Skye Gyngell's cooking - and use of farm-fresh ingredients - has been getting rave reviews. Marie-Claire Digbysees what all the fuss is about at a demonstration in Ballymaloe.
Some chefs are just so talented that their interaction with even quite ordinary ingredients results in an amazing transformation, something akin to alchemy. Their palates, intelligent cooking and respect for good raw materials elevate their craft to the highest level, without resort to complicated techniques and over-adornment. There aren't many worthy of the accolade, but Skye Gyngell, the Sydney-born chef who heads up the kitchen of a super-hip restaurant in Surrey, Petersham Nurseries, is one such wizard. She also writes for British Vogue and the Independent on Sunday.
Prior to receiving rave notices for her work at Petersham Nurseries, Gyngell was classically trained in France, and had a successful career as a private caterer with a client list that included Madonna, Trinny Woodall and Mario Testino, among other high-profile celebrities.
Her first book, A Year in My Kitchen, was voted cookery book of the year in 2007 by the Guild of Food Writers, and there is more to come from this fresh voice: "I am writing a second book at the moment. It is in the very early stages and I think it will be published in the autumn of 2008."
Everything in the garden is indeed rosy for Gyngell; but it hasn't always been so. With her glowing vitality and cover-girl looks, she doesn't resemble what you might imagine a former heroin addict to be.
But she is on record as having been an addict for 20 years, since she was 17, and was for a long time estranged from her Australian family as a result. Her father, media mogul Bruce Gyngell, died in 2000, and it was then that Gyngell faced her demons and kicked her drug and alcohol dependencies.
"I got clean and sober the year he died. I have really developed as a person and grown up since ," Gyngell has said. "Honestly, when it has been written about, it makes me feel very vulnerable - and very exposed - but it is also two-fold. It is a part of who I am and in many ways I feel, whatever happens in my life, the fact that I have turned it around is my greatest achievement," she said last week, after a brief visit to Ireland to do a full-day masterclass for more than 40 participants at the Ballymaloe Cookery School in Shanagarry, Co Cork.
Gyngell didn't always want to be a chef. She started and abandoned a law degree, and began working in kitchens instead. She trained at La Varenne cookery school in Paris, and found her true metier. "I was soon devoured by a passion for the subject. I found I had a natural ability that had been lying dormant. Better still, I found myself at peace when cooking," she has said.
There was a Nigellagate moment back in 2002, when it was rumoured she was the chef supplying "recipes for cash" to the larger-than-life TV chef - but Gyngell says she was paid to test the recipes, not supply them. Now, though, she is one of the UK's hottest names in the culinary firmament, and clearly comfortable in her own skin.
On the menu for Gyngell's guest chef appearance in Cork earlier this month was a selection of dishes inspired by the menu she cooks at Petersham Nurseries, a working garden centre with a lunchtime-only restaurant and café that draws full houses year round, despite its semi-rural location in Richmond, Surrey. Such has been the success of the venture that the owners, Francesco and Gael Boglione, have recently encountered planning problems. "Our future is in jeopardy," their website baldly states. Richmond Borough Council is due to make its decision on the future of Petersham Nurseries later this month, and everyone concerned with the venture is understandably anxious.
"Our planning problems have been going on now for almost two years - it is frustrating and difficult because there are so many things that we would like to achieve, but cannot. Sometimes life seems like it is permanently on hold - until the planning issues are resolved. It also makes us sad to think that some of the local residents would rather we closed down. On a brighter note, we have many supporters in the area and feel confident that everything will be alright in the end," Gyngell says.
Clearly, there is a lot on Gyngell's mind at the moment, but at Ballymaloe she was relaxed, and revelling in the place, and the people. "I completely fell in love with the area and found the people so different from the English. It was a weekend that will go down as one of the best in my life - seriously."
There was time, too, for a clearly dedicated and ultra-busy chef to enjoy some Irish hospitality. Her demonstration was peppered with intriguing references to the exceptional dinner she had enjoyed the night before: "I had dinner on Friday night with Canice Sharkey, who owns Isaac's restaurant in Cork. He has a beautiful country house and he and Rory O'Connell cooked us a beautiful dinner - simple and delicious," she said.
Interestingly, in the era of testosterone-fuelled kitchens, Gyngell's mentors are all women, and include Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in California, for whom she recently cooked lunch at Petersham, and Rose Gray of the River Café.
"My role models are very definitely women - who I feel cook so differently from men, with a desire to sustain and nurture. They cook more from the heart, with a more natural affinity with the earth. It's my belief that women cook as an expression of giving - men, too, of course, but I think it is a little harder for men, just in the way they are made, to separate their ego. I think, for example, molecular gastronomy is a particularly male phenomenon."
Gyngell says that one of the first cookery books she ever bought was written by her host in Cork, Darina Allen, who was on hand to introduce her to her appreciative Irish audience.
"Where is Skye? I feel like the person who is the warm-up act," Allen said once her welcome speech had been delivered. It transpired that the glamorous Gyngell, who is a mother of two daughters, the eldest 17, had gone AWOL in the kitchen gardens, gathering last-minute inspiration for her demonstration.
Back in the kitchen, clutching giant fennel seed heads almost as willowy as herself, Gyngell shared some insight into her food philosophy - "I don't want to change things too much, just highlight the flavours" - and revealed that her cooking style has changed since she wrote her best-selling book. "I was cooking punchy food but I've pared it right back. Now it's whispers rather than loud noises."
Gyngell's organic style of cooking centres on orchestrating the correct balance of flavours to bring the most from the ingredients she uses. "In every dish that I cook, I am looking for the purest possible taste - an entirety. I think of it as being like the notes of the scale - beginning with the earthy base note flavours and finishing with the top notes that add freshness and make the dish 'sing'."
