loveFOOD meets... Tom Kerridge
You don’t get awarded two Michelin stars unless you know a thing or two about food. And few people in Britain know their way around a kitchen like Tom Kerridge.
Owner of revered gastro pub The Hand and Flowers in Marlow, Buckinghamshire (perhaps the most famous pub in the UK, and the first one to be praised with two Michelin stars), Tom Kerridge’s standing among chefs and the general public is at its pinnacle.
Tom, aged 40, is also a TV star courtesy of various BBC projects, and a best-selling author thanks to his book Proper Pub Food.
His current project is Britain’s Next Top Supplier, a venture in association with Ocado to find the next big thing in food and drink production from the lesser known faces in a £96 billion annual market.
Kerridge, along with Sir Stuart Rose, is judging the competition and the winner will receive a £10,000 marketing package to promote their product.
The Wiltshire-born chef said that he is happy to lend his expertise: “The reason I am behind Britain’s Next Top Supplier is because it feels like such a massive opportunity for a small scale team. It’s the sort of guys we use here at the Hand and Flowers: small, artisan, good food suppliers who have good ideas and want to take it to the next level. It is very honourable, and I am delighted to be involved.”
A nose for bars
Yet relationships are a two-way street, and suppliers queue up to work with Kerridge because of his status in the food industry. The chef’s forthright nature is well known. “I look for the best," said Tom. "Just because it's local doesn’t mean it's good. ‘Local’ is a catchphrase just to make things sound good. Just because tomatoes are grown down the road doesn’t mean they're good!”
His enthusiasm for the lifestyle that comes with being a chef (long days, hard graft, unsociable hours) is remarkably infectious.
“That is what I love about the job, the way of life. Being in that kitchen, in that environment with a load of other people - that's what drew me to it and that's what I really enjoyed.”
Don't the antisocial hours put people off being a chef?
“People you find in a kitchen are looking for something different in their lives. Being a chef is a way of life; it is social, but in a different way. It's fantastic, the nocturnal lifestyle - we don’t go out at 8pm on a Saturday like most people, but chefs can always find the bar. If we go to a random town for one day, chefs will always find that late bar. We have a nose for it.”
Unfashionable food
But above the lifestyle, the thing Tom loves most about being a chef is the food.
“When you first start your business you just want to be a success; you try to get better every day, and the awards eventually start coming in. But we don’t cook for awards – we cook food that's lovely and not fashionable. We don’t aim to please guide books, we aim to please customers, and everything I put on a plate I want to eat myself.”
Even with lots of work in the pipeline for 2014 (including more TV work), Kerridge refuses to rest on his laurels.
“I don’t ever feel like we’ve made it; I am terrified it will end tomorrow. So we’ll keep pushing on, working hard and enjoying it. The moment we stop enjoying it is the moment we stop. But right now everything is great!”
Tom is a judge for Ocado’s Britain’s Next Top Supplier. Do you have a product that’s the next big thing in food and drink? Win the chance to have it sold at ocado.com and a £10k marketing package – email topsupplier@ocado.com to receive the entry pack. Entries close on 16th February. Good luck!
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