when it was happening and that when I woke up I would still have my chance to do the final cook again it sounds so sad I'm really sorry you had to just relive it shit that sucks yeah it was kind of like a it wasn't like one of those obsessive reoccurring dreams but definitely doesn't sound like it at huh doesn't sound like it at all no no no it's not very vivid and burnt into my mind it's not affected you in any way I don't sit in the corner and rock and cry about it. no No, no, no. I'm definitely over it now. But I think in my head, it was obviously like a, I don't know, I guess I kind of wanted to do over into a bit like you prove that I could do it. And then it wasn't that wasn't a reflection of who I was as a chef.
01:13:05
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. No, I completely get that. i mean, I think if you do something, if something's on your mind that much, you're going to you're going to think about it all the time, aren't you? Did you have dreams?
01:13:17
Speaker
Oh yeah, I had some crazy dreams. like I think I had a dream that like I had some weird dreams about some to the critics I think was the weirdest one. that like I went in and like my oven wasn't on I think or something wasn't set yeah but obviously like mixed in with loads of other muddled stuff it was never like clear cut yeah it was like and then I walked out to like a festival or something like that so it was like some weird stuff but yeah I had some I had MasterChef streams for sure yeah It's very intense experience, I guess. I mean, i know that kind of gets thrown around a lot, but I don't really know how else to describe it. You know, we're we're all there. Nobody has their phones. And it didn't feel as like kind of cutthroat competitive as I thought it would. And I guess what I mean by that is everyone was kind of in there to do their own thing. And everyone had already planned what dishes they wanted to do if it was a pre-planned thing. And
01:14:12
Speaker
everyone was sharing and talking about what they were doing and it was very much a little for the most part a bit of a community I guess yeah 100% think like I don't know if you felt this for the earlier rounds as well people were quite guarded on what they were making and then when you got through the kind like this the quarters and then the final 12 and then the final eight and whatnot it's like the further you get the more transparent people are Because people in the first round, people like can I say anything?
01:14:39
Speaker
By the end of everyone's like, yeah, I'm doing this and this how you make it. And like, look my recipe. And, you know, it's fine because everyone's just like, everyone realizes that everyone, everyone's just got their own finger going on, you know?
01:14:51
Speaker
Yeah, I think it was even to the point where I don't remember exactly what we we're talking about. I think we're talking about an ice cream or something like that. And I'm pretty sure it was Charlie. He said to me, oh, if you want to do an ice cream, I'd recommend putting a bit of gelatin into it just because it's going help it hold after you scoop and stuff. i was like, oh, thanks.
01:15:08
Speaker
That's a great idea. Yeah. But it was a little bit like that, you know, like it was like, I'm going to do it anyway. So, you know, we just kind of like shared stuff like that. But I think I was one of those weird ones that from the start, I was like, so this is what I'm doing. and This is why I'm doing it.
01:15:22
Speaker
Everyone was looking at me like I was a little bit of an idiot. Shut up. Why are you sharing these things? We're not allowed to speak like that. We're not allowed speak to each other. There were definitely some people that were playing a little bit of a game, I think.
01:15:33
Speaker
um But to be fair, I'm just, I'm too lazy to play the game. I can't keep up with it and I don't want to. so it was just never part of my shtick. Yeah, fair enough. I don't think it was part of mine either.
01:15:45
Speaker
Someone to know what cooking, I was like, power to you, like, try and do it, sure. like And if you can do it better than I can from me just telling you what i'm doing, then you probably deserve to be here more than I did. I've been practicing this, so...
01:15:59
Speaker
i am I heard that there are a couple of people, ah can't even remember who, but some of them would come in and they would say, ah haven't had a chance to practice this dish yet. I'm like, I could not do that. I knew like every single dish needed to be time trialed at least once.
01:16:14
Speaker
Really? I had to. Yeah. Did you not? i my last dishes weren't time trialed perfectly. yeah But yeah, I mean, my my critics dish, I did so many times, like, times because that was a push. Like, my critics dish was a real, real push. and And then obviously, like, my signatures to start with, that was time trialed loads.