In a whirlwind morning session at Ballymaloe, Gyngell cooked mussels with courgettes, chilli and fino; chickpeas with chilli, lime, tamarind and coriander; farro with carrots and celery; salt-baked whole salmon with tomato aioli; pan-roasted guinea fowl with salsa verde; raspberry and peach bread pudding; plum sherbet; and home-made cassis. She was helped by two highly efficient kitchen assistants who were mesmerising to watch as they anticipated Gyngell's every move.
There were more kitchen fairies at work behind the stage, too, because when lunch was served, in blazing sunshine in the gorgeous surrounds of the fruit garden, it consisted of the full menu from the morning session, so participants could taste and reference every nuance of Gyngell's cooking and know just what to aim for.
After lunch and a wander around Ballymaloe's gardens, it was back to the demonstration kitchen for another session that covered lobster curry with tamarind, roasted coconut, ginger and coriander; carne cruda with young spinach; roast chicken and bread salad with sour cherries; and baked blackberry and stem ginger pudding.
"It's rare for me to have a guest chef where absolutely everything that they cook is gorgeous. I rarely say that," said Darina Allen as the class drew to a close.
A Year in My Kitchen, by Skye Gyngell, is published by Quadrille, £25 in UK
COOKING WITH SKYE GYNGELL
"It's about being able to stop, think and taste - ask yourself what does this dish need. A recipe is only a guideline, you have to stop and think as you cook, as produce can be so different. Food only ever really sings if you've put your heart and soul into it."
"I cook with crème fraïche rather than cream. I think that's because I trained in France. I like its clean, light flavour; it doesn't dumb food down."
"I don't often cook potatoes. It's not that I don't like them, but if they're not straight from the ground, they're not the same thing. I use lots of beans and pulses instead."
"Try to source Volpaia red wine vinegar from Tuscany. I think it's the best in the world."
"I love working with my hands when I'm cooking. You can have a lightness of touch that way."
"Cook chicken or fish skin side down on the hob to get it really crispy, then finish it briefly in a very hot oven. I'm about to move house, and the more I cook, the less stuff I need - a simple kitchen is fine."
"Food should look good always, but not at the expense of flavour. Food should never be intimidating. I like simple, bold presentation. Sugar is one-dimensional, so I'm using more honey and maple syrup."
"Cooking is not about being competitive. It's about doing something heartfelt and sharing it with family and friends. Be generous. I always give my recipes away when asked."
"Don't serve people too much food - leave them wanting just one more mouthful."
HOME-MADE CASSIS
650g blackcurrants
650g caster sugar
750ml (a full bottle) red wine
500ml good quality brandy
Place the blackcurrants in a large, heavy-based pan. Add the sugar, wine and brandy. Stir and bring to the boil. Continue to stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Strain through a sieve. Store in a glass jar or bottle. The cassis is ready to drink within 24 hours but gets better over time, and is good for up to three months. It can be added to still or sparkling wine, drunk as a liqueur, poured over ice cream - or licked from a spoon!
LOBSTER CURRY WITH TAMARIND, ROASTED COCONUT, GINGER AND CORIANDER
Serves four (you can substitute monkfish)
4 lobster
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium onions, peeled and finely sliced
5cm thumb of fresh ginger, peeled and finely sliced
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
5 ripe tomatoes, chopped
2 red chillies, chopped, seeds included
1 tbsp toasted coriander seeds
1 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp tamarind water (see below)
11/2 tins coconut milk
30g unsweetened coconut flakes, gently toasted
Lime juice to taste
Place a large pot of very salty water on to boil. When the water is vigorously boiling, drop in the lobsters and cook for seven minutes. When the lobster is cool enough to handle, take a sharp knife and make an incision all the way down the middle. Remove the flesh and crack the claws and gently remove the meat.
Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onions and cook gently, stirring every now and then. When the onions are translucent, set aside.
Put the ginger, garlic, tomatoes, chilli and toasted coriander seeds in a blender or pestle and mortar, and grind or blend to a paste. Add this to the onions in the pan and return to the heat and cook for five minutes. Add the sugar, fish sauce, lime juice and tamarind water. Stir well and pour in the coconut milk. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add the cooked lobster (or raw chunks of monkfish, if using) and cook gently until the lobster is warm, or the monkfish is cooked through. Ladle into a serving bowl and garnish with the toasted coconut flakes.
Tamarind water lends a distinctive sour taste, helping to balance out the sweet, salty and hot flavours often found in Asian cooking. I buy the whole pod, keep it in a sealed container in the fridge and break off little pieces as I need them. To use, the pieces are soaked in hot water to cover, for 20 minutes. The water takes on the tamarind flavour and it is this that you use once strained. Press the tamarind pulp in your strainer to extract flavour. (In Ireland tamarind is sold in Asian shops and some supermarkets. It comes in a solid block. For this recipe, break off a piece about the size of a heaped tablespoonful and break it up into a cupful of water.)
GETTING THERE
Petersham Nurseries is open every day. Bookings are essential for the Café Restaurant (0044-208-6053627), which serves only lunch. Hot drinks, soup and cakes are sold at The Tea House, for which reservations are not required (Tues-Sat, 10am-4.30pm; Mon-Sun, 11am-4.30pm). There is limited parking at Petersham Nurseries and driving is not encouraged, but it is accessible by fast train from Waterloo station to Richmond, or by underground on the District Line. From Richmond you can walk for 15 minutes along the river to reach the nurseries, take the No 65 bus, or a taxi (there is a rank at Richmond station).See www.petershamnurseries.com