Simon Hopkinson: A Life Through Food - Part 2
The Food Programme
BBC
4.4 • 976 Ratings
🗓️ 15 June 2015
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Cook and writer Simon Hopkinson was at the height of his powers in the kitchen of Bibendum in London in the early 1990s, but he'd walk away from professional cooking to focus on his food writing.
In the second part of this interview with Sheila Dillon he explains why he left restaurant cooking behind, focus on writing that led to the "most useful cookbook of all time".
Simon describes life as chef at Bibendum restaurant, which counted among its loyal customers Elizabeth David, Dirk Bogarde and Alec Guinness. In 1994, aged only 40, he decided to move on.
For a decade there would be modest sales of his first book, Roast Chicken and Other Stories, and then a magazine poll in 2005 brought it to public attention and soon after, at one point it would be outselling copies of Harry Potter.
Sheila Dillon explores Simon's lifelong fascination with food and cooking and finds out why he no longer wanted to focus on life as a head chef.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello I'm Sheila Dylan and welcome to this BBC download of the Food Program. |
| 0:06.0 | For information on the BBC's terms and conditions of use, visit |
| 0:09.6 | www. |
| 0:10.9 | BBC.co. UK slash Radio 4. www dot BBC dot-B.C dot co- |
| 0:12.5 | dot UK slash Radio 4. And now enjoy the podcast. |
| 0:17.5 | In yesterday's program we heard how a young Simon Hopkinson knew very early in life that food was his calling |
| 0:28.4 | a conviction that took him age 16 into a French kitchen Normandy, a restaurant near his home in Berry in Lancashire. |
| 0:37.0 | At 20, he opened his own restaurant, quickly winning awards. |
| 0:42.0 | Then there was life on the road as an Egon Rone inspector. But today |
| 0:46.9 | in the second part of our interview recorded in front of an audience at the Bristol Food |
| 0:51.0 | Connections Festival last month, |
| 0:53.0 | and with the help of the voices of people who also feature in this story, |
| 0:58.0 | we've arrived at a crucial period. |
| 1:00.0 | After a few years as a private chef, Simon Hopkinson wanted to get back into a restaurant kitchen. |
| 1:07.0 | His cooking at the restaurant Hilaire had attracted Elizabeth David as a regular, |
| 1:12.0 | and then in 1987 another enthusiast made him an offer. |
| 1:17.0 | Designer and restaurateur Terence Conran asked him to come into partnership as head chef of the new Bibendom in the beautiful old |
| 1:26.4 | Michelin Tower Company building in southwest London. |
| 1:30.4 | The Great and the Good followed you. |
| 1:32.4 | Elizabeth David appeared and Jane Grigson and Dirk Bogart and Alex Guinness and Francis Bacon |
| 1:39.0 | sort of like a who's who come to life. |
| 1:41.0 | Yes, and I... |
... |
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