What do you have for breakfast?
There’s the breakfast I should eat which I have three or four times a week; jumbo rolled oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower kernels, chia seeds, brown linseed/flax seeds (this seed pulsed in a blender first otherwise not digestible), probiotic yoghurt or kefir (not zero fat, at least 2% to get past gut acid) and a good double handful of dark skinned grapes, served in a bowl with some semi-skimmed milk or if time allows blended to fill a 750ml drinks bottle. My weekend treat breakfast is a well done bacon or bacon and egg sandwich on white (bread or bun). Alternatively, my favourite inspired by camping in Northern Italy and Switzerland in my teens (early 80s) is a cup of instant coffee and full sugar raspberry jam and margarine on an artisan bread roll, I can see the Jungfrau in my mind!
What’s your guilty pleasure?
A quarter-pounder with cheese from McDonald’s (sorry). My drink would be a single malt whisky, and I’m looking forward to trying Ad Gefrin’s own distilled.
What would be your last meal on Earth?
It’s all about the setting; moules frites marinière in an Orléans street café with a large Pouilly-Fumé; lamb kleftico with retsina in a hill-top Greek restaurant watching the sun go down; or maybe fregola alla pescatora and a glass of Vermentino in a local Italian restaurant.
What’s in your home fridge?
Kefir, probiotic yoghurts, applewood smoke cheddar, English brie and English blue, German salami, cooking chorizo, semi-skimmed milk, smoked back bacon, spread with stanols, salted butter, free range eggs, broccoli, red and white onions, sweet red peppers, various white wines and canned indie beer.
What’s your favourite food book?
Meera Sodha’s East.
What’s your most important piece of kitchen kit?
A huge De Buyer blue steel frying pan and a stainless steel pan set.
Who is your favourite chef?
Matt Tebbit makes me smile.
What’s your most important piece of advice in the food and drink business?
It’s often long hours and hard work; employ good people and don’t forget to show your appreciation for them, loyalty works both ways.
What would you be doing if you weren’t working in food?
I’d be employed within sports facility management, my previous career for 28 years, and looking forward to retirement.
If you only had £15 to spend on a meal, what would you buy?
A decent chicken ramen from a street vendor.
What’s your favourite food and beer pairing?
Curry and indie lager, or stone-baked pizza and indie beer.
What’s your favourite North East restaurant?
There are so many to choose from but Wood Oven in Wylam, Bridge End Inn in Ovingham and Panis in Newcastle always make me happy.
The Firebrick, 80/81 Alley 2, Grainger Market, Newcastle, www.firebrickbrewery.com