01:16:40
Speaker
I mean, like, if you're not time trial on the first dish you do, then, like, you're not really serious, are you? Like, yeah I think if you're not going in all guns blazing, then but I think I don't like the further I got and the you know how they told you ah in like four rounds time you're gonna have to do this i was like wow think about that if I get there me too well you weren't like because I know that like I know that like Charlie I think had like everything boxed off that he wanted to do for like the entire thing up to like finals that's very Charlie yeah I know a couple of people probably did that as well but for me like um
01:17:17
Speaker
Yeah, like a cup, like the chef's table one, I was, when I had to do the, cause I still, even though i didn't cook I still had to um do the, I still did the thing for it until was the next round.
01:17:29
Speaker
And I was like, shit, I should probably have a dish in mind for this.
01:17:34
Speaker
I'm kind of relieved to hear you say that. Cause I feel like some people, people like Charlie, people like real diehard MasterChef fans and watch it growing up and it's a part of their DNA as a chef.
01:17:45
Speaker
they they sort of dream about getting to chef's table and stuff like that. Me, I mean, when I say I practiced all of my dishes, I did practice a lot of my dishes, but it was within that week of creating them, sending off the recipes.
01:17:57
Speaker
I did not think about the next round, even if we knew three rounds in advance, what was coming up, I did not think about it. Cause I was just like, you need to put all of your focus, all of your minimal amount of focus that you have onto this. Into the next one, yeah.
01:18:11
Speaker
Because I just, didn't want to, i don't know, I didn't want to like shoot myself in the foot by not focusing on the one that i needed to get through to to get to the next one. So I just, yeah, I didn't even think about it.
01:18:23
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's completely like there's no point and you having a hot shit final dish if you if you don't get through the quarters, is there? Like, that's kind of what I thought as well. I mean, like I obviously had ideas, and but it's not like I was practicing them before. I was like you. i was like the next the next dish is the one i'm going to practice.
01:18:41
Speaker
I mean, like everything I want to put on a plate, I know I can cook. um I think the one thing I just had absolutely no idea I could cook was ah the peppercorn ketchup I made for the salt pepper dish. ah so ah I must have tried that like 20 times. like you Oh, really?
01:18:55
Speaker
Yeah, it was such a hard thing to get right. And um I finally got right. I was so happy with it. And they loved it was wicked. um actually need to pull out the recipe for it. I've not made it since. I just had this obsession with making a pepper ketchup.
01:19:09
Speaker
And it was so cool. But just like, ah put it on the menu. And I was like, oh do you how would you do that? like how would that work like i tried like loads of iterations like with green peppercorns and red peppercorns then like brine peppercorns and was just like i the first one i did i was like it's not possible like to get like silky smooth yeah cho you know not without using like shit loads of xanthan or something like that um but yeah like finally that's that's probably the one thing i put on a menu which i didn't know how to cook before
01:19:44
Speaker
I think I put guinea fowl on my final dish and I never cooked guinea fowl before. Really? That's a reasonable one. I mean, obviously I ordered some in and I practiced with it, but yeah, it was because when we went to Tom Shepard's restaurant, we had the choice of guinea fowl or scallops and we all chose scallops because I didn't know how to cook guinea fowl. why yeah I'd never, I've never used it before. I don't even know if we get it in Australia, but yeah, I've never used it before.
01:20:10
Speaker
And um yeah, it was just like, God, I was really upset with myself for not trying something new. I was like, fuck it, I'm going to put it on the final dish. Yeah, it's completely fair enough. when I realised I had to do it, was like, shit.
01:20:25
Speaker
Yeah, love that could be tough, yeah. Yeah, it's good point. were all doing scallops, didn't we? Yeah. Maybe I should done guinea fowl.
01:20:34
Speaker
I've cooked so much guinea fowl now I'm a little bit obsessed with it. so yeah no There you go. and everything Everything happens for a reason.
01:20:43
Speaker
Do you think you would ever go back into restaurants again or do you like being your own boss and doing street food more than that?
Future Plans and Culinary Innovations
01:20:52
Speaker
I would stage 100%. hundred percent Like I would 100% stage. There's a few restaurants i I would love to do a couple of weeks at.
