Robin Gill, chef and restaurateur
The cookbook that has most influenced your cooking
There are two books; The Silver Spoon which I used from a very young age and initially got me into cooking, then in my early professional career it was The French Laundry Cookbook, a truly inspiring and influential book
The food of love… What would you cook to impress a potential date
I would fire the BBQ and do a full seafood feast cooked over wood. Scallops, turbot and a stunning salad from our farm, keeping it light
Your top five dinner guests, dead or alive
Jack Nicholson / Andy Kaufman / George Harrison / Hemingway / my wife Sarah
Fast food – your top snack tip
I love Thai style raw beef, chilli and lime on crispy lettuce
Most memorable meal in film/literature/painting
The feast scene in Delicatessen
Your worst kitchen disaster
When I was 8, I tried to warm a tin of minestrone soup in the kettle
The best thing to do with a bundle of asparagus?
Brine it in a 3% salt water brine then bbq it and serve with a hollandaise sauce
What would you like your final meal to be?
The tasting menu at the Oak Room Marco Pierre White served in the summer of 1998
What is your secret talent [in or out of the kitchen]?
The moonwalk
What did you eat for breakfast today?
Devilled avocado with boiled eggs and chilli
What’s in your fridge?
An old piece of coppa, lots of homemade pickles and chutneys, rollright cheese, clementines and salad
Your inheritance recipes – the one you inherited [and from whom] and the one you’d like to pass on to your children
Spag bol
Robin’s debut cookbook Larder: From pantry to plate – delicious recipes for your table is published by Absolute Press, £26.
Photography © Paul Winch-Furness
