At home, my office window faces right out onto my garden. It was never planned that way – we built the house and the office, then we found the space in front was perfect for a garden.
And what a blessing that has been. I’ll have moments when I’m just staring at the computer thinking, “What am I going to do?” Then I’ll look out the window, see what’s out there – what’s growing, what could be growing, what’s in season – and my mind will start racing. It’s a huge inspiration for me.
It’s not just growing this all for my own family’s dinner table either. Some of what I grow at home actually makes in onto the plates at my restaurant, Euro. My chefs love it.
How great is it when every day different vegetables arrive from our garden? We have days when the chefs go out to the garden, pick the olives and come into the kitchen to try out new things. It’s pretty inspirational.
The chefs will talk to my gardener Ken (see below) about what they like, what’s been a success in the kitchen and what they’d like to try.
I’m getting some great harvests at the moment. I’ve got zebra tomatoes growing, and my courgette flowers are just coming to the end of the season.
We planted an extra crop of those at Christmas time, because they were just going like hotcakes in the restaurant.
If you’ve got courgette flowers in your garden I’ll show you what to do with them over the next few weeks.
And with horseradish. After growing it I discovered you can wrap salmon in it, with a bit of brown sugar, and hot-smoke it. Delicious.
All this experimentation and inspiration means you can add “wow factor” to meals.
The fact is, everything just tastes better when you’ve grown it in your own garden.
You’ll know that if you’ve ever had a crack at growing your own herbs and vegetables and compared them to what you buy at the shops.
They’re fresh, they’re full of flavour and they make your meals that little bit more delicious.
So, I hope you’ll come
