Romy Gill’s clever 20-minute meals are fast food with flair
Dinner on the table in 20 minutes? TV chef Romy Gill proves it can be done with a little spice and imagination. By Pip Sloan
Aprons at the ready – it’s time for the battle of the red kitchen vs green kitchen. Following its return to our screens last year after a 10-year hiatus, Ready Steady Cook is back for a second series, starting tomorrow. And it couldn’t be more timely, argues one of its star chefs, Romy Gill. “The show reflects how so many of us are cooking at the moment,” she says, “using what’s available, thinking on our feet and getting creative.” With the six-week series filmed in just a fortnight (without an audience), Gill had to dig deep into her repertoire to come up with enough recipe ideas to fill the four-episode-a-day schedule – all inspired by a mystery bag of ingredients provided by the contestants.
“It was exhausting! We’d get up at 7am and finish filming at 9pm. I had to keep going because I was the oldest in the group and couldn’t let the side down,” she says with a laugh. “Sometimes I’d get the same ingredient two or three times in a couple of days, and each dish had to be better than the last. I am competing against the other chefs, but also against myself, and I think that’s what makes the show even better than last year.”
This series, Gill will be cooking alongside chefs Mike Reid, Akis Petretzikis, Ellis Barrie and Anna Haugh, with host Rylan Clark-Neal dictating whether the mystery ingredients tot up to £3.50, £5, £7.50 or, “if he is feeling particularly happy”, £10. All the dishes have to made in under 20 minutes.
Gill’s secret weapon for cooking against the clock? “A good stock of spices,” she says. “Spices are the best ingredients for producing quick, delicious food on a budget. They can be used with any kind of vegetable, grain or meat, in endless combinations.” Having grown up in West Bengal, she says, “I think that’s where I had the upper hand.”
“As well as sitting back and enjoying the show, I hope viewers will be able to take inspiration from it,” Gill says. “Lots of us are getting veg box deliveries, and if you find yourself with a pointed cabbage or a cauliflower, you can go beyond simply steaming it or making a cauliflower cheese! Make cauliflower rice, cauliflower curry, or blend it with a bit of cheese and cream into a pasta sauce. “Ferment it, pickle it, roast it whole – there are so many more things you can do with humble vegetables that require little more than some spices and your imagination.”
Think you’re up to the 20-minute challenge? Across these pages Gill shares her favourite quick ideas to get you started. Timer at the ready...
Ready Steady Cook airs on BBC One weekdays at 3.45pm and on iPlayer