chat with andrew parkinson

Hi there,

On Tuesday evening the fifth group of apprentices graduated. The lovely people from the Foundation threw the most spectacular party for the graduation and also to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Fifteen. Later today we will post up a video that was shown on the night and also Jamie's thoughts on the party. On the day of the gradutaion I interviewed Andrew Parkinson who is the Executive Chef at Fifteen. Andrew spoke about the food that Fifteen and Fifteen Events were preparing, I can verify that on the night it was absolutely delicious!

In the interview Andrew also mentions a sourcing trip to Italy that we take the apprentices on every year. They will be travelling to Italy later this month and I will make sure that we post up lots of pictures and information on the trip.

All the best

Danny



How long have you worked at Fifteen Andrew?
I have been with Fifteen for 2 and a half years now.

And how is it going?
Fantastic! In the last two and a half years I have grown to love food more and more and watching the youngsters coming in and training from scratch and graduating has been very inspiring, especially when towards the end of their time with us they take over the kitchen and run it by themselves. That, coupled with the professional team that we have at Fifteen makes it a pleasure for me to work here basically.

The team from Fifteen are working with Fifteen events to cater the graduation tonight. What’s on the menu?
Tonight we are serving an Antipasti starter with loads of plates of roasted beetroot, carrots, fennel, cipoloini’s, a whole slow roasted lamb, loads of smoked seafood and delicious bread from The Flour Station. Really easy food for people to pick up, nosh in the mouth and not have to worry about getting messy.


Over the past five years at Fifteen there have been signature dishes that have been created and inspired by Jamie and also from his books, can you expand on this for me?
There is a fair percentage of the food on the menu that is “Jamie inspired”. For example the gnocchi and all of the pastas and also the signature dish called Scallop Crudo which Jamie created many years ago we always carry this on the menu. Since we changed our menu in the evenings to the taster menu, crude is the signature dish. We build on recipes from all of Jamie’s books and we will always work on dishes for the menu when new books come out. We have Fish Stew on the menu from Cook with Jamie and Jamie’s Fantastic Salad is always on the menu especially at this time of the year with Clementine’s and Mozzarella. Traditionally lots of slow roasted meats and lamb has always been a favourite as well as Chocolate Tart and Panacotta. My continuing challenge is to keep up that high quality and consistency of what is on the menu when a new lot of apprentices start with us.

The sourcing trip to Italy is coming up soon with the apprentices. Will you be with them this year?
I will be travelling to Italy this year and in my role as Executive Chef I will be there with the apprentices, yes we have to look after them when they are there and really this is not a bad job at all. We have to ensure that they are on board with what they are there to see and learn. It’s a very gruelling pace on the trip but it is a spectacular trip. The apprentices get to taste fresh pressed olive oil and meet the fantastic suppliers from Italy. It is an honour for all of them to meet these people and they come away feeling so passionate about what they have seen and learnt. Every year I get to go and every year I get so excited bout going out there when I am on that plane.

For many of the apprentices this will be the first time that they have been on a plane and travelled outside of the UK. What’s it like to be on the plane with them?
It’s very funny sometimes as they do not have a clue what is going on sometimes. They are sometimes a little bit unsure about why they have to take their shoes off and taking your belt off as you go through. To see them on the plane… at first they are very, very quiet and then they get excited. The free food that comes around also is something that really amuses them. Just to see their faces as we land and they step out into another country and they feel the freshness of the Italian air, it is absolutely amazing. Spending time with them is brilliant and I get to know more about them, more than you would in the busy kitchen and they in turn get to know a bit more about me as well. A little bit of mutual respect is built which we take back into the kitchen.

Thanks Andrew


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