& DRINK It started with a T
(Serves 4) 1 x 200g block feta cheese 1/2 loaf rye bread 4tbsp olive oil 1 garlic clove, halved 3-4tbsp runny honey 4 sprigs of thyme 2 sprigs of fresh lavender or 1/2tsp dried lavender Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper garlic clove.
Bake the rye slices in the oven for seven to 10 minutes until lightly golden and crisp. Remove the rye crisps and turn the oven to its grill setting.
Remove the kitchen paper from the feta and place the feta in an ovenproof dish just large enough for it to fit in snugly. Drizzle the honey on top, then add the thyme and lavender. Season well with salt and pepper and grill for five to 10 minutes until golden.
Remove the cheese from the grill. Serve the feta immediately with the rye crisps. HERE’S a difference between ‘tampering’ with classic recipes and ‘improving’ them, so says two-Michelin starred chef, Marcus Wareing.
The 47-year-old, best known for presenting MasterChef: The Professionals, and for running his three restaurants (Marcus at The Berkeley, The Gilbert Scott and Tredwells), has created a whole book based around that distinction.
New Classics, the follow-up tome to 2016’s Marcus At Home, takes traditional favourites and puts a spin on them, as well as offering up original dishes the Southport-born chef hopes “could one day become classics in their own right”.
Take his ‘new’ pineapple upside-down cake – a riff on the first thing he ever made in home economics at school.
“That day, it was all about the creaming method – creaming your butter and sugar together to make a basic sponge,” he remembers. “You lined a tin with butter and greaseproof paper, then put your tinned pineapple rings in, your tinned glacé cherries in the holes in the pineapple, then put your mix on top, bake it, turn it out – and it’s like, wow, hey presto – two or three actions and you’ve got yourself a fabulous-looking cake. So simple, but so much fun.”
His ‘new’ version still uses tinned pineapple (although sadly no glace cherries), plus the added bonus of a load of rum.
“I do have a fabulous sweet tooth. When I was growing up, fruit was a big part of our life,” says Marcus, recommending his poached peach with oat crumb and ricotta pudding, and recalling beautiful figs he’d buy with his father, who supplied local corner shops and schools with produce. It’s those memories driving Marcus’ next venture: growing his own.
“As a chef in central London, and who’s worked in cities, I just want to go back to my roots,” he muses.
“As a boy, I used to spend a lot of time going round farms with my father. I’d see farmers digging up the raw produce, the carrots, the swedes, the potatoes, and the herbs and beetroot that we used to get – it was amazing, but I never really understood the growing aspect of it. I’ve missed it, I really feel that I want to be part of that.”
He’s found a fairly big farm in Kent to develop. “I’ve got some apple orchards and bees, so I’m going to start producing my own honey, and we’re getting ready for