Ravinder Bhogal: The competition that changed everything

The journalist turned cook talks about being spotted by Gordon Ramsay, her new book, her favourite foods, and how travelling inspires her.

A few years ago, Ravinder Bhogal was indulging her love of cooking by preparing feasts at home for friends and family. On the side, she was quietly putting together a collection of her own recipes.

She never dreamed these homespun recipes would make it into print. But that was before she was spotted by Gordon Ramsay and catapulted into the public eye with an award-winning cookbook and a string of television appearances.

Bhogal was named the “New Fanny Cradock” on Ramsay’s The F Word. She then published her first cookbook, Cook in Boots, and travelled the world for Channel 4’s investigative food show Food: What Goes in your Basket?

How did you become a cook?

I am very much a home cook and a writer rather than a chef. I started off as a beauty journalist and was the diet destroyer of all the office girls. A friend told me about The F Word competition and when I won it gave me a platform to pursue my career in food.

What are you up to at the moment?

I am working on my second book and I write a blog for Condé Nast Traveller India called English Accent, which covers all the new trends here, from food to bars and hotels.

I am also working with Cafédirect on its coffee and dessert matching project. It is really important that consumers think about provenance as Cafédirect does, and to appreciate the human links in our food chain. I come from Kenya and I know how important our buying power is to producers over there. Just because something is grown locally doesn’t mean that it is environmentally friendly, or has less of an impact than something grown in Africa.

What are your favourite foods?

My mother’s food. It’s so nostalgic and I have to eat her food at least once a week. My mother thought you had to learn to cook if you were to snare a good husband, so I’ve been cooking with her since I was five years old!

What are your favourite recipes?

I’m inspired by travel and particularly Lebanese and Middle Eastern cooking – spices such as saffron and cinnamon. I love haleem, a dish made with lamb, hot pearl barley, lentils and rice; every Islamic country has a version of it.

Recently I’ve been making different panna cottas, including a rose one with a champagne, rhubarb and orange jelly, served with a rose and pistachio praline.

What’s the most important meal of the day?

I know I should say breakfast, but for me it’s dinner. I can’t go to bed without it.

What is your kitchen like?

It is small and an organised mess, with everything out so you can reach things easily.

What’s your favourite piece of kitchen equipment?

I’m not massively into gadgets but have a few that are indispensable – my pestle and mortar, Microplane, a Kenwood blender and a KitchenAid mixer.

What’s the biggest food trend we should all take note of?

I think the Noma style of eating is very interesting – foraging for unusual and local foods. But you need to be very careful. I went blackberry picking and thought I had found some wild cherries, but they turned out to be cherry laurel and I was very ill.

Do you ever use cookbooks?

I do – Nigel Slater is a favourite, as are Nigella, José Pizarro, Lucas Hollweg, The Moro Cookbook and Rick Stein, as well as a Middle Eastern cook called Anissa Helou.

Which suppliers and producers do you think stand out from the crowd?

Zaytoun, the Palestinian olive oil producer. I visited it and saw the bigger picture of the community out there. Its za’atar is excellent too.

What tips can you give to lovefood.com readers?

If you use spices, always roast them first – if you were cold, you wouldn’t perform at your best. And eat in moderation, but enjoy every mouthful.

If you could invite four guests to dinner, who would you invite and what would you cook?

Jay Rayner, my co-host from Food: What Goes in your Basket? and The Observer’s restaurant critic. He loves to eat and I love to cook, so we’re a match made in heaven.

Nigel Slater, as he always looks genuinely so excited about food.

My father, who died earlier this year, so he could escape the hospital food. In October I am cooking a Punjab feast at Hix Selfridges to celebrate his life.

And Jean Rhys, author of Wide Sargasso Sea, because I really admire her work and imagine she would be interesting and dynamic.

I cook emotionally depending on my mood, so the meal would very much depend on how I was feeling that day. 

Photo sourced by Rahil Ahmad.

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