If food really is the new rock’n’roll, I reckon Matt Tebbutt is potentially the Ed Sheeran of the British food scene. Excellent at everything he does and effortlessly crossing genres. From running his own kitchen to presenting some of our favourite foodie shows, Matt wears his expertise lightly but there’s no doubting his passion for food and cookery.
This month, he’ll be presenting at the annual Blenheim Palace Food Festival, and I’m always really curious to know how much the acts to actually get to spend time enjoying what most of us is a fun day out. After all, he’s there to do a job, right? “It's not proper work you know!” he tells me when we speak on a video call. “You do a food demo and have a bit of a laugh. People want to stop and chat – and it’s a nice way to spend an afternoon, milling around, eating, trying lots of new stuff, having a chat, having a beer or cider”…
Do you know which dish you’ll be presenting?
It'll be something seasonal for spring. You need to make it accessible, and you need to have enough to talk about in the dish. I mean, there are many things I could knock up and it's all over in a couple of minutes, so there's no point doing those. You’ve got to think about dishes that you can chat through and look great at the end. Dietary-wise, you [suggest things that] could be subbed out – change this for that.
Is there anything else you need to consider?
You do the thing that you have decided is a typical ‘you dish’, something you're happy to champion and shout about. So, I love offal, but I probably wouldn't go on stage and do an offal dish, because you've got a very limited market for that. And I think the other thing you have to bear in mind is cost. Meat is expensive right now so there's no point in bringing out the most expensive cuts; the rarefied steaks and the Galician 14-year-old cattle. You have to make it accessible and preferably stuff you can get in supermarkets. I did a dish the other day on Saturday Kitchen, and whereas I would have once done a leg of lamb, which is now coming in at about £50-60 a leg, I did a neck, and it was delicious. You bring all those things into the equation.
Have you appeared at The Blenheim Palace Food Festival before?
I haven't. I’ve been to Blenheim and I’ve cooked at Blenheim couple times, but I've never done the food festival. It looks really nice, and it's a nice time of year, right at the start of the season. It’s on the Bank Holiday, so people are around, and obviously it’s in Oxfordshire and I went to Oxford Brookes, so I know the area a little bit. Food wise, it's fantastic.
Do you have any fond food memories from your time in Oxford?
It was the early 90s and we used to live just off the Cowley Road, so, it was the Hi Lo Jamaican Eating House, kebabs, Star of Asia…what else was there? Coco's, Raymond was there. There was that beautiful conservatory, Gees – I used to love that place – and The Old Parsonage. If you wanted to take your parents somewhere posh it was The Old Parsonage. If you didn't, you went to Browns.
You then went on to gain a diploma from the prestigious Leith’s School of Food and Wine and worked for various notable chefs including Marco Pierre White and Alastair Little. How did you find working in a kitchen environment?
When I was in training it was more of a case of keeping your head down and doing your work. Then I had my own place for 14 years.
When I first moved in, I was all guns blazing, wanting it to be the best. You're working flat out, and as you grow up, you chill out a bit, and things aren't quite as stressful. I did definitely change very quickly, because if you're shouting at people because you're not happy with what's going on and they walk out nobody's walking through the door to replace them. The one person you don't shout out is the pot-wash, because you don't want to be doing that at the end of the night.
Do you miss being in the kitchen?
I miss certain elements of it. I miss the camaraderie. I miss the chat, the banter, kitchens are a bit more sanitised now. The paperwork and the nonsense that surrounds it – the bureaucracy of kitchens – I don't miss at all. I do miss the creativity.
I still cook every day at home. I'll go and buy stuff, mess around with it and spend hours a day cooking. Obviously, you know, I get my fix on Saturday Kitchen, so there's an outlet there.
What do you make if you’re just cooking for yourself?
Oh, that's a really good question. If it's just for me, I will happily go and grab some noodles and just do a fridge raid. I've got a pot of chicken powder which I love but I wouldn't want to know what's in it – I suspect there's a lot of MSG. I'll chuck a few spoonfuls of that in a pot and boil up. I've always got some Polish salamis and crab sticks, so I’ll chop that with some noodles and chili sauce. Anything with crispy chili sauce tastes bloody delicious. Chuck a hard-boiled egg in, and there you go. Sounds like a very low effort ramen.
Do you have any cooking hacks you’re happy to share?
Pre-cooked rice. Love it. I never cook rice because I'm pretty crap at it – I always get it wrong.
I was really sceptical of air fryers until I had to use one because my oven’s broken. They're bloody great. Instant convection oven! I cooked a beef chop last night, and it was great.
Have you ever been starstruck on Saturday Kitchen?
I have. I'm always really terrified when we get proper presenters on. When I meet people like Sir Trevor McDonald, or any proper kind of newsreader, and I get really stumbly, which makes me look like an idiot.
I met Lee Mack at a festival, and I was so useless. ‘Aaarggh, it’s Lee Mack’. All those things you really want to ask somebody just go out the window to the point where my son had to push me aside and continue the conversation in a more measured way, because I was so pathetic.
In a studio setting, you don't really get starstruck, because it’s a different mindset. They're there for a reason and you're in a studio. I mean, if I saw people out in a supermarket, I'd go nuts. If I saw Monty Don in my local Waitrose I’d wet myself.
Apart from Saturday Kitchen, and Blenheim of course, is there anything else you’re up to that we should know about?
I've got a podcast on BBC Sounds called Checkout Confessions. We have celebs on, we chat, and we look at say, the top items that they get every week in the supermarket. That's the jumping off point. I had Fay Ripley on the other week and she was so excited, because she said she spends her whole time walking around the supermarket just putting items in in case somebody stops her and looks in her basket.
Before I go, I must ask, did you enjoy your time on MasterChef the Professionals?
Very much. They are long days and it's very intense, so you get very invested in the contestants. Marcus and Monica were very good to me; they were very strangely encouraging, because they're quite tough. They were really nice to me and the crew were great.
Matt Tebbutt will be in the festival kitchen at the Blenheim Food on Saturday 23 May. The three day gastronomic extravaganza offers a fantastic line-up of celebrity chefs and experts, amazing food and drink from gourmet delights to street food. Visitors on Sunday 24 May will be treated to a demonstration by Raymond Blanc OBE and on Monday 25 May the fabulous Sabrina Ghayour will be taking to the stage. In addition to the food demos, visitors can taste a range of delights from the carefully selected food stalls and also discover a myriad of artisan kitchenware traders, craft brewers, farm shops and more. Find out more and book tickets at blenheimpalace.com.
