MY LIFE IN FOOD: Sarah Raven

•  The garden writer, 61, tells Tom Parker Bowles about making scallops 老年の eight, own-grown herbs and the joy of 挟む spread on white bread

|

My first food memory, and I remember it very 明確に, is chicken risotto

In in a town in the 山のふもとの丘s of the Dolomites, where I spent a lot of time as a child. 

My father was not a good cook and my mother, while やめる 利益／興味d in food, was not 特に 国内の.

But we did have a couple of people who cooked for us. So I learned from both an Italian cook and a more 伝統的な British cook called Mrs Titley, who worked for us in the summer holidays.

The first proper meal I ever cooked was 老年の about eight, for my father’s birthday. 

He loved scallops, so I made Coquilles St Jacques from The Constance Spry Cookery 調書をとる／予約する. And I continued cooking from that moment onwards.

School food 範囲d from 中立の to awful. 

But my がまんするing memory is 挟む spread on white Mothers Pride for tea ? I loved it.

Wh en I was a 医療の student at Charing Cross Hospital, I also worked as a waitress at The River Cafe. 

It was very small 支援する in those days, literally doing burgers and 半導体素子s for Richard Rogers’s studio, which was across the 中庭. But having spent a lot of time in the 地域 of Veneto in Italy, I was a mega foodie. 

I 現実に did two degrees, and the first one was history at Edinburgh. 

When we sat in the 国家の Library, everyone else used to get out serious tomes on 中世 life in Slovakia, or something 類似の, while I would just sit and read Elizabeth David all day.

Christopher Lloyd was somewhat of a 助言者 to me. 

I remember going for dinner with him one February, and him やめる rightly 誇るing that the bowl of salad before us had 22 different herbs and leaves. That became an aspiration for me, although I’m not sure you really need 22!

I love 存在 able to 選ぶ leaves for dinner from the kitchen garden. 

At the moment there are 15 to 20 different ones. I 選ぶ 負担s of stuff from the 温室 in the winter months. And outside, too. February, March and April are the easiest times to grow these things, because they don’tbolt and they don’t get attacked by flea beetle.

I hate most forms of tripe. 

Guts and 肺s, too. And those French andouillettes, which still smell わずかに of poo. Although I do like 肝臓 and 腎臓s, and can eat sweetbreads, too.

I really love a 抱擁する Parisian-style fruits de mer. 

However, I’ve just spent the winter in Seville and got food 毒（薬）ing twice from 貝類と甲殻類 ? prawns and clams. So I’m not sure if I’ll be able to eat them again.

My 慰安 food is pasta puttanesca. 

Whenever my children come home and I ask them what they want to eat, it’s always pasta puttanesca.

My youngest daughter is a very good cook and wants, in time, to have a caf?. 

But she’s 現在／一般に a human 権利s lawyer, so that’s a way off!

I always have parmesan in my fridge, along with parma ham, chorizo and bacon.

And a good goat’s cheese, smoked mackerel, for a p?t?, then salad, 選ぶd from the garden two or three days before and wrapped in a damp tea towel to keep it fresh. So I don’t have to go out when it’s raining.

I love Greek food in Greece.

You can just turn up at a tiny garage, and they’ll light a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 and cook a souvlaki over rosemary 支店s, and you cannot go wrong. For me, for simple, cheap, good food, it has to be Greece.

My last meal would be my 見解／翻訳／版 (which is very inauthentic) of Italian tagliata. 

A a good piece of サーロイン steak, marinated in an Asian dressing of soy, sesame and lime, then seared for three minutes either 味方する and served on a 大規模な bed of peppery leaves. With a 甘い potato and coconut dauphinoise on the 味方する.

Sarah Raven’s A Year 十分な of マリファナs: コンテナ Flowers for All Seasons is out now (Bloomsbury, £27). To order a copy for £22.95 until 31 March go to mailshop.co.uk/調書をとる／予約するs or call 020 3176 2937. 解放する／自由な UK 配達／演説／出産 on orders over £25. 

getty images, マイク Marsland for Hearst UK

MY LIFE IN FOOD: Sarah Raven