ISLANDS TO HIGHLANDS: Chef James Martin chats about his latest culinary trip
CHEF JAMES MARTIN TELLS ELLA WALKER ABOUT HIS LATEST CULINARY TRIP
RIGHT now, none of us is able to explore the far reaches of our own town, let alone the far reaches of the UK. By a happy accident of timing though, we’ll get to watch chef James Martin do just that.
The restaurateur and TV chef’s latest series and accompanying cookbook, James Martin’s Islands To Highlands, sees him track up and down the UK, from the microclimates of the Channel Islands to the gamefilled landscapes of Scotland.
“We do take it for granted,” says James, 47, speaking before the coronavirus pandemic broke. “I don’t think we appreciate what’s on our doorstep.”
“Shetland is like being born with new eyes, it sounds really weird, but the colours, the clarity of what you see is surprising,” says James. “There’s no pollution there for sure, but it’s the clarity of everything, you do feel as though you’ve been reborn with new eyes.”
They also visit Puffin Island off the coast of Newcastle – “[There’s] over a quarter of a million puffins breeding on this island, and three quarters of a million seabirds - it’s unbelievable seeing that” – and swim with seals off Scilly.
James admits to having felt a little “trepidation at first” when faced with the slick, hulking creatures. “You don’t realise how big seals are – there were a couple of hundred where we were swimming, and they come right up to you,” he remembers. “It’s fantastic, it’s one of those life-changing things you feel very privileged to do – to have seen.”
Then there were the food producers he encountered. James learned about salted coley, called piltock in Shetland, used in fish cakes called ‘hairy tatties’: “The coley takes on the texture of hair, it’s quite cool.”
While in Northern Ireland he met kelp farmers on Rathlin Island, and a 14-year-old who, with help from his scientist dad, is one of the few producers of wasabi outside Japan.
“Taste-wise, it’s amazing,” buzzes James.
While James – a proper “farmer’s lad” who gets “a bit freaked out if I’m in a city for more than a couple of days” – is animated when talking about the landscapes, wildlife and producers he discovered, there’s a weariness that steals over him when talking about food culture and shopping habits in the UK.
“To fully understand food, you’ve got to appreciate how difficult it is to produce, and where it’s from, and then you’ll respect it a lot more, and respect the people who produce it,” he explains. He also considers artisan farmers’ markets “gimmicky” and “a tourist attraction” when we ought to be buying from everyday markets like they do in Europe, or at least from local fishmongers, butchers and grocers.
Choice is another problem. “We don’t eat a variety, we eat too much convenience food, without a shadow of a doubt, but we don’t have the variety of what we should have,” says James. “We still get fobbed off with the same stuff.”
“We have this obsession with buying, dare I say it, cheaper and cheaper food,” adds James, and unlike America and Europe, where produce is celebrated and beautifully displayed, “everything here is laid out on plastic for convenience, and I don’t understand why. It’s not showing off the ingredients at their best, it’s just price sensitive and ease of purchase.”
■ James Martin’s Islands To Highlands, photography by Peter Cassidy, is available now, published by Quadrille, £25. The accompanying TV show is on ITV, weekdays at 2pm.