01:21:01
Speaker
Would I ever work in a restaurant again? Like, unless it was my own? No. um just... I don't know. just... No, I wouldn't for a number of reasons, but I i i love the pursuit of like knowledge and the pursuit of perfection in the craft. So like as soon as I've got things, kind of all my ducks in a row and everything's running properly how I want, ah definite I'll go to it ah go do stages at restaurants 100%.
01:21:27
Speaker
It's a few that I really, really want to go to. So yeah, I'm excited to do that, but I would i would never work and in a restaurant that's not my own now, I think. Not like full time.
01:21:39
Speaker
Where do you want to start? What are your top three places? Top three places?
01:21:45
Speaker
um So, Yinsher, Gareth Ward's place, 100%. and After that, there's this amazing place called Rogues in London. I just absolutely love what they'll do. um I know the guys there as well. I'd love to do like a few days there.
01:22:02
Speaker
just as the kitchen looks mega fun um and then my third one I don't know to be honest probably somewhere in Copenhagen just get that crazy scandy food going or or just find like an incredible two-star in Japan one star two star in Japan like and I've not really thought about the where I'll go around the world but I'd just love to go to work with Gareth Ward for one 100% hundred percent then I'd love to do like fine dining Asia.
01:22:35
Speaker
but i think it would be amazing. and It would be so cool. It's such an incredible little bubble that we live in, isn't it? Where we can, you know, obviously not everybody gets the stash that they want, but to a degree you can kind of go and work anywhere in the world. You don't need to speak the same language or anything like that. You can kind of make your own path through it. and I think that's such an amazing part of our culture.
01:22:57
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. 100%. I mean, like, I know, mean, later on, I'm going come back, going to mess you and be like, I said completely the wrong thing for that stage thing. But yeah, I mean, like, I completely agree. Like, you can, ah will if you're, you can, like, pick herbs good enough, you know, you can go and travel somewhere and learn amazing things with amazing people. Yeah.
01:23:20
Speaker
it's it's It's a privilege to be able to do that. I think it's is's something that people don't, when they get into the industry, necessarily understand as a part of it. And I think that's you only get that once you want to push yourself and understand that it's possible to do stuff like that.
01:23:38
Speaker
Yeah, i I think that maybe people don't realize how accessible and how possible it is. You know, like I when I hear and meet chefs that have only ever worked in the country that they were born in, ah kind of I mean, look, it's a choice of whether they want to go or not. That's totally up to them. But part of me feels like you just just go try it once you know just go to it go to a stage in a different country to see how accessible and how much fun and eye-opening it is it's just I couldn't recommend it highly enough it's so much fun completely mean you've done it haven't you you've like come halfway across the world to work I mean like yeah you've like fully done I think probably the craziest place was Sweden that was the most amazing place to live and to work where did you work there
01:24:26
Speaker
I worked in a one-star restaurant called Opera Shellin. um It was the restaurant attached to the Opera House in Stockholm. It was That's nuts. So amazing. Yeah. That's so cool.
01:24:37
Speaker
See, I like to do stuff like that, like 100%. You know, there's this wicked restaurant called School I ate at last time i was in Bali. And like, I don't know if they've got Michelin guide there. I don't know. But like it should have a star 100%.
01:24:51
Speaker
Like some of the best dishes I ate last year. Love to go there. Everything like smoked and cooked over fire. ah subscribe yeah Like bang on the beach. Like right next to the surf break. It's like incredible cocktails.
01:25:04
Speaker
like Like places like that. Not even like mad well-known like institutions. But like just cool places that teach you things that you wouldn't learn um like core. You know what mean?
01:25:15
Speaker
I'm totally about that. Totally about that. My final question for you is, boom sorry, um what is something new about food or cooking that you've discovered recently that's excited you?
01:25:34
Speaker
think but
01:25:37
Speaker
Like, is there a new product or is there, you know, some crazy new thing from Japan that you've seen? when When was the last time that you discovered something about food and you're like, shit, that's cool?
