Chef Revelations – Stephen Terry

Stephen Terry, chef-patron at the Hardwick, Abergavenny, talks about Rose Gray, TripAdvisor, Little Chef and his nightmare football team…

 

What was your best subject at school?
Art and design

 

What was your first job?
Saturday boy in a shoe shop

 

What was your first job in catering?
Weekend cook in the Little Chef on the A5 just outside Dunstable

 

What do you normally have for breakfast?
A coffee

 

Which is your favourite restaurant?
The River Café, London

 

What's your favourite hotel?
The Prince Maurice, Mauritius

 

What is your favourite drink?
Good wine. I like most varieties

 

What is your favourite food/cuisine? Decent Italian

 

Which ingredient do you hate the most?
Okra

 

Are there any ingredients you refuse to cook with?
Anything sub-standard - you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear

 

Which person in catering have you most admired?
Rose Gray for her absolute and pure pursuit of the best seasonal produce and preparing and serving it with such great confidence, knowledge and simplicity

 

Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?
Paul Ward, my lecturer at Barnfield College. If it weren't for him I don't know if I would have gone to work in London after college.

 

What irritates you most about the industry?
TripAdvisor and the people who write complaints on it. Grow some round ones and say something at the time instead of going home, drawing the curtains, turning off the light and logging on to TripAdvisor.

 

Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take?
My wife, my kids and an au pair!

 

What daily newspaper/website do you read?
The Times and the Daily Mail

 

If not yourself, who would you rather have been?
Bruce Wayne

 

What is your favourite prepared product?
Dijon mustard

 

Describe your ultimate nightmare?
Waking up a Chelsea supporter!