Attention foodies! Eat Food Festival in Henley until Saturday – tune in to Radio Berkshire tonight
From behind the burners in Binfield Heath to a Kitchen in the Kenton…. Tonight, as part of the Eat Food Festival, Ryan and Liam Simpson-Trotman from the award-winning and outstanding Orwells Restaurant will present a Saturday Kitchen style live show, with a Q&A session as well as the cooking tips that listeners of Radio Berkshire’s Eat with Your Ears enjoy on a weekly basis.
This evening’s show will be entertaining and also epitomise the ethos behind their cooking – sustainability and seasonality and one of the meals being cooked will feature a slow-roasted tomato, as to what happens you will have to go along and watch! The two met down in Devon where they were both chefs at different restaurants.
They have run Orwells together since May 2010 and have won many awards including 4 AA Rosettes, a listing in the Michelin Guide along with three Gold Stars in the Sustainable Restaurant Association for being a champion of sustainability, as well as other local awards including recently be awarded “Restaurant of the Year” at the recent Thames Valley Hospitality Awards. They are also nicely in the twenties in the Good Food Guide and that has led to them heading to London in July to provide a pop-up restaurant for the Waitrose Academy.
When I caught up with Ryan, I asked if with this event and the pop-up restaurant whether they had considered doing pop-up restaurants at events such as Royal Ascot or Henley Royal Regatta. He replied: “We have certainly been asked to do them, and it certainly would be an interesting challenge, but at the moment we want to concentrate on Orwells.”
In concentrating on Orwells, what comes highest on Ryan and Liam’s agenda, providing food which may get them Michelin Star’s or food that appeals to people who may want to eat at the restaurant. Surprisingly perhaps neither as Ryan explains. “I have no idea what I need to do to get a Michelin star, I’ve never had one! We want to create and serve a menu that we want to feel energised to get out of bed and cook every day and fits with our ethos. To cook what we believe in.
“I know of restaurants who will serve meals with 12 months of the year, but we believe in seasonality and so we will only serve it between St George’s Day and the summer solstice – the English Season”.