Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S10 Ep 9: Simon Rogan

Episode Date: November 11, 2020

This week we welcome Michelin star chef Simon Rogan to Table Manners. We recorded this back in September when Simon came round to mum's for a socially distanced Prawn Saganaki and a Simon Rogan Apple Tart. We talk about The Lake District, learning his trade in a Greek restaurant, getting starstruck at Tears For Fears, his farm, where he produces the finest local ingredients for his restaurant L’Enclume and his move away from a sports career!Now we’re back in a UK lockdown, Simon has launched 'Simon Rogan At Home', which offers nationwide food deliveries - go and support if you can. Now more than ever the hospitality industry needs our help. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware and I'm here on Zoom with my mum because we are in lockdown 2.0. Hi mum, how you doing? Again Jess, again. I know. Well I'm fine. I'm very excited with the news that's just happened. St Marcus Rashford has done it again and managed to secure free school meals for children during holidays who need them. Maybe he should be negotiating Brexit as well, Jessie. He seems to do very well with everything. We are so proud of him and amazed by him. He's just the most brilliant role model.

And we love you, Marcus. You're a red, but you're more than a red. He's a mensch. You're a mens Marcus. You're a red but you're more than a red you're a... He's a mensch. You're a mensch. You're a mensch Marcus. So this week we welcome Michelin star chef Simon Rogan to the podcast. We recorded this episode back in September so Simon came round to mums for a socially distanced prawn saganaki we just got back from our holidays in Greece and we were feeling rather inspired by Greek dishes prawn saganaki it became the taste of the summer for us didn't it oh yeah we were became experts because we tried it I think at every single restaurant we ate at and I think one one hands down where they butterflied the prawns. It was, we sat on the edge of the water, literally almost in the sea,

eating prawn saganaki and fresh fish and beautiful Greek salad. Wish I was there now, Jessie. I mean, you're painting a beautiful picture. I was trying to stop my children walking into the ocean. But yeah, apart from that, it was really excellent. It was wonderful. Although Greece are back in lockdown like us now.

Oh, really? Yeah, they're not allowed out. They have to use their app to be able to go out. Ugh. I feel lucky that this time around we're allowed to be in a bubble, Mum. I'm glad you feel lucky, darling, because I feel lucky too. Simon Rogan is, for people that don't know about Simon Rogan, he's an incredible chef.

He set up his own farm and restaurant in the Lake District, which is dedicated to producing the finest local ingredients, which he uses in his restaurant, Long Clume, which you may have seen in The Trip with Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan. It's up there as one of the top restaurants in the world. Bless him. I think it was his only night off from cooking in months

and he had to hang out with us but I think he had quite a good time it was very nice meeting him wasn't it yeah he'd been incredibly busy over the summer when the restrictions were lifted and of course we've gone back into lockdown so Simon and so many other chefs and restaurants are now having to rethink how they'll be able to stay alive and Simon is actually doing his own Simon Rogan at home again. But this time around, it's nationwide. So he was just doing it in the lakes and it was really, really popular. But now he's doing it nationwide.

So you can all get a bit of a taste of Simon Rogan's food. Wow. Should we have one, Jess? Yeah, I'd love it. So we're sending loads and loads of love to the hospitality industry, which has been such a tough time for them. And good luck for this next month. Many are are doing takeaways meals at home and so much more diy home kits so do try and support if you can because also it's just really nice to have a night off from cooking simon rogan

coming up on table manners Simon Rogan, thank you so much for joining us in Clapham. It's such a pleasure to finally meet you. Welcome to Table Manners. Thank you for inviting me. It's a good excuse to get away from the kitchen tonight. This is my first night off. Four. Well, first service.

It's not a night off. First service away from the restaurant since july the 4th i've been there every service that's 12 services a week does that make you a chef patron well i own the i own the restaurant is that what you call them when you own it and you call i prefer chef proprietor okay that means i own it chef anyone can be a chef patron you've been given that title yeah that's a bit of rubbish so it's your first night away poor you you're having a night

off service and you're here talking about food it's a good excuse to get away to be quite honest is it yeah yeah

you invited me here which is great we don't disappoint it gets me away from the rigour of service which it's been pretty relentless over the last

couple of months good for you yeah well it could go either way have you been doing the scheme no no no but some people have even quite posh restaurants they are doing i mean what i read was you're doing pretty brilliantly is it that the lake district is very busy because of staycations and it's not just us the lake district as a whole is very very busy you know if you go out on on the day off and we have closed on a monday so on the monday that i

go out there's literally queues of traffic to get into every village that you're trying to get into it's it's it's complete bedlam so it's not just us i think it's yorkshire got a couple of mates down in cornwall it's exactly the same down there so it's a massive exodus from the cities to go to all these amazing, beautiful areas. With gorgeous restaurants. Yeah, there's some pretty good restaurants up in the lakes, yeah. But they're all yours. Well, a few. I wish they were all mine.

No, a few. You know, we've got three up there at the moment, which are all doing very well. So tell me the names of all of them. So we've got Long Clume. Long Clume. That's the famous one. That's the flagship. I don't like to say flagship because I don't want to be detrimental to the other places as well.

