12th April 2011
Interview with Emily Watkins
Chef Emily Lampson (née Watkins) plies her trade in a renovated Cotswold pub, The Kingham Plough, sporting scrubbed beams, rattan flooring and a shabby-chic dining room with leather chairs fashionably ‘in tatters’. Her unfussy approach is a long way from her earliest ‘disastrous’ attempts at age six or seven.
What food trends are you spotting at the moment?
Local – everything local, which is great and something we have been doing from the word go here. The flavour of a freshly cut vegetable direct from garden to plate cannot be compared to.
Is there anything in the restaurant industry that you would like to change?
Staff training and morale – I would like to see a greater respect for all workers in the industry and more training colleges or courses available to a wider range.
What is your favourite restaurant and why?
The ‘shack’ on the side of the road in Thailand near my parents’ holiday house which we are lucky enough to go to every year. No dish costs more than £1 and it is the freshest, best Thai food you can imagine.
Sum up your cooking style in three words.
Simple, seasonal, earthy.
What would be your perfect birthday meal?
Definitely at home with my husband, son and friends – due to work I don’t spend any good time there.
How do you relax when out of the kitchen?
With my little boy Alfie, preferably at home.
What is your earliest culinary memory?
Always trying to cook with a series of disastrous outcomes – but I would never listen to instructions – this is from age six or seven.
What do you wish you had known when you started out as a chef?
That it is impossible to have a day off unless the place is closed, which ours doesn’t.
Could you give us a very simple recipe?
Cotswold rarebit – double Gloucester cheese grated and mixed with brown ale and mustard – bake in the oven and dip in sourdough soldiers.