Mat Follas: Wild at heart

The Wild Garlic chef and Masterchef winner tells Alessia Horwich what he has in his cupboards, how great British produce inspires him and why life is to short to whisk.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for Mat Follas, because usually, it’s the only one he gets. ‘I know it’s not very cheffy,’ he says, ‘but I’ve never been one to sit down and eat meals. I like to nibble and pick as I go.’

Starting out

Mat, Kiwi chef and proprietor of The Wild Garlic in Beaminster, Dorset, is a trained engineer and computer scientist. He quit his job as an IT consultant to start cooking professionally on the back of his 2009 Masterchef triumph.

‘Since the win, I’ve been living my dream,’ Mat says. ‘It gave me the validation that my food was good and without the competition I wouldn’t have found a backer or customers for the restaurant.’

The programme also introduced Mat to Danish chef René Redzepi, and the foraging techniques he uses at his restaurant Noma. Mat’s own concentrates heavily on wild ingredients that grow in the local area. ‘There’s certainly inspiration from Noma at the restaurant,’ says Mat.

‘What I want to cook is what Noma does. That’s as aspirational as it gets for me.’

What’s so good about wild food?

‘Wild foods have inspirational flavour that you can’t find with existing products,’ he says. ‘It’s about using what’s around you, something that adds a unique flavour.’

Mat uses a lot of nettles in his dishes which ‘have a much, much stronger, more irony, fantastic flavour than commercially grown leaves like spinach’, and also wild carrots, sea vegetables and the eponymous wild garlic.

Local produce

His restaurant also sources almost 80% of the ingredients from the square that the restaurant sits on.

‘The key thing for us is to source great ingredients and then build the dish around it, says Mat. ‘If we can’t source the main ingredient locally or at the very least it’s English, then it doesn’t make it onto the menu.’

Do his diners like it?

They seem to – the restaurant is doing so well it now opens just four nights a week, giving Mat more time in the kitchen to come up with new recipes. And things are easier than when they first opened. ‘We’re a lot calmer in the kitchen now. We’ve got a nice repertoire of 30-40 dishes that we’re comfortable with, so it takes less thinking about.’

Where does his inspiration come from?

When he’s inventing, Mat doesn’t use recipe books, but takes inspiration from them and the seasonal ingredients available to put new spins on his staple dishes.

He also likes to experiment with ingredients, using scientific processes like dehydrating rhubarb to make a powder, but not in an obvious way.

‘When you come and have a meal with us, it’s not about foam or smoke, it’s about cooking some great food and having great ingredients. You don’t need to know that I’ve got three sous-vide baths and a dehydrater in the kitchen. Who cares? It’s about having a great meal.’

Favourite gadgets

At home, Mat’s indispensable gadgets are less high-tech. He loves his Microplane zester and finds it difficult to get by without a stick blender – he’s got a Bamix.

‘You can’t make mayonnaise without a good stick blender,’ he chuckles, ‘life’s too short to use a whisk.’

Meals at home are simple too, although there are wild-food touches. ‘Just today we’ve got wild garlic and dandelions. The kids come out with us and they are happy to eat them, although they are just as happy with a can of beans.’

Essential ingredients

In his own larder Mat always has Tabasco, a couple of good strong cheeses (a nice parmesan or Old Winchester), and miso paste, ‘because I can’t eat sweet potato mash without some miso in it.’

Part of the pleasure of cooking is seeing people enjoy these little touches, but also it’s creating something from scratch; ‘I enjoy the process, making things with my hands – there’s very few industries where you get to make things any more.’

Most of all, he loves learning and improving. ‘I’ve still got loads to learn. I’m just scratching the surface. If I look back at what we were cooking a year ago, we’ve come along leagues, and that’s why I enjoy it so much.’

His advice to aspiring chefs out there?

A tactical approach. ‘Learn how to do one or two things really well, rather than everything at once,’ he says. ‘A fantastic ragu will give you ten different dishes, once you’ve got it perfect.’

Also worth your attention

Profile: Mat Follas

Recipe: Mat Follas’ pancakes

Journal: Five things I’ve learnt from Masterchef