So that was my first restaurant. That was your first? That was my first baby, if you like, my first child. Yep. So that's got two mission stars and then we've got Rogan & Company which is literally just around the corner which is a bit more

of a casual neighbourhood restaurant it's my actual favourite restaurant to eat in I like eating there it's a la carte you know

Longclue is very strict on its rules about where the food comes from the ingredients it's a tasted menu only so it's a real experience yeah it's a real experience

whereas rogan's is a little bit more casual you know you can kick off your shoes and have a bit of a laugh and a bit of a joke with the staff and it's it's it's really nice place to to eat and then just up the road in bowness we've got henrock which is the newest edition um that opened back in last year we could have opened it in the summer, but we didn't because we didn't want to get hit with customers. We wanted to just bed in over the winter and get all the systems in place. And obviously, as we got through the winter,

and we've just basically opened in exactly the time we didn't want to open. So it's been absolutely berserk at Henrock. So they're all doing very well. Hopefully, you know, that's quality-wise is going to get up there as well. And then we've got the two restaurants in London and then two in Hong Kong. You've got two in London? Two in Hong Kong as well. So, yeah, it's...

So which are your restaurants in London? So we've got Roganic. Excuse my ignorance. We've got Roganic in Malibu. Yeah. Still closed at the moment. We're just waiting to see how the market's going in London. See my first time in London today since lockdown.

Oh, wow. And looking around, I don't think I'm going to open quite yet because there's a lot of people staying closed just to wait for the market to pick up. Yeah. Roughly about 50% of our customers at Roganic are international, you know, predominantly Asian because of our connection at Roganica International you know predominantly Asian because of our contact connection with with Hong Kong we get a lot of Hong

Kong people into our restaurant in London so that's not there at the moment so we're just gonna wait for that and we've got our list which is our eight-seat taster chef's table in in Soho that opened two weeks ago and that's full which is which is really good because soho is full all the time yeah where we are all the restaurants are closed the thing is uh the concept of it is great for lockdown so if you're in a social bubble yeah you can literally bring your your your bubble into the restaurant and you that that's it you've got it for the whole night and cooked by two chefs that's a bit of me mum

they've done all their training with me and they know the hows and whys of everything that comes to be they're absolutely brilliant so it's a real personal experience but then I did do a programme with Zac Efron for Netflix

and that's probably why it's gone berserk to be quite honest that's been really successful that programme but then I did do a programme with Zac Efron for Netflix oh yeah and that's probably why it's gone berserk to be quite honest that's been really successful that programme yeah it was brilliant Zac was a great guy what he's standing up for is really smart for people that haven't seen the programme on Netflix it's all about environmental issues

and sustainability yeah exactly seasonality you know doing all the things that we should what were a lot of places aren't you know saving the planet and doing all the right things to to bring the planet back to to back to health basically and obviously chose us because of our ethos and you know the the farm element to our cuisine, very natural, very organic type of cuisine where the focus is on vegetables, fruits and vegetables. They're the stars of the show rather than the animal or fish proteins that are dominant in other people's menus.

Do you eat animals and fish? Yeah, I'm not a vegetarian, but I predominantly eat vegetables. I prefer to eat vegetables. Do you? It's like sam yeah my husband's exactly like that he's always far more excited and to be fair i always find that the vegetarian or the veggie dishes in a restaurant especially when you're going to this level they make you feel better i mean there's something that there's that short-lived, lust and moment of the kind of excitement of whatever, a meat or fish dish. But then actually the veggie ones

always kind of are more memorable to me. Yeah, they're very light, very flavoursome. See, long plum is, can be between 16 and 20 courses. Wow, 16 and 20. So we want light, you know, balanced food. You know, we look for, I mean, we look for three things. We look for salt, we look for acid you know we look for i mean we look for three things we look for salt we look for acidity and we look for umami if we can introduce those three elements to a dish we're quite happy with ourselves and the skill is trying to get a vegetable to taste umami like so

we make a lot of misos do a lot of fermenting you know all these all these things that enhance a vegetable with a meaty flavor and you know hopefully people come to our restaurants and they eat their meal and they're satisfied and they love it and think it's amazing and they walk away and think hang on a minute i don't hardly eat any any meat there or any fish and that's the real skill and that's that's our aim you know to to have a perfectly roasted cabbage and just dress dress roasted cabbage yeah just dress with a little bit of fermented mushroom stock or just glazing it and then maybe just a sprinkling of roasted chicken skin you know maybe you should do the dressing for the salad yeah what is your best dressing for a salad actually

oh my best dressing for something that's something that maybe people wouldn't what if i'm at home yeah like french dressing with pizza express i love it oh i love that i actually love it i actually smother my salads with that and a little bit of that and a bit of sriracha that's me because at the end of the day i mean i don't really eat out that much um so this is a this is a real luxury for me no it's going to be amazing my mum's a great chef i'm sure it will i'm sure it will i'm sure it will it smells lovely what's your background how did you start in food was your mum a fabulous cook and it led you into this no not at all world of cuisine so my father was a fruit and vegetable salesman uh okay. Okay. So I didn't really realise this at the time. How important it was.

