A FAMILY
OF COOKS Simon with grandfather Norman (left) and his chef dad David (below)
FOOD PHOTOGRAPH: TOM SHINGLER.
I can trace the start of my food education and pa ssion back to two things: growing up in Wa kefield and my old man, Dav id. York shire is a fantastic reg ion for food, and I feel privileged to have started my culinary journey there. It ’s a rich and luscious haven for produce with a plethora of great chefs, places to eat and wonder f ul home-grown fruit and veg. Those rolling hills house a wealth of food stories that are aching to be told.
I was for tunate to grow up right in the centre of the R hubarb Triangle, where so much brilliant pink forced rhuba rb is grown in the w inter, and we used a lot of it in the k itchen. I’d of ten snea k into the fa rmer ’s fields at the back of my house to eavesdrop on the rhuba rb growing inside the forcing sheds (fa mously, it grows so fast you can hear it squea k). Grow ing up with a chef for a dad mea nt mea ltimes were never boring, and I have a multitude of fond food memor ies. Some of my earliest recollections are of helping Dad prepare a Sunday roast – abig social