01:25:51
Speaker
um You can take a second to think about it. We can edit it out the time. It's one of those things that like, I'm going to find a better answer to this later on. and i'm gonna better so i'll fight I'll find like what I actually mean to say later on what's
01:26:11
Speaker
a cool thing that's a bloody why did you go and finish with such a tough
01:26:19
Speaker
Well, cause normally, so last year the the finishing question was what was one thing you wish the general public knew about the industry or was more well-known about the industry? And it was great for the first few episodes, um but then it all kind of ended up becoming the same answer from everyone.
01:26:37
Speaker
So i I needed to change it And this way i get to learn ah new cool product that I might not have known about before. Cool product. It could be a product.
01:26:47
Speaker
It could be a technique.
01:26:53
Speaker
I'm proper lost there. I don't know. I'm going to have to rethink this question. like because I'm sure people will, people that probably do more research than me at the time or will, will know. It's a brand new question. So you had no way of knowing. I'm sorry.
01:27:10
Speaker
I think so something I've seen a lot of recently, which I've like not necessarily messed with so much, but I really want to is ah using like... It sounds a bit tame now, actually.
01:27:23
Speaker
Is it using like dried... like dried seafood especially like shellfish in stocks and stuff like that like i know because i use like dried prawns and cats and bushy obviously it's the same thing like you get like little dried mussels and dried clams and crazy stuff at the asian supermarket that's just like can you yeah the new never really and i've never really picked up and and had a mess around with um so maybe that's a bit of dead answer to be honest completely honest with you uh
01:27:56
Speaker
We can go back to the original, the old question. Let me think. Let me think. It's okay. We can edit around all of this. Technique. Technique-wise.
01:28:09
Speaker
do you know what's cool, which I've never able to play with? This is cool. um You ever seen those things in Argentina where you, like, spit hot fat onto meat?
01:28:21
Speaker
Yes. What's it called? I don't know what it's called. and don't know about the Argentinian one, but I know that there's a French version of it. What's it called? It's like this cone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you put hot fat into it. Wait a second, hang on.
01:28:33
Speaker
Like a flumble gumble or something. We're going to get Vincent involved in the podcast. Give me one second. Yes.
01:28:42
Speaker
um So Vincent doesn't want to come down, but it's called flambe-do. Yeah, I was quite close to a flubble-double.
01:28:50
Speaker
Very massively incorrect. So, yeah, and i'd love to I'd love to have a play with the Flambadou.
01:29:02
Speaker
I really expected you to say Flubble Dumble then. Sorry. I love to with Flubble Dumble. I've seen it in a few things and it's just wicked. It's very cool. a cool piece kit.
01:29:16
Speaker
i I'm scared of it. It looks, because it almost it like lights on fire and everything. and looks bloody hot.
Conclusion with Light-hearted Banter
01:29:23
Speaker
Fire is great. Fire is great. All right.
01:29:28
Speaker
You're going to have to find one on Amazon now and go and have a plan. Yeah, I'll give one a go. I'll give one a go for sure. But I mean, like, I'm sure I've got a better answer to that question. And if I find it, I'll let you know. It's one of those things that's like little little gems of knowledge come to you when you least expect them. They're never on re recall.
01:29:46
Speaker
No, no, no. It's always sort of three days later when you're in the shower and you're like, why didn't I say that? so So dried mollusks on flumbadoodles.
01:29:57
Speaker
Great answer. I love it. I love it so much. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. This has been absolutely hilarious and I love it. So far we've talked about stiff or floppy. We've talked about flumberdoodles. Flumberdoodles.
01:30:13
Speaker
It's been very highbrow. I'll have everybody know. Of course. Hell yeah. We're serious food people. Yeah. Now everyone's going to know what it's really like to be a chef. Yeah. yeah what and I don't know. it's been wicked. Thank you so much for having me Thank you so much. I look forward to hearing all the rest of them.
01:30:32
Speaker
Yeah. And how we edit this. It's highly unedited. I'm not going to lie to actually We keep most things in.
01:30:42
Speaker
cool well we'll chat when you tell me when you're coming to Bristol to do a pop-up so i can come yes I actually would be keen to do that so let's talk soon let's talk soon my fun thanks for thank you bye bye thank you by by