Exactly. So they were working class parents and I'd always come home in the afternoons and cook the family meal. Why? I had a real... Just because you liked cooking it? Yeah, I liked doing it.

Nothing spectacular. Spag bowls and, you know, curries and sort of things like that home cooked all home cooked and i took home economics as a as a as an option as well did you yeah there was a how many boys were in the class well funny you should say that um there was an unhealthy number of boys mainly due to the fact there were nice girls there no the teacher was hot as hell Miss Humphries I've given her a plug many many times Miss Humphries

what was her great qualities that you liked I can't really say that it's a bit rude yeah but all the guys did you learn anything all the guys loved her

all the guys loved her yeah I did so everyone signed up for Home Economics I think I was a star pupil I think I did all right. But anyway, I did very well at that, and I like cooking. And my dad used to come home with a goody bag each week

of all different fruit and vegetables from the markets. That was one of the perks of the job. And it was going back a fair few years now when star fruit was pretty. Like, what the hell is that? You know, or pawpaw or something like that. So you come home with these ingredients and they go in the fridge and no one really knew what to do with them. And invariably they just get chucked in the bin.

It's gone soft and floppy again. So that's a sign it's not, it's past its best now. So I think that sort of got the inquisitive nature about food into me and I read up on them and sort of, well, what can you do with these things? And, you know, look for recipes and sort of develop that into cooking dishes at home. So basically that was it. I mean, I always envisaged having a career in professional sport. That's what I always thought. What are you good at?

You know, I was all right at football, but, I mean, rugby I was pretty good at. But when I had the chance to play professional rugby, there was no money in it. It was an amateur sport. So that wasn't an option for me. You know, I was pretty good at tennis, cricket. All-rounder. I was a bit of an all-rounder, yeah. So I always thought I'd try and excel at one thing and make it I always thought I would unfortunately I was a bit into

girls and alcohol too much so I wasn't disciplined enough at that time to to really focus and and concentrate on one thing I was a bit of a bit of a maverick I suppose so how old were you when you became a chef well I was working in a Greek restaurant in Southampton from the age of 14. Christ, I'm doing bloody Saganaki. Yeah. So I was working for a Greek restaurant. He knows all about it. So, yeah, 14 and I only worked Fridays and Saturdays.

I was in charge of the chips and the souvlaki and I was like, oh, I thought I was the bollocks. Yeah. So they offered me the job of working every weekend they paid me a lot of money you know for for you know there's a big turnover yeah exactly yeah so um I was probably the richest lad in in my year I loved it I could buy the jumpers I wanted I had the little trainers records I could do whatever I want you know and

to be quite honest the two guys that ran it they were a couple of playboys basically and i thought yeah you know and they treated me as as one of them and you know we used to go to a bit great oh no i don't know my i haven't checked my family tree i could be i don't know you could be um but yeah they used to take me to snooker clubs all night and night clubs yeah they were the boys this is amazing so when it came to leaving school But yeah, they used to take me to snooker clubs all night. Great, you're still at school. Night clubs, still at school. Yeah, they were the boys to know. I thought, this is amazing. So when it came to leaving school, I did all right academically.

I could have gone on to college and on to uni and done something. But they offered me a full-time job. And I thought, yeah, I'll have some of that. And they paid me even more money, which is incredible. I was getting paid quite a £250 a week which was an absolute fortune in those days. I won't go back there but

around about 1986 87 something like that. That was a lot. Yeah so that was a lot of money. And obviously as I went into a full time job the nightclubs and all the things with them were even more.

So you started working for them full time? them so you started working for them so yeah yeah so i started working your parents proud yeah i think they were i got a job straight away yeah i got a job straight away and i was earning good money and i could pay them rent i think that was the main thing were you still cooking for them as well or bringing home a few kebabs in the evening yes yeah bringing a few leftovers yeah cleftico yeah you just make the cle yes yeah yeah yeah so yeah it was great and I was getting paid loads of money and I thought well I need to get a professional qualification because you know who knows what might happen further down the line so I enrolled at a part-time day release college um went on my first day and thought you know i was going to absolutely breeze this and i was you know the bees knees and you know they couldn't teach me anything i knew i knew everything

obviously got there working amongst people that had infinitely more knowledge than me working in amazing hotels and restaurants in the new forest so when you go to these further education colleges i wonder if they're just teaching you to cook like fish and chips, or are they people that really cook well and teach people to inspire young people? No, it was professional French classical cookery. Classic French in a further education college? Yeah, it was amazing.

It was amazing. It was amazing. Where was it? This was Southampton College. It wasn't a great college at the time. All the quality people went to Bournemouth or went to Portsmouth. It wasn't a great college but I didn't really care but you had great teachers well that came later so I went

I obviously went to college and I was absolute rubbish all these people I was in the bottom of the class but they were like boom you know they had far more experience and knowledge than I did. And I hated that. I absolutely hated that. Oh, do you like to be number one? Yeah, enlightened, ignited the competitive nature in me. I thought, right, I'm not going to stand for this. And I made the hard decision to leave my Greek buddies behind and then go and get a job in a country house hotel in the New Forest myself.

