Hundreds of recipes pass through my purpose-built Test Kitchen each year, all meticulously measured and timed to ensure that each dish not only tastes fantastic but works perfectly every time.
What goes on inside the Test Kitchen
Inside the Test Kitchen no two days are the same, whether it’s recipe testing and development, filming content for TV and social media or washing up the dishes at the end of a busy day, it’s always a great place to be. There are usually three or four of us working on recipes at any time, which means we have lots of different opinions and ideas when a tasting takes place.
A typical testing day is pretty much prep, test, taste, prep, test, taste all day long. We fine tune quantities and ingredients, modifying our notes until we’re all 100 per cent happy that we’ve created the ultimate version of any recipe.
Of course, all of this cooking requires some serious organisation and a rolling stock of ingredients to ensure we have everything we might need to hand. Much of our food is ordered ahead online these days, but we also use local produce where possible… sometimes so fresh and local we only have to take a step outside the doors into the Test Kitchen garden.
Test Kitchen Garden
We’re very proud of the kitchen garden – a lot of hard work goes into its maintenance and in the summer months it’s teaming with life…. courgettes, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, carrots, aubergine, spinach, rhubarb, blackcurrants, apples, gooseberries, rocket, runner beans and lettuce to name just a few; plus just about every herb that will grow in the great British climate. It’s a lovely place to sit and catch-up over a cuppa while we work out the schedule for the week ahead, talk about upcoming projects and plan for any shoots or appearances.
Social Media
I post many of my creations on social media – see my Instagram page for updates and my Facebook page for more news on what’s happening in the Test Kitchen.
