MERLIN LABRON-JOHNSON
Meet one of the most talented young chefs in London. The Michelin inspectors awarded him a star just nine months after he opened Portland aged 24, and established chefs up and down the country regularly single him out as the man to watch.
When we are introduced to him, he exudes quiet confidence, with eyes that light up when he talks about traditional French cooking. ‘It’s tasty and there’s nothing to hide behind,’ he says. ‘You have to understand the techniques. At the moment it has been superseded by trendier cuisines like Nordic and not that many people are doing it really well anymore. But I think it’s at the very heart of fine dining and will be huge this year.
‘When I invent a new dish, I begin by doing it the classical French way because I think you have to truly understand something before you can innovate it.’
Labron-Johnson’s childhood was spent in the hippie enclave of Totnes in Devon, so it comes as no surprise that he predicts big things for vegetables in the months ahead. ‘Cooking is going to be less protein-led as chefs realise how exciting veg can be. In winter, I bake root vegetables such as celeriac in a salt crust until the texture is unrecognisable, then carve it like meat.’
In particular, he thinks we’ll see a lot more kohlrabi, a bulbous root that is a member of the cabbage family. ‘It’s very crunchy and has a lot of moisture. I slice it into ribbons and wrap them around a scoop of crab mayo. I also think we’re going to see a lot more goat on menus. I hate waste but male kids are often culled at birth because they can’t produce milk. When eaten young enough, the meat is beautiful with garlic and rosemary.’
He is on a mission to give a voice to the little people in the food industry. ‘Small producers love food as much as we do and fight bravely every day to survive against big wholesalers.’