Which one was it? It's called Ryanfield House. Is it still there? Yeah, it's still there. It's had loads of different owners since then. I don't really know what it's up to now, but it just opened. The real draw of the place was the chef there

had worked at the Savoy for 10 years. So if you want a classic, as an apprentice, it took me a while to apprentice it. If you want a classical grounding as an apprentice, took me a while to apprentice it if you want a if you want a classical grounding as an apprentice the Savoy is there's no better so uh he gave me an amazing apprenticeship and I owe him everything what's his name Paul Norman funny enough he's a lecturer now so he was always destined to be a teacher so within probably two or three months he got me from the bottom of the class to the top of the class because we get told what we were making the next week.

I go back and say, chef, this is what we're making. He'd have me making it all week. His way, not necessarily the lecturer's way, but the way that was better than the lecturer. So I go, do it my way and just piss the lecturers off, basically, because I would do it better than them. So you're still on day release on day release but of course then all the reasons for taking a career in in in in cooking were turned on their head because now i was getting paid absolutely nothing um as low as you could get you know i was struggling for for to live really and working all the hours god sends but that's the story of chef so isn't it you know I was struggling for to live really and working all the hours god sends but that's the

story of chef so isn't it you know it bit me on the arse and that's what I wanted to do and I want to make myself the best I could possibly be and to get as much experience as I can and go off and so how long were you there I was there for about four and a half years Christ, earning nothing Yeah Well, I mean, I got pay rises Did you get to, where were you when you left there? Which position were you in? I was a chef de partie Chef de partie Chef de partie when I left there, yeah

What's that? The head of a, like a head of a section Yeah So which section? Yeah, so you got the head chef and you got the sous chef I was actually in pastry when I left Pastry? What have you brought us tonight, Simon? I've been in pastry, funny left pastry what have you brought us tonight Simon

funny enough I brought dessert but yeah I've always had a bit of an interest in pastry so you know it's not something which I've carried on I've been mainly on the stoves and cooking everything really but

I'm one of these chefs that has got an interest in pastry because a lot of guys just like leave that to the pastry chef you know and let them get on with it but it's always been a big big part of me so you were in down in hampshire and then when did you start to move around well then then it's okay for a bit weren't you or not a lot later yeah and you didn't come to support United. That's a strange thing. No, not at all. Where United's obviously up in the lakes,

we get all the United directors up there. I mean, it's a really bizarre thing. So they literally come in by helicopter. We've got a, we've got a helicopter pad.

Well, there's a, there's a, there's a, Oh, Jesse, let's go. Oh, that will be us next week, Simon. Don't worry, hold it for us my 69th all right mum yeah so cartmel's got the smallest race course in britain you know there's a there's

a meet there four times a year um in the middle it's got a helicopter pad we've now got a helicopter pad next to the restaurant a neighbor lets us use his field but up until then the United coming for lunch the United directors coming for lunch, they're flying by helicopter and then literally it's not even 500 yards they get into blacked out people carriers come those 500 yards

have lunch, get back in those people carriers, get in the helicopter and get back for the afternoon. Bloody hell I'm disappointed. When you're all about sustainability and all of that. What about Marcus Rashford? Does he come? No, it's mainly the directors.

I mean, we do get players that come. Do you get players? That come on, you know, as their own. Who's your most celebrated person that's come? That you're really thrilled. At Long Clue. That you're thrilled came. Is it a chef?

Well, I tell you what. We. Is there a chef? Well, I tell you what, we had in a couple of weeks ago, Roland Olazabow, from Tears for Fears. Oh, were you so excited? Oh my God,

he was the only person, in my entire career, that I actually got tongue tied, I couldn't, I was like, ah, ah, it's you,

it's you. I apologised him at the end, because he's my hero, he's my hero, it's you, it's you. I apologised him at the end. I would not reckon that. Because he's my hero. Would you reckon? He's my hero. He's my hero. He's one of my absolute idols. I mean, you know, we've had Liam Gallagher in,

we've had Roger Federer in. I mean, these are all idols as well. Yeah, yeah. But him, I just... Because it was really weird how it happened because some waiter said, oh, we've got this pop star in from the 80s. And he said his name wrong,

and he said, do you want me to bring him into the kitchen? I went, yeah, all right, then bring him in. It was right at the beginning of the evening. And he came around the corner, and I just went, it's you, it's you. How lovely. And he was just like, what the hell is this guy? He did a chorus of Everybody everybody wants to rule the world.

No, but every day at 11 o'clock now, we put that, we crank the music up in the kitchen. And that's the theme music for the day. It's a great theme show. It's great. And it gets everyone pumped. I think surgeons should start doing that. It's a brilliant one. It's brilliant.

You get absolutely full Blair. Yeah. And that's the sign of everyone, right, now get ready for service. God, can we play it to the cabinet? It'll work for you. No, Jesse, go and play it to the bloody Boris in the cabinet. That will sort them out. Yeah, they need to get a bit of Tears for Fears on.

Yeah, a bit of Tears for Fears. Yeah, so that was amazing. Mega. I wanted to know, so I guess you were doing the cooking at home. So is there a memorable dish that maybe is from your family that they cooked? Could your mum cook at all? Yeah, no, she was a good cook. What did she cook?

