Despite his protestations about loving the black cod with miso at super-cool restaurant Nobu, ask Simon Hopkinson to name his favourite recipes and he sounds like an English schoolboy.
“Parsley sauce, mushrooms on toast, leek and potato soup,” murmurs the 57-year-old former head chef who’s now a distinguished food writer.
He sighs: “I can be knocked sideways by new dishes, but… well… Fray Bentos. I guess I am old-fashioned.”
The Radio 4-listening, cat-loving west Londoner, who lapses easily into broad smiles and laughter, looks well after 16 years of avoiding a high-stress lifestyle.
He left Bibendum, the restaurant he established with Sir Terence Conran in the late Eighties, after reportedly suffering a “mini-breakdown”.
“I would have suffered within me, to carry on. I made a choice, I just didn’t want to do it any more,” he explains in a delicate, well-modulated voice that betrays no hint of his Lancashire origins.
But having walked away from the pressures of high-profile cuisine for the more gentile world of words, he’s ready to return again with his first BBC One show, The Good Cook.
“A very small percentage of the population have heard of me and my cookbooks, so this is a very big step,” he says, nervously.
Yet his fear is of fame, rather than failure. “I’m not good at… the ‘recognising’ thing. If it does happens it’s not going to be one of my favourite things. I’ll be thankful for the opportunity, but… ” and he trails off, half grimacing and half grinning.
Hopkinson doesn’t watch much TV and admits to cringing when chefs are forced to go out and purchase ingredients in shops, in front of the cameras.
“They promised me I wouldn’t have to do that. And well, of course they were just protecting me, because we did,” he says.
Despite his anxiety, Hopkinson is a natural, able to issue a stream of gentle, yet decisive, instructions, while rustling up luxuriously rustic coq au vin or restaurant-standard sticky toffee pudding at the drop of a boom mike.
“When it comes to food, I do have a pedantry about me,” admits the chef, whose fans like his rigorously sensible approach to cookery writing.
“I do think there’s a right way of doing things. And I think people like to be told. If you’re wishy-washy you won’t get your point across.
“I have lots of discussions and arguments with my peers about how to do things. Good arguments.”
He’s talking about Rowley Leigh of Cafe Anglais, St John’s Fergus Henderson and Bibendum’s head chef, Simon Harris. Some of Britain’s finest cooking minds.
“I know if you do it this way, it will be better than doing it that way,” he says.
Hopkinson’s books, which include the best-selling Roast Chicken And Other Stories, have already won him the Andre Simon Award, and the Glenfiddich Award three times.
“I read a lot and I wish cooks would read more. I love really well-written cookery books which tell you why a dish is so good,” he says.
“There are certain books I always go back to: Elizabeth David, Richard Olney, Jane Grigson and Constance Spry – for that definitive period piece like potato cakes or Coronation Chicken. I return to recipes over and over again.”
Perhaps this explains the timelessness of his recipes and his inherently classic approach, evident in the accompanying book to the series (BBC Books, £25).
“If you came round tomorrow, I’d probably do asparagus with melted butter, leftover cold chicken, a cream dressing with freshly chopped tarragon, hot potatoes and a few strawberries,” he smiles.
“Or perhaps I could make a hot strawberry pie. My mum used to make one which was really nice. It had very soggy bottom pastry, but was fantastically nice to eat, especially at room temperature.”
Coq au vin (Serves 4) – see below
Continue reading Simon Hopkinson – Coq au vin… this looks good
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