[Johnnie Crowe, Executive Head Chef, cooking meat]
[Chef preparing tray of snacks]
[Restaurant furniture made from sustainable materials]
[Crowe plating meat course]
Johnnie Crowe (interview): “Sustainability is for me about making sort of intelligent choices about the food that we use and the way in which we use it. So, a big thing for me is using UK produce. The fact that we can produce everything within the UK gives us a real opportunity to use all of that produce and therefore, help sustain the British farming industry.”
[Station in prep kitchen where garums, a type of sauce, are fermenting in jars and boxes]
[Label reading “Cuttlefish garum – 4/7/23”]
[Crowe preparing meat]
Johnnie Crowe (interview): “It’s about creating one dish out of the prime cuts, one dish out of the shoulder, using the shanks, curing some, making the trim into a garum, which then goes on to season later dishes down the line. There’s a lot that goes into basically figuring out how to use the whole thing, rather than figuring out a dish and then buying whatever cut of that animal fits your dish. It’s about working around the suppliers. I quite often chat to suppliers about it and say, look, we’ll work around you. Whenever the lambs are ready, we’ll take them.”
[Jars of pickled vegetables and fruit]
Johnnie Crowe (interview): “So during the winter is tough. We preserve, pickle, a hell of a lot during the summer, which gives us a certain amount of kind of freshness to the dishes still. But then, you know, if you come here January, February, you should expect to see celeriac, you should expect to see parsnip, and potato, and then sort of brassicas, cabbages.”
[Ice cream being spooned on “chocolate not-so-chocolate tart”]
[Dessert]
Kirsty Easterbook (interview): So this is our chocolate not-so-chocolate tart. So this is probably my favourite, just in terms of the techniques and methods in which we use to make it. So we don’t use any coffee beans or cocoa because nobody in the UK currently grows. So what we’ve done to mimic those flavours is that we use UK-grown barley. So this is it in its raw form.”
[Kirsty Easterbook handling barley]
[Easterbrook handling barley after it has been processed to form a dark paste]
Kirsty Easterbook (interview): “Nobody in the UK currently grows cocoa beans, so it does make it a little bit tricky to use that without breaking the restaurant ethos. So basically this is an alternative method to having a chocolate tart. So we have our Koji millionaire shortbread tart.”
[Chefs preparing snacks]
[Tray of snacks]
Kate Nicholls (interview): “Well, I think the restaurant industry at the moment is going through that perfect storm. It’s got soaring costs. It’s got pressure on margins. It’s got customers that are coming out less. So to be able to have a positive story to tell about sustainability, to look at areas that you can eliminate waste and cost from the business – and many of the green initiatives that people can take do just that, they reduce energy overheads and energy bills, which are a key headache at the moment – means that everybody can start on their sustainability journey. And hospitality is a very collaborative sector, so we share best practice, we share insights, and it means that everybody can do just a little bit to make sure that they play their part in addressing the climate challenge that we’re all facing.”
[Chef preparing food]
[Chef blow-torching snacks]
[Chef serving food to guests]
[Guest drinking wine]
Johnnie Crowe (interview): “I think diners want to come here and have a nice meal. And that’s great. And for me, I don’t think lecturing to people there’s any point. There’s enough of that going on, without us doing it as well. But if 5 percent of diners pick up on it, appreciate it, then that’s kind of enough for me.”
[Exterior of restaurant]
[Michelin plaque and menu on wall]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.