“IF I’M ILL OR FEELING DOWN, MUM’S CHICKEN IS ALL I WANT”
For chef and author Sophie Michell, no fancy restaurant dish can match up to her mum’s simple but perfect roast chicken with killer gravy
FOOD STYLING: LOTTIE COVELL. STYLING: WEI TANG. PORTRAIT: SARAH LOUISE JOHNSON
Tastes like home
"My mother brought up my younger brother and me single-handedly, and we were a close-knit little team. Food was important and we always had a proper breakfast together and a sit-down, home-cooked evening meal – even when Mum got her record deal in the US (she’s a professional fautist). She was focused on where food came from, long before it was fashionable to be. She maintained that she could tell a mile off if someone fed her a battery-reared chicken and she’d refuse to eat it. My brother and I followed suit. We’d regularly have 6kg pots of raw honey, bags of coffee beans and tins of olive oil delivered to the house, which was quite unusual in the 1980s.