Meet the chef: Simon Rogan interview

My favourite 15-minutes recipe is…

It’s got to be a nice carbonara. When I was in the Lake District I used to use eggs from my own farm, but now L’Enclume and my restaurants up there get all of the eggs!

My guilty food pleasure is…

Crisps, particularly Kettle Chips. I like that they’re committed to using locally sourced and British provenance ingredients. That’s something I’m passionate about in my own cooking, so it’s a bonus to find a snack that features real food ingredients.

If you gave me a tenner I’d spend it on…

My favourite tipple – a nice gin & tonic.

A restaurant trend I see being the next big thing is…

An explosion of Japanese food. You don’t see so many Japanese restaurants in the UK and I don’t know why that is. I think that might change in 2016, because the only big movers in the Michelin guide this year were two Japanese restaurants – a change that could help Japanese food become more prominent.

On a Sunday I like to…

Get up early and go for a bike ride wherever I am – my push bike is down on the coast at the moment in Littlehampton, and cycling around the Lake District is equally as beautiful. After a bike ride I like to take a nice long hot shower and go for a drive out to the country for a pub lunch, come back, watch the footie and have a nice roast dinner to finish the day.

What are the three most useful ingredients and why?

It’s an obvious one, but salt is an extremely important ingredient. I probably couldn’t ever do without butter – it’s something that’s essential to many, many things. I’ve mentioned kohlrabi before but that’s more of a professional thing... at home I’d say potatoes. There’s so many things you can do with them – they’re probably the most versatile ingredient known to man!

Which piece of kitchen equipment couldn’t you live without?

My latest one is a KitchenAid Mixer; I’ve got just about every attachment you can think of – you can do the most amazing things with it. It’s got a mincer attachment, a pasta-making attachment... the only thing you can’t do is cook on it! It’s pride of place in my kitchen at the moment.

Simon Rogan was speaking at the launch of the new KETTLE ® Chips Chef’s Signature range, an outstanding new range of super-premium crisps featuring partnerships with some of the UK’s leading food brands including Gressingham Duck®, Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese and Maldon ® Sea Salt.