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Waitrose País
AT 42, ‘cookery book author’ is the latest in a string of different careers Ian Haste has bounded into. In his 20s, the irrepressibly buoyant dad-oftwo was a Norfolk gastro pub chef (“I put parsley on everything”), via the traditional route: He went from pulling pints to prepping for the chef, to covering when he didn’t turn up for a lunch service, to taking charge.
His mum had taught him from a young age about the staples – “so I’d survive,” he says with a laugh – but he eventually realised cheffing wasn’t for him (“horrendous hours”).
Next came a decade-long stint as a business development manager with a gruelling commute into London every day, before Ian and his wife, Nic, decided to start a family, and he “put my hand in their air, stupidly” to stay at home with their babies. He says the “stupidly” with a huge, proud, luckiest-man-alive grin.
Haste’s Kitchen, his YouTube channel, launched in 2014 and combines his cheffing knowledge with his business presentation skills, backed up by some heavyduty social media nous: “I’ve got a YouTube family,” he says – which is something of an understatement. Dubbed the “first family of Youtube”, Ian’s wife, make-up artist Nic, her sister Sam (the two of them run make-up channel pixiwoo), and their twin brothers John and Jim Chapman, have a colossal combined YouTube, Twitter and Instagram following of around 21 million.
Haste found his own niche in an era pre-Deliciously Ella. “There was nothing online focusing on nice, easy, healthy home-cooking,” he remembers. “So I did a couple of videos.”
And now here he is, with 70 recipes bound in print, 92k YouTube subscribers of his own and 59k on Instagram, producing sponsored content for major supermarkets to boot.
But, like any shiny, seemingly perfect social media visage, there’s always more to it, and Ian’s food, fitness (he’s a gym
Supermarket of the Year 2019. That leads me on nicely to this snippet of Waitrose news. It has introduced a range of nine own label wines celebrating lesserknown grape varieties, from different regions and countries including four reds, one rosé, three whites and a fizz.
I sipped a handful and was impressed both by the wines and the price.
If you enjoy a glass of ripe and fruity Beaujolais, then you’ll enjoy (£7.99). This red is sourced from Chile, where País has grown since the 16th century. The wine is a lush ruby red, light enough to see through, and has signature notes of
brambles, plum and spice. I popped it in the fridge for an hour, just like a Beaujolais.
I was naughty enough to pour a splash of
(£6.99) into a red pepper sauce, which later said hello to a handful of plump gnocchi. I poured some into a glass and aromas of dark fruits and woody spice rose to meet me; a taste showed spice, roast and coffee.
Waitrose Marselan
( £7.99) is a white from Portugal. It is one of the main varieties in the Vinho Verde region, whose wines are perfectly placed to refresh in the summer months. It doesn’t have the slight trembling bubbles of Vinho Verde, but it does display subtle notes of ripe apple, pear, and flowers. It’s
Waitrose Arinto
bunny) and eating habits are intrinsically connected.
“I’m very health-conscious anyway, had to be,” he explains. “My wife, going back a few years ago, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, so we looked at all the aspects that are food related.”
While The 7-Day Basket isn’t a diet cookbook, wrought undeviatingly from nutritional advice, eating well, healthily and with the seasons is important throughout (it’s thoroughly cheerful though, there’s still mac and cheese and steak and ale hotpot in there).
Its crux though is Ian’s 7-day basket concept : Have your cupboards stocked with essentials at home, then make a week’s worth of dinners from one basket of shopping.
The idea is to help cut household food waste, vary up meal planning, put twists on staple dishes, and encourage people to make connections between what they’re eating tonight, and how they’re going to eat later in the week.
“I want people to be able to look at a bag of spinach and think, ‘I’m going to put that in a chicken saag for Monday, and I’m also going to tie that in with some pomegranate seeds on a Thursday with a lamb kebab’, so you’re using every last bit along the way,” he says.
Cooking practicalities aside, Ian obviously adores food – and is faithful to the cause. “I always swore for my kids that every Sunday would be a roast type meal, and I’ve stuck to that, for seven years I’ve committed to that, whatever the weather as well,” he says with a shake of his head.
Go for dinner with him and he’s likely to disappear for 20 minutes to cajole a recipe out of the chef too. His Maldivian chicken curry for instance was magpied on holiday in the Maldives (“I ate this curry five out of seven days,” he says, laughing at himself. “It was that good”).
“I always say, if you like something a lot, compliment the chef and also say, ‘Can I have the recipe?’ There’s nothing wrong with that.”
And when you’re as open and affable as Ian, who could say no?
meets YouTube cooking royalty to find out about his debut cookbook, The 7-Day Basket
a pretty, understated wine.
This next choice is an interesting wine for people who enjoy zesty riesling. Waitrose Elbling (£6.99) is from Germany, and the grape is an ancient variety from the Mosel Valley. It has historic family links to Riesling.
The wine is a pale lemon colour with a nose of citrus. There’s a fresh, sherbet lime zing in the mouth. It’s a lovely wine to help you see out the summer.