MEET THE CHEF: Nick Evans, Head Chef Lecturer at Rick Stein’s Cookery School
What’s your earliest food memory?
Picking blackberries in the back garden – we were forced to do it as kids so my parents could make awful blackberry wine – very 1980’s!!! the freezer was always full of them, and they stained your hands for days!
Did you always want to be a chef?
Not really. I started washing up in a restaurant when I was 14 and sort of fell into it from there – I think a lot of chefs get hooked in this way – I have always loved food, and I think that helped form my decision.
Tell us about your career – where have you worked/trained?
I’ve been working in kitchens since I was a teenager, and I then went to Oxford Brookes University to study Hotel and Restaurant management which resulted in me doing a 40 week work placement at the Seafood restaurant in 2001 and then I was hooked – returning in 2004 as a full time employee – working up to senior sous chef at the Seafood restaurant before becoming head chef at St. Petroc’s bistro, then moving over to be head chef lecturer at the cookery school in 2016.
What’s your favourite thing about/ working in Cornwall?
The countryside. I love being close to the water and going out on boats when I can – you work hard down here but then you are in Cornwall for your days off. It is a beautiful place to bring up a family.
What’s your favourite ingredient to work with and why?
It has to be fresh Cornish fish! I really love the versatility of Monkfish – all too often it is dismissed as a boring fish by people who have not had it prepared or cooked properly – there is nothing you can’t do with a Monkfish – it has a fairly neutral flavour so takes on strong flavours like in a curry or a braise of vegetables. My current favourite way of cooking it is boning out the middle and stuffing it with Mediterranean flavours such as roasted red pepper, anchovy, saffron and capers and then tying it up like a Sunday roast – delicious!
Aside from your own, what Cornish restaurants would you recommend?
I really love Nathan Outlaw and his style of cooking – I think that I have eaten in every restaurant that he has had in Cornwall over the years, and his food is always so clean and well executed – so any of Nathan’s restaurants in Port Isaac.
What has been your most interesting/fun experience from your time working as a chef?
It has to be the away days – I went to cook for the then Prince of Wales (now King Charles) for a charity event on the Cutty Sark – it was a tiny and very hot kitchen but it isn’t every day that you get to cook for royalty. Away days are always fun as you never really know what you will be walking into and you always have to be ready to improvise!
Which chef do you most admire and why?
Genuinely Rick Stein is my favourite chef and has influenced my life and career massively. He is so knowledgeable on food and his passion for new dishes is infectious. If I am not allowed to say Rick, then I am going to go with Fergus Henderson as I love what he does with nose to tail eating. His food is so clean and unfussy he knows and understands food, flavour and respect for ingredients.
What would your last request dish be?
Cottage pie made with ox cheek and a strawberry cheesecake circa mid 1990’s from Sainsbury’s.
What one piece of advice would you give to aspiring chefs?
Enjoy food. Listen to the experienced chefs around you – they have spent years honing their skills and the vast majority are very willing to share those insights and experiences with you for nothing – the information is there, just be a sponge and soak it all up.
Who are your favourite Cornish food producers/suppliers?
I always keep a bottle of Curio gin in the house, Phillip Warren for meat and some St. Ewe eggs.
What’s your favourite Christmas food/recipe and why?
It is a simple one, but very nostalgic for me – Chicken liver pate – and not a cheffy one where it is still very pink and just cooked – just old-fashioned cooking where it is seasoned up really well and with a massive slug of brandy. It reminds me of Christmases growing up in the family home and my first taste of it every year transports me back 35 years to Christmas day. It was traditionally our starter on Christmas day, but the leftovers make a great canape or snack too.
