S13 Ep6: Sally Clarke: Founder of Clarke's

Desert Island Dishes

Food, Arts, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.8 • 780 Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

My guest today is Sally Clarke

Sally has been described as the unsung hero of British food, and her cooking a masterclass in simplicity. She was just 14 when she envisaged the restaurant that she would one day open and this year Clarkes celebrates it’s 37th year.

Despite the prevailing fad for Nouvelle Cuisine at the time she opened in December 1984 , she never waivered in her mission to showcase fresh and seasonal ingredients, cooked simply and in her trademark unpretentious style. It’s no wonder her restaurant was Lucian Freud’s favourite haunt

In the 25th year of being in business, she was awarded an MBE in the queens birthday honours list for services to hospitality – an award she modestly states she shares with everyone involved in the running of Clarkes. Alongside the restaurant, she runs a booming bakery business which has over 120 wholesale customers, and sees them making over 60,000 mince pies during the run up to Christmas. . If you’ve ever tucked into a pain au chocolage on the Eurostar, chances are it was one of Clarkes.

She has just written her third and self proclaimed final book. It has been said that she is a quietly successful restaurateur, described by Jason Atherton, amongst others as Britain's answer to Alice Waters.

---

Thank you to Cooks Matches for sponsoring this season of Desert Island Dishes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This season of Desert Island Dishes is brought to you in partnership with Cooks Matches.
0:06.0	Cooks matches have been the mainstay of British kitchens for over 40 years and they remain
0:11.9	the match for both cooks and chefs to use in the kitchen. With summer just around the corner,
0:19.2	it really does feel that way, we aren't far away from
0:22.6	barbecue season and all those gorgeous summer parties, which means you should have your cook's
0:28.6	matches to hand to take you from lighting the barbecue at lunchtime right through to the evening
0:33.7	when you can get some candles lit in the garden. No kitchen should be complete without a
0:39.3	trusty box of these matches. They are just the easiest and most eco-friendly way to light everything
0:46.0	from stoves to barbecues to candles. If you're stuck for what to cook this summer,
0:53.1	then Cook's Matches loves compiling recipes to show easy,
0:56.9	delicious and family-friendly dishes.
0:59.9	Head over to their Instagram page at Cooks Matches and join the Cooks Community.
1:05.2	Find out more online by visiting cooksmatchers.com.
1:09.7	Thank you very much to Cooksmatchers. Hi.uk. Thank you very much to cook's matches.
1:13.0	Hi, I'm Margie Nomura and welcome to the Desert Island Dishes podcast.
1:18.0	This is the podcast where every week I ask my guest to choose their seven Desert Island dishes.
1:24.5	These range from finding out about the dish that most reminds them of their childhood,
1:28.7	the best dish they'd ever eaten, and of course, the last dish they would choose to eat before being
1:34.9	cast off the Desert Island. Hi, how are you all? Hope you've all had a lovely week. So,
1:41.9	for anyone who doesn't know, I am a chef, well, I was. The pandemic and
1:47.6	babies might have changed that slightly, but it's what I've done for most of my career. And after I
1:53.2	left cookery school, the first professional cooking job I got was working for Sally at Clark's.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Desert Island Dishes, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Desert Island Dishes and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.