The art of plot to plate

30th June 2008, 2:58pm

Chris Warwick, head chef of Colette’s restaurant at The Grove in Hertfordshire, has been chosen to lead the cooking demonstrations in the Growing Tastes Cookery theatre at this year’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

The Growing Tastes marquee will feature three fruit and vegetable gardens inspired by Asian, Mediterranean and British food and designed by landscape designer Michael Balston.

Chris's British recipes will open the daily Growing Tastes schedule from 8-13 July for half an hour every day, from 11.30am. The English summer recipes – Vicyssoise of garden leeks and Jersey Royal potatoes, and English Strawberries with Turkish delight syllabub – will both feature ingredients from The Grove's own fruit and vegetable garden.

Chris works closely with The Grove's gardeners on the choice of fruits and vegetables to be grown in the kitchen garden.

Almost a quarter of the three and a half acre site is used for fruit and vegetable production, ensuring that The Grove is reducing its food miles. The planting schedule includes 15 varieties of apple, 12 types of tomato, 10 pear species, eight different peaches, and a range of cresses and micro leaves.

Chris, who joined the Grove from London's Galvin at Windows restaurant, is passionate about training his own team to appreciate good produce. He explained: "As chefs we are all concerned with and defined by our provenance. To be able to watch a vegetable planted as seeds, to see it grow and then to have it on the menu at peak perfection is a real privilege.

"And if I happen to see, early one morning, that a particular ingredient is at its best in the garden, I have the freedom to add a new dish to the menu, so we can use it then."

Weblink:

www.thegrove.co.uk  

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