A Very British Restaurant Revolution – Jeremy Lee and the joy of ingredients that sing

The Food Programme

BBC

Arts, Food

4.4 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sheila Dillon hears the story of one of the most loved and admired chefs in the business, Jeremy Lee, and celebrates the joy of his simple ingredient-led cooking.

As chef proprietor at Quo Vadis in London’s Soho, and previously at the Blueprint Café, Jeremy Lee has been creating ever-changing regional, seasonal and historically inspired British cuisine. He learned in the kitchens of some of the key creators of what’s often called the Modern British Cooking movement, the qualities of which he has made distinctively his own.

He chats to Sheila Dillon about the influences which have shaped his cooking, from growing up in a food-loving family in 1970s Dundee to the joy of shopping for the very best seasonal produce. Sheila hears about his reverence for his growers and suppliers, how he is inspiring a new generation of chefs, and of course, tastes his famous smoked eel sandwich.

Featuring chefs Simon Hopkinson and Charlie Hibbert, food writer Rachel Roddy, and Frances Smith of Appledore Salads.

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.

Transcript

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0:49.7	Welcome to our world, from cooking to culture, politics to pleasure.
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0:57.8	You can eat in this country incredibly simply and very well and very reasonably without going down and being dazzled by the
1:07.2	Epicurean Gormondies of excellence and magnificence.
1:10.9	But just as Miss Brody said, for those that like that sort of thing, I'm sure it's the sort of thing they like.
1:16.0	Jeremy Lee, a chef you might not have heard of, but whose influence spreads wide, and who embodies the modern history of the
1:26.8	British restaurant, in the way he cooks, in the unhyroacable way he runs his kitchen in the way he values his suppliers and
1:35.0	in his wide range of bookish influences. Like Muriel Sparks' Unforgettable Miss
1:40.7	Jean Brody, he's romantic. Who knows who he is? Isn't beset by self-doubt and not bothered by what's in fashion.
1:48.0	He is such an extraordinary, unique, chef and person who has spent his whole life buying well and cooking well and eating well and it's something that he lives and shares in a most extraordinary way with an extraordinary energy.
2:08.0	Now he's chef proprietor at Quovardis in London, Soho, living what he learned in the kitchens of some of the key creators
	...

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