She cooked very much mumsy food. Lots of overcooked vegetables. I hope I'm not too mumsy. I put my foot in that one. You did, right in it simon yeah yeah i always remember on a thursday night we always used to have chicken chasseur so you're kidding yeah yeah so um yeah we're going back now so it was it was working in the heart of the new forest and i used to juggle trains to get back and and you know i'd get back on the last bus and get in about

11 o'clock at night and my mama had a every thursday where i'd have a chicken chasse ready for me and i didn't realize this at the time but i always remember how he used to be like floating in fat because he used to leave the skin on yeah yeah um i've learned that but it was really lovely flavor and I think that's where I've developed my love of chicken skin skin yeah

I like it roasted I like it rendered you know there isn't anything better really yeah exactly so a bit of chicken fat in the chicken salad

I always remember that you know how do you get it when it's that crisp when they have it on the telly just dry it

in between two bacon sheets in the oven yeah oh now look I've got to it gets really flat I've got to ask you when they have it on the telly. Just dry it in between two bacon sheets in the oven. Oh. Now look, I've got to ask you because I watched the whole of the Great British Menu. We want to talk about Tom. He was like the very tall man

who was very softly spoken and very shy. Very nervous. Very nervous. He's not in work. He could have... He's not in work at all. He could have actually won the whole thing because every dish he did was spectacular.

He did the Beatrice Potter little pots with earth in. Yeah, that's right. Oh, my God. Mum was mad about him. He did really, really well, yeah. He should have won the whole... They couldn't just give it to him to do everything, but he should have done.

Yeah, no, he's worked for me for... He's my right arm. So where do you live now, Simon? I live in the most beautiful area in the whole country. Called? The Lake District. Of course. Of course.

I've got a house on the south coast as well, but one thing from lockdown, which has taught me that I know where I belong, if you know. Where do you belong? In the Lake District. Do you? Yeah, definitely.

Do you go foul walking? I go foul walking. Shit. I go foul walking. I do a lot of cycling as well. Oh, bloody hell. Yeah, it's a very... That is a flea.

Well, no, not now. Not now. Not now I'm back to work. That all gets pushed to the wayside. But how did you get there? Yeah. Was it going to... Because Longfoo was your baby

Yeah I wanted my own restaurant that was all I wanted. I'd had a lot of jobs when I was a more senior person that hadn't really delivered and I thought the only way I'm going to get to where I want to be and be in control of my own destiny is to work for myself so I wanted my own restaurant. I had a little bit of savings

you know from jobs and stuff like that. From the Greek restaurant Yeah well that had all long gone but I had a little bit of savings say you know from from from jobs and stuff like that yeah well no that had all gone long gone but um you know a little bit of money and um penny my wife we decided that we wanted to have our search uh is she a cook no no no she's uh she's worked at the restaurants not now she's she's off the floor now and yeah out of the firing line but we we wanted a restaurant well for me it was hampshire my my new forest that's my my sort of area she's from sussex west sussex so that was our search area up to brighton so you know a bit of few deals that came and went and we weren't getting anywhere. And the savings were running out. And it was just purely by chance that someone that owned the building would try and find someone to rent it.

And they contacted a recruitment consultant from our trade magazine, just sort of put their finger on it, phoned him up, said, you know anyone? He said, i know just the person and he thought of me uh it wasn't where i really wanted to be at the time it's like christ where is it a bit of a schlatt yeah it's a bit of a bit of a about 350 miles too far north but you know i did you have children by then um penny was pregnant yeah so so he started on the way yeah so that's where he's yeah it was a very stressful time so he doesn't know anywhere but the lakes well he moved back south but he's back up okay we have a bit of a yo-yo existence because of what goes on obviously our restaurants in london we've had other restaurants as well so

we've moved around quite a bit but yeah he's he's known the Lake District all his life I think he moved back south when he was 14 but now he's back up and he's 19 so he's had five years out and hopefully that's where he's going to belong you know as well and but yeah I had nothing to lose so I just took the took the punt and had a look drove up one morning early one morning to have a look at it. And I instantly fell in love with the place. Mum, I'm so hungry. Do you think we can get it on?

Thanks. Sorry, whilst mum does that, I wanted to ask, when you first went up there, did you feel like you were warmly received? I mean, it's generated a lot of tourism and interest, right? But has it been? Oh, in the beginning, it was horrible. Really? Yeah, it was horrible really yeah it was horrible so um you know it was very much uh who's this southern and it's come up here and you know taking over this project and you know it should go to a northern person we want a tea room

and you know we want this and i said that the concept of what i was proposing was completely alien and and it just it just come out of foot and mouth as well up there oh yeah right okay so The concept of what I was proposing was completely alien. And what was the concept? It just came out of the foot of my mouth as well. Oh, right. So there was a bit of a depression. And rightly so. It must have been horrible to live up there. So what was your concept that you were presenting to everybody?

