All Torode's lead to home
"What are you like in the kitchen?" asks MasterChef's John Torode at the beginning of our cookery masterclass.
"I'm OK," I grunt, a mental carousel of burnt biscuits, teeth-extracting pork joints and soggy bottoms whirling to mind.
"Did anyone tell you that you had to be brilliant at cooking?" despairs the 50year-old, with a world-weary sigh.
"People forget that their friends love them. They come around to your house for dinner not because they want you to show off to them. They come round your house for dinner because they love you."
My nearest and dearest might be more inclined to come round for dinner if there was less chance of the usual tortured pasta dishes I foist upon them. And evidently, I'm not the only one to feel coy about my cooking skills (or lack of) because Torode's new cookery tome My Kind Of Food explores just that.
A deeply ' personal' collection of recipes (complete with pictures and cards made by his four children proudly placed alongside the acknowledgements), the emphasis is on getting us back in the kitchen and having some fun there. And if that means using shop-bought condiments, so be it.
"You don't make your own vinegar," he reasons. "You don't make your own honey."
Correct, John. So after starting off with banana bread ("Everybody in Australia has banana bread"), we move swiftly on to Pesto and Tomato Tarts and Pesto and Pods, made with peas.
"Look, here are the escapepeas," says the MasterChef judge, pointing at a few rogue frozen peas.
While the tarts are in the oven, the surfaces are wiped down (the Aussie chef is very much a mucker-inner) and the dad-style puns flow, Torode receives an unexpected delivery of flowers to celebrate the launch of his book.
"I know who those are from... my lovely girl," he smiles. A check of the card and a quick phone call confirms they are indeed from Torode's "lovely" girlfriend Lisa Faulkner.
The two met back in 2010 when actress and now cook Faulkner won Celebrity MasterChef. After a few years of friendship, they fell in love.
Very much personally unified, the couple like to keep things separate professionally.
"I think the prospect of Lisa and me doing a cookery show together is very slim," says the keen cyclist.
"We'd be very happy, but the fact is we're very different cooks. We have our own lives and that's what good about it."
Recently, Torode had to come to terms with his oldest son, a third-year ecology student, flying the nest to Sydney where he is doing a placement.
"He loves it, absolutely loves it... but I now know how my father felt 25 years ago," he says.
"But the good thing is, he's been packed off with his Le Creuset pot my father bought him, which he uses to cook for himself, and a foldaway knife which he knows how to keep sharp... and he's done."
That all his brood leave home knowing how to "iron a shirt, buy a bus ticket and cook a couple of bits of food" is something Torode holds dear.
"Good food should be accessible to everybody and that's what I've done with the book," he says.
"I'm not after Michelin stars, I'm not after praise in that way, what I really like is when people taste my food and say, ' That's delicious'. And if that word comes out all the time, that's fantastic. I'm really, really happy."
If you fancy trying some of Torode's delicious dishes, here are some from My Kind Of Food...
ROAST CHICKEN WITH CREME FRAICHE, NEW POTATOES AND WATERCRESS
(Serves 6) 1 large chicken, about 1.5kg 200g creme fraiche 1/2 lemon 4tsp vegetable oil 500g new potatoes 100g watercress Salt and freshly ground black pepper 1tsp mustard (optional)
Heat the oven to 200C/gas 6. Season the inside of the chicken with salt and pepper, then spoon the creme fraiche into the cavity. Plug the end of the chicken with the lemon half. Rub the chicken with some of the oil, season well and then place in a roasting tin, breast up.
Roll the potatoes in the remaining oil and then scatter around the chicken. Place the chicken in the oven and roast for one hour 10 minutes without opening the oven door. Leave it.
Pick the largest stems off the watercress and put the lot into a large bowl filled with cold water. Push the watercress under the water and place the bowl in the fridge. The clean watercress will float to the top while all the dirt will sink to the bottom.
Take the chicken out of the oven. Pour the creme fraiche out of the chicken over the potatoes in the tin, then turn the chicken upside down onto a board and leave it to sit for 10 minutes so that all the juices flow back into the breast. It will be done.
Meanwhile, place the tin over a medium heat and bring to the boil, stirring the potatoes around the tin so all the lovely sticky bits come off the sides and make the sauce. Take it off the heat.
Lift the watercress out of the bowl and shake off the excess water. Put the chicken and potatoes onto a large platter, scatter over the watercress and pour yourself a congratulatory vat of wine.
Add a spoonful of mustard for a bit of spice in the creme fraiche.
TOMATO AND PESTO TARTS
(Makes 4 tarts) 500g block puff pastry (all -butter, if possible) Plain flour, for dusting 1 egg, beaten 2tbsp pesto (home-made or just use a jar) 8 plum tomatoes, sliced Salt and freshly ground black pepper To serve: 100g watercress 10ml peppery olive oil Heat the oven to 220C/gas 7. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
On a lightly floured worktop, roll the puff pastry out until it is about 2cm thick. You will need to cut four circular discs from the pastry, so find a small plate or saucer that's about 16cm in diameter to use as a template. Place the plate over the pastry and run a sharp knife around the edge to cut out the first disc. Repeat until you have four.
Now you need to lightly score a margin about 1.5-2cm in from the edge of the pastry discs, so find a smaller plate or bowl that you can use as a template. Place the smaller plate in the centre of each pastry disc and lightly run a sharp knife around the edge, being careful not to cut all the way through.
Lift the disks onto a baking sheet and brush with the beaten egg. With a fork, prick the inner circle but not the outer edge - this will stop the pastry from rising in the middle, but will allow the outer edge of the tart to rise up.
Take a good amount of the pesto and spread it over the inner circle of each tart. Place the tops and bottoms of the tomatoes in the centre of the tarts, then start to lay the slices on top of the pesto so they overlap and create a swirl effect - it should look a bit like a Catherine wheel. Season with salt and pepper.
Place the tarts in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until well risen and coloured. Mix the watercress with the olive oil and serve with the tarts.