MY LIST Josh Whitehead
JOSH Whitehead is head chef at Kino in Leeds, the restaurant owned by Opera North which stands next to the Grand Theatre. Josh, 28, is a MasterChef: The Professionals semi-finalist as well as being one of Yorkshire’s keenest foragers. He was born and raised in Leeds and lives in the city with his partner Claire, a wedding planner.
I’m currently reading: It’ll come as no surprise to learn it’s a book about cooking, or rather four of the men who have dominated the culinary scene in the last few decades – Gordon Ramsay, Marcus Wareing, Shaun
Hill and Heston Blumenthal. Tough Cookies is written by a guy called Simon Wright and it details their rise to the top of the tree, their passionate idealism and their very different styles and accomplishments. Wright examines this elite brotherhood and their remarkable impact on British eating out. We’ve just moved into a new home in Leeds and what shelves we have are already filled with books. Books on, or about, cooking. It takes a lot of skill to write a book and I admire that but I also love the photographs of the food itself. They’ve improved a lot over the years and I can study them for hours. As for reading itself, well, it tends to be about three pages at a time, just before I fall asleep. I’m afraid to confess that I was terrible at school, academically hopeless and a bit of a class clown, so I did come to reading for pleasure quite late.
I’ve been listening to: Whatever is blasting out as we prep the food in the kitchens during the day. It can be very varied indeed, usually from a Spotify playlist, so it might be Slipknot one minute, Dean Martin the next and after that Miley Cyrus. If it is left to me to choose something, then I’ll go for a bit of Roxy Music or perhaps Creedence Clearwater Revival, some of their classics. Of course, when we open the doors, the music is very relaxed indeed and I know a lot of chefs who are very careful at curating what is played in the background. You want a really nice ambience but not the sort of stuff that is played in lifts, socalled “elevator music”.
On TV, I’ve been watching: Re-runs of the excellent drama series Deutschland ’83 and the companion series ’86 and ’89. Brilliant stuff, very dark and very intense. On a lighter note, Taskmaster. I’ll watch some of the cookery shows, of course, but I’m not going to reveal which – that might show undue favouritism, but I’ve always loved what Gordon Ramsay does.
The live performance I’d recommend is:
There are three gigs that really stand out for me – and the first of those was when I went to see the American indie folk band Bon Iver, who are fronted by the singer-songwriter Justin Vernon, at the Festival Hall in London and it was an incredible evening. Then there was Ghost at the O2 Arena in Manchester – more of a bizarre ritual rather than a gig, when I think
back about it. They’re a sort of cross between Abba and Metallica. It was packed out and I was in the front row. In complete contrast to that was the fiftieth anniversary tour of Roxy Music, again at the O2 Arena, but that time I was so far back and high up that I was in the seats where you could get a nosebleed. It was still one of the best nights ever.
My next box set will be (or my last boxed set was…): It’ll be What We Do in the Shadows, which has to be one of the funniest series ever. And someone the other day told me that I really ought to catch up with the recent Interview With the Vampire, which apparently is a good watch.
The app I couldn’t be without is: I am an absolute addict for Instagram. I find out what other people are doing, post a lot of things about the restaurant and information about foraging, I do a lot of my research on Instagram and I also get inspiration there as well. I use Spotify for music, for podcasts and for audio.
What is at the top of your “to do” bucket list?: My father died while he was in Peru – he’d been inspired by the travels of Michael Palin. Now I’d also like to go trekking and climb Machu Picchu – nearly 8,000 feet of it – so that I can make that connection with my dad. I’d also like to open a pie shop, here in Leeds, with all sorts of traditional fillings but some new ones as well, using all manner of pastries. We’d do some charcuterie boards as well but I’m having second thoughts about doing the London thing and having pie, mash and eel jelly, because I’m not so sure how eels would go down in this part of Yorkshire. Mind you, the customers won’t know what they’re missing because they really are delicious. We have them on the menu at the restaurant where they are known as “river bacon”.
The Christmas menu at Kino, on New Briggate, Leeds, runs until December 30. www.kinoleeds. co.uk