Well, I wanted to get to the organic, vegetable-based, foraged food that I was so interested in I'd learned that in the restaurant in in the new forest with my first head chef the sous chef used to take me out foraging for wild mushrooms and and and wild herbs in the split because there's nowhere nowhere to go during during your afternoon off so you might as well go out and I developed a real interest in it and then it sort of fell by the wayside and working in London and Paris and cities basically and I wanted to get back to it and going back to the lakes or to the lakes gave me that environment to really do that but in the beginning it was a very much French orientated yeah modern French food which i'd been cooking in and around london and most people were doing at that time and it took me about seven or eight months to then develop the first tasting menu at long clue with a lot of the the herbs and wild herbs and flowers and

and roots that you see on the menu now so what's in abundance in the lakes that forage things i mean it's probably got everything right but i mean what's like yeah everything uh always on the menu well sweet cicely is my favorite what's that sweet cicely it's like a like a fern in appearance but a very small fern it's got a really lovely refreshing aniseed flavor so that's one of my favorite herbs and you can use every part of the plant the stem the leaf the flowers quite good in the shrimp saganaki we've put ouzo in there oh yeah it would have been lovely yeah i could have brought some down with me but that normally appears in spring in sort of the middle of spring and and it's still around now and we harvest so much of it

around now and we harvest so much of it during the season so we've basically got it on all year so we freeze dry it we dry it you know we make oils we make sugars so that flavor is normally around so that's an abundance and it's quite unique to that area as well from from there up towards scotland sweet cicely is is quite unique um All your sorrels, the wood sorrels. Obviously, it's wild garlic central there. It's just so much there. But, I mean, wild garlic isn't still in season, is it? No, no. No, right, yeah.

No, that's long gone. But, you know, obviously, we've got... I'm going to send my phone girl. Oh, get it. Is it Tom? Is there been a drama? It's my son. Oh, answer, answer.

Yeah, answer. Don't worry. I don't know who it was. He wouldn't phone me if it wasn't an emergency. Oh, Jesus. He's probably burnt down the house my son. Oh, answer, answer. Yeah, answer, don't worry. Don't know who it was. He wouldn't phone me if it wasn't an emergency. Oh, Jesus. He's probably burnt down the house or something. Oh, God.

Yeah, you all right? Oh, you've got to fiddle about a bit. What did you want to cook? I love it. Your son's just been on the phone and you're encouraging him to use the microwave I love you

he won't be able to work the oven what's wrong can you just get a bloody new oven please Simon what's wrong with your oven we're moving that's why I'm not getting a new oven

so what's your son having for dinner tonight cottage pie he's trying to warm up a cottage pie that I made for him any tricks on how because I find

cottage pie to be fair shepherd's pie and cottage pie would go in my room 101 yeah because I find cottage pie, to be fair, shepherd's pie and cottage pie would go in my room 101. Yeah. Because I just don't get it. Yeah.

I don't get it. Yeah. Maybe I've never had your shepherd's pie or cottage pie. I just, I don't, it needs a little, like, it always needs pickle. Have you seen those, have you seen those little stock pots that Marker Pier White advertises? No. A couple of them in there. Oh.

Because they're all nice umami. The jelly ones? yeah yeah yeah what a beef one get a beef one yeah well yes cottage pie obviously lamb one for for shepherd's pie a couple of them in there really uh lifts it gives it really some uh some serious umami in there so so is your food quite salty umami shall we say sorry i like uh i like to season right to the limit do you want to explain what umami umami is that it's that savory feeling that saltiness that that where does the word come from it's japanese word for savory meaty yeah yeah so it's got it really brings a depth of flavour to everything so like when I put marmite in my carrot soup that's a bit of umami

yeah classical umami marmite I put that marmite in my lamb gravy umami there you go

bovril bovril all those all those sorts bovrils is that like a life hack it's yeah

it's a all the little stock cubes you get they're full of it you know so so there you go these are not hot plates well this looks this looks amazing It's yeah, it's a little stock cubes you get they're full of it. No, so These are not hot plates Well, we've been eating it for like the last couple of weeks, so I don't know I'm sure it's the same one

Yeah, as long as it's not really really hot yeah, just leave that just warm slightly. It'd be great, yeah. It'd be nice. It's still slightly warm anyway, so... Do you not want me to do that? No, I want Simon to be head chef right now. No, he said he wanted to do that. It might be a little bit... Yeah, I mean, it was warm when we came in. I don't know what it's like now.

Well, how did you warm it up, Simon? I bought it from Owlis. So it literally just come out of the oven so this is from owless owless so basically we we we cut one apple on a mandolin yeah and then trim it yeah so it's like a one massive spiral and then cook it very very slowly in in in sugar uh butter and a bit of salt as well lovely for about an hour this one's got 10 apples and it's one gigantic one in one gigantic spiral so that literally came out of the oven and i came straight here with it so it's still a little bit warm thank you and it's okay to eat cold to be honest it's really nice so should

we leave it then yeah i think we'll leave yeah sorry so we are just talking we're talking about the food please help yourself and whilst you help yourself that was we were just talking about the pud that Simon has bought which is what would you call it an apple it's an apple tart

it's an apple tart a bit of a take on a on a tart tatin so it's not lumps of apple it's a spiral done on a Japanese mandolin thanks mum

what does it taste like delicious thank you very much wow it's really fresh mum lovely is it yeah yeah delicious we ask everybody Simon what their It tastes like... Delicious, thank you very much. Wow, it's really fresh, Mum, lovely. Is it? Yeah.

