Every week, our Money team interviews top chefs from around the UK, hearing about their cheap food hacks, views on the industry and more. Today, in our final regular interview (we’ll still run the feature occasionally), we speak to renowned chef Mark Poynton, from Ancient Shepherds in Cambridge…
My favourite budget recipe is… cheese and onion soup.
- 1 large white onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 50g butter
- 1 litre vegetable stock
- 250ml double cream
- 600g extra mature cheddar cheese
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Method
- Peel and finely slice your onion and garlic and sweat in the butter over a low heat for 20 minutes;
- The longer you can cook the onion the better because it will release more sweetness, but make sure they do not get any colour on them;
- Add the boiling stock and simmer for five minutes;
- Add the cream and bring to a rolling boil;
- Transfer to a blender and start to blitz;
- While it’s blending add the grated cheese a bit at a time until all incorporated and silky smooth;
- Check the seasoning and adjust with salt and lemon;
- When ready to serve try not to boil the soup as it might curdle the cheese (all cheeses have different fat contents);
- You could garnish with many things but best to add something with acidity, so consider pickled walnut ketchup or pickled onions.
Margins are being squeezed… Without good landlords and good business sense, it is difficult. Four-day weeks do help, and set holidays too, but all these things do cost and you can’t make people do 70+ hours in four days which can happen in some places still. I am trying my best in my businesses and will continue to do so.
If I was PM for the day, I would help hospitality by… reducing VAT, but I don’t wholly agree with that just for hospitality. I think the VAT threshold across the board should be the same for all businesses but raised to £1m, so small businesses everywhere stand a chance.
The one UK restaurant worth blowing your budget on is… Moor Hall (north of Liverpool). Make a night of it and stay and have breakfast, too. Mark Birchall is an amazing chef and everything that place serves is the ultimate in hospitality and what we should all strive to be like.
I hate it when customers… fake allergies because of some stupid fad diet from social media, making a restaurant’s life hell.
I once had one angry person call me because I wasn’t open for his wedding anniversary… on a Monday, and we have never opened Mondays. He had taken the liberty to turn up without trying to book or call to make a booking – just presuming we were open. He was showing off to his wife that he had a table in the restaurant and made himself look stupid. Reviewing culture is just bizarre, people think because they don’t like something (and not liking something is different to something being wrong), they can publicly shame a business. Sadly, we now live in a world where people are scared to speak to people in person but are happy to sit behind a keyboard and belittle!
More Cheap Eats:
Top chef shares one thing diners should never do
‘Genuinely elite’: Top chef raves about supermarket sandwich
Fortnum and Mason’s pastry guru reveals supermarket dessert he loves
We have an amazing street food burger van… and shop in Cambridge called Steak & Honour run by husband and wife Leo and Charley, and I always have the One For Ella 180g pure beef patty, American cheese, their own amazing burger sauce and bacon. Heaven!
My order at my favourite cheap eat is… chorizo crumble Neapolitan pizza at Scott’s All Day, Cambridge.
People can enquire where their food is after 20 minutes… If cooking a nice piece of fish or similar, it takes time and patience, and you wouldn’t want your prime ingredients pre-cooked and reheated.
Ring if you know you are going to be late… The more time you can give, the better, in my opinion.