Yeah, delicious. We asked everybody at Sightland what their desert island meal would be. I mean, last supper, desert island meal, starter, main, pudding, and drink of choice. Start main and pudding? Some people have done a whole day. No pressure.

Well, I thought you were going to ask me this question, and my all-time favourite probably got to be a good old roastie. Me too. Good old roastie. Beef or? All of it. Me too. All of it.

I don't mind. Beef, chicken, all that. I'll go for ones, twos, thirds. All of it. What do you have at Christmas then? Do you have turkey? We normally have turkey and another joint. Well, well a ham definitely, maybe some beef. Okay so you're going to go for a roast.

And is this a roast that you will have cooked or is there a very outstanding roast elsewhere? Everyone thinks their roast is the best isn't it? So if I was going to eat it, it's got to be mine. Well the thing is I want to know about this because whenever i cook my own food i never enjoy it as much as maybe the other people that you know are absolutely eating that shit up but i don't know do you you still get joy you still get joy out of your own cooking yeah yeah and maybe you need to enroll a couple of people to actually do some prep for you but you're in control yeah but you're not panicking because it can be quite stressful can't it yeah but i suppose the the plan is is to get a couple of

people involved and helping along the way okay so main is roast what's what's starter probably prawn cocktail actually prawn cocktail do you do prawn cocktail anywhere no why not it's not posh enough but i'm sure you could do a posh version. Yeah, it wouldn't be in a coupe with a little lemon wedge on the side, nothing like that. It'd have to be a bit more posh. Okay, so we've got prawn cocktail, we have...

What are you drinking? Do you have like a little cocktail first? Gin and tonic. I like gin and tonic. I heard this about you. Which gin is your favourite gin? I got into rosé gin Lakes Distillery obviously obviously

so distillery is that your distillery? no it's not mine Lakes Distillery what's in it? any flavourings? no just your usual do you like it with cucumber?

secret yeah I like it do you have it with bitters or anything? my favourite other than a good classic gin and tonic, a really hot and fiery ginger beer as well. I really like that.

In gin? Mmm, yeah. I never thought of that. Gin and really hot one. Gin and ginger? With a little bit of Angostura bitters as well. So gin and ginger? Gin and ginger beer.

A real fiery one though. Never heard of that. Really spicy ones. Delicious. So pudding? Mmm. Oh, I think we've never heard of that. Really spicy ones. Delicious. So pudding. Oh, I think we've got it here. Have you tried this yet? Apple tart.

Yeah, it's been on the menu for four or five years. It's normally on the menu somewhere. So it normally goes between the menu at Roganic in London and Owlis. And also in Hong Kong. This is a massive favourite in Hong Kong, this one. Where did you get the word owless from so um i had when i started long clume there was only two of us in the kitchen the other guy was a cool guy called owless let tamaki he was finnish and he'd worked with me for four or five years before we went up north and it was just us two in the kitchen setting out on our little journey.

Unfortunately, he died. How long ago? Probably about seven or eight years ago now. He was young. He was young, yeah. He was back in Finland now. He'd stopped working for me. He was only 30.

Shit. But yeah, he drowned, unfortunately. So I thought it was only fitting to name something after him. Because we've got an hour list in Cartmel as well, which is more of a development hub, you know, for all the restaurants in Cartmel. Test kitchen.

Yeah, yeah, more than people. We do offer out to people to sit and eat around the table, but not so much as the other two, the one in London and Hong Kong. So that was the first one. So named it after him. He was a really brilliant artist as well. So it's my little tribute to him, really. But we called him, his name was Leo,

because no one could actually pronounce his name, so we just called him Leo. But yeah, he's a great guy. Yeah, sorely miss. So for pudding, you've bought pudding and here's this apple tart from Aralys. There's one thing that can beat it though, which I will go for every time it's on a menu and it'd be a lemon tart. I absolutely love lemon tart. And I think it shows the skill of a chef to have a really good lemon tart recipe in his locker, I think.

I've got quite a good one. Have you? Yeah. I love that my mum is just giving me the talk. With grand almonds in the pastry. Oh, right. Okay. Yeah.

Nice touch. I think you'll find that it's quite nice. Yeah. I haven't shown off yet. I think we need to go try the long cream one. So besides being a poly... Well, we don't do... We wouldn't do it at Long Climbs because we don't use lemons, obviously. use lemons obviously it's not why because you can't source them locally it's the rules yeah

we only get a lemon tree going the amount of lemons that we need yeah obviously we have polytunnels we grow we grow peaches and apricots but that's about as exotic as we get how exciting it's like it's restricted then which is is really, you really have to create and think about. Absolutely. You know, and I really love desserts with acidity and freshness. And I'm not really into chocolate. I'm not really into rich things. Me neither.

You know, we all sort of. So it's the woman that has like three bags of chocolate in the fridge. I've got no chocolate anymore. So how does it affect you not opening up the Maralabone? Is that organic? Yeah, so obviously staff are still on furlough to the end of the month when we're forced to make a decision. But fortunately, the company is making sufficient funds to not have to worry about that at the moment. We're doing really well in the lakes, all three restaurants.

And you did a home delivery service that you're keeping up, right? Yeah, so we mentioned in the beginning it wasn't that great. I was the newcomer to the village, and it took a while to build trust on both sides. Now the relationships are amazing, and I've come to terms with we owe everything we have or are at the moment because of where we are and the people that surround us so when lockdown started we had a farm full of produce ready for for a really busy season and

it's like well restaurants can't use use it anymore what the hell are we going to do with it we came up with the idea of giving something back to the community by getting in contact with the local vicar, Nick, who could identify who the vulnerable were. So we came up with a £5 meal to feed people, the surrounding population, but for a small profit on top of that, part of the £5 would then go towards free meals for the vulnerable and the essential workers there are hospitals and and things like that so we were doing five pound meals throughout the whole of lockdown with guys that because the farm the farm workers kept going and we had a couple of people

that weren't furloughed so the demand for that drove what we have now so we actually do a takeaway meal for 30 quid now and we're currently doing four four five hundred a week the demand that's really reasonable we're looking to go national oh yeah we've locked down it's you know become even more um important to you know to be flexible. Nothing's below you. And diversity is the key. If you'd have told me this time last year that we'd be selling takeaway or delivery meals or have the things in place in the restaurant that we would never do,

all the procedures that we're taking to make people safe and our staff safe, I would have just laughed. It's just, you know, it's an unbelievable situation. It's so amazing how we can so quickly adapt, right? Exactly. So we're carrying that on. Simon's just basically plated up the dish and mum is lost for words. It's delicious. Oh yeah. Oh it's delicious Simon, thank you so much.

It's so, it's so, it's like toffee apples as well. Yeah it's lovely. It's a bit of a, yeah it's a bit of a take on a tartan. A little bit more, a little bit more work to it. It's a bit of a take on a tart to tan. A little bit more work to it. It's exciting. A little bit more technicality to it. And the salt, I get it. We should totally put salt in what?

Our tart's now. Do you put salt in yours? No. Just a little bit. I didn't know you had to. Just a little bit. Just counteracts the sweetness. It really balances it out.

It's lovely. This is the most delicious. This is my favorite dessert now forever simon you're an entrepreneur a cook a forager owner of michelin star restaurants do you do karaoke yeah every now and again yeah i need to do a little bit of drinking what's your favorite song um and I don't put pressure on you but it does say a lot about you. Well my favourite song but I'm not very good at it is True, Spandau Valley. I'm not very good at that. I would love to see that. I'm not

very good at that. True. But you've given it a 1. I've won prizes for doing Love Me Two Times by The Doors. I've done that. Because I know the words to that off by heart, so I don't have to look at the screen. It's just... So then I can concentrate on the moves with the microphone. Yeah, I can concentrate on that bit because I'm not staring at the television screen. Where can people find you doing karaoke?

Where can people find Simon's performance? Let clue. Afterwards, when they should know. Is it like Dirty Dancing goes when everyone goes home you've done your incredible you know display of culinary excellence do you close the doors and you bang on some music and dirty dance no unfortunately we don't no it's nothing uh nothing as exciting as that is there a white-down playlist? We might have done things similar in the past, but not now. We've got a bit older and wiser and realising that sleep is important and drinking a little bit less is very, very important.

Is there a lot of alcoholism with chefs? Yeah. In our early days, we used to go to the pub you know we used to we have a pub literally 20 yards from long plume so we finish service and then go in there and just have a lock-in and be in there till about three or four in the morning because we do the ordering in there for the next day which can be done in about 10 minutes it used to take about two hours because we're just drinking and winding just winding down yeah do you think you've got good table manners

simon reagan i think i've got very good table manners yeah i i think i display amazing etiquette not all i guess always do but i think i do what's the worst thing you've seen i think the worst thing that really gets on my tits now is when people just get up and go to the toilet what are they doing either way finish your course and then go and then go then go because it messes you up not not not finish your course sit there sit there your food's coming it goes out to the table they get up go to the toilet that really pisses me off but there are 16 bloody courses they're probably i'm not saying don't i'm not i. Yeah, but I'm not saying don't go to the toilet. Go straight after number four before you get to number two. Oh, come on.

Jesus. See, that's my pet hate at the moment. That's very interesting. So anybody that's going to Long Clume, just go for a wee before you go. And don't drink any water. Or wear a nappy. Thank you so much for coming on and we can't wait to um be the riffraff that asks to come into the kitchen very very soon thank you for

inviting me and uh yeah it's great to get away for a night what a lovely man simon rogan thank you so much for coming on table manners you were a lovely guest and i love talking to him about food and the and the uh and the greek restaurant that he was in yeah what a guy that was such a treat so interesting and his his beginnings were quite humble and I love the way he's gradually built up this wonderful empire this culinary empire and it's fantastic I can't wait to go as well now for more information on Simon Rogan's home delivery service you can visit simonroganathome.co.uk i really feel like if anyone's gonna try and have a special meal this could be the one that you do in the next four weeks honestly um simon rogan what an inspiration thanks for listening everyone we hope you're all right

stay strong and we'll be uh chatting to you next week. Thank you.