Cocktails, kebabs and instant gravy – what 10 top chefs really eat in a day

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‘A dish or three might be sampled through lunch, which may very well include the involvement of puddings’

Jeremy Lee, chef and co-owner of Quo Vadis, London W1

A first pot of the day of Barry’s Tea (milk, no sugar) is vital, and where a biscuit and newspaper were once the order of the day, for the most part, a biscuit is now a treat, usually a Rich Tea or a Le Petit Beurre. The day given its greeting – Soho ahoy. It is hard to cycle past Maison Bertaux and not be lured by the delights of a pain au chocolat, pain au raisin, cheese croissant or indeed a croissant to dunk in a cappuccino at Quo Vadis, or a flat white from Flat White on Berwick Street.

Barry’s Tea (milk no sugar) at the start of the day

More often than not, there is a call to go and buy something forgotten or not delivered. Cycling around the West End of London has always been a treat, with many a fine spot to make a pit stop. The first of the 0baked at the custard tart shop [Café de Nata] opposite the Algerian Coffee Stores are a mighty fine elevenses, and as Gelupo is around the corner, a swift visit for a tub of pistachio and hazelnut ice-cream.

Then to Lina Stores for focaccia and mortadella; a wealth of naughty biscuits; salami; prosciutto; a fresh, dripping mozzarella. Pursuits concluded, cravings sated, ’tis to the kitchen we go, with extra treats in hand.

Jeremy Lee photographed behind a table laden with all the food he eats in a day while holding a martini and a biscuit

The kitchen is in full midmorning swing. Beside each chopping board there is always a pot bristling with spoons to dip into simmering pans, ensuring all tastes well while preparing dishes for the menu. For the most part, dishes require tasting so often there is no question of hunger games, and precious little appetite – or so one might think. Quo Vadis take vittles for the crew as seriously as the dishes prepared for the dining rooms. A joyful find on the pass today is a wholemeal focaccia just out of the oven stuffed with porchetta tonnato and a salad of good things left over from the day before (baked tomatoes, grilled courgettes).

At Neal’s Yard Dairy, no visit is complete without tasting at least five different cheeses. If returning to Maison Bertaux, eyes are easily drawn towards the best strawberry tart in the capital (quite right, too, as this is the oldest French patisserie in London), and chocolate eclairs and coffee choux puffs. Then a return to Quo Vadis, the great dame of Dean Street.

A dish or three might be sampled through lunch, which may very well include the involvement of puddings. We ensure the peaches, plums, currants and berries are on form, and indeed the pistachio cake, the meringues, ice-cream, sorbet and biscuits. Today, a dear friend drops off a still-warm sausage roll from The Ginger Pig, which has to be shared with the kitchen in the afternoon.

An evening stroll along the terrace, through the dining rooms to the club, invariably coincides with the sounding of the martini gong and that terrible choice: a negroni, or a martini? I have my martini biting cold, straight up with a twist.

Martini – biting cold, straight up with a twist

A dear friend calls to say he has never eaten at Café Cecilia, so off we go to plates of crisp fried sage, panisse, ravioli, a lemon sole and a fleet of puddings. I am glad for a walk later as home is just round the corner.

‘Breakfast is black coffee followed by cake’

Milli Taylor, head of the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen, London

All of our cakes are made in our delis, and we taste them every week to keep on top of quality and to see if we can make any improvements or seasonal changes. So, this is breakfast after a black coffee.

We make all the viennoiserie at our central kitchen, and then they go out to each site to prove and bake. I eat these with Jens, our pastry development chef, to check the texture and crumb.

Viennoiserie from Ottolenghi central kitchen

Guest chef dish of Udon Noodles at Koya in Hackney

Octopus and fava beans at Ottolenghi Spitalfields

After a welcome few hours of just a savoury spoon of this and that from the development chefs in the test kitchen, we all head to Koya Ko in Hackney, east London, to try our guest chef dish of udon. It is really good to sit down as a team and catch up over a bowl of noodles.

We cycle in convoy to Yard Sale Pizza to cook our collaboration recipe with their team. Last month, £1 from every pizza sold went to Magic Breakfast, to provide children with a meal before school.

Mushrooms and cashew sauce at Ottolenghi Spitalfields

I jump on a bike to Ottolenghi Spitalfields, where I taste some new dishes with head chef Christos and manager Rui. We try octopus and fava beans, manti [Turkish dumplings] and a new vegan dish of grilled oyster mushrooms and cashew sauce. Then, I cycle home and fall asleep on the sofa. True story.

‘I don’t make gravy at home – I’m fine with Bisto’

Roberta Hall-McCarron with all the food she eats in a day

Roberta Hall-McCarron, chef and owner of The Little Chartroom, Eleanore, and Ardfern, Edinburgh

Generally, I have weekends off, but I still get up at 6.30am as I have a two-year-old. Sunday is our day to go and do nice things; our daughter gets cabin fever, so we’ll go for a walk, but it has to be coffee first. Then, Hobz Bakery is a 10-minute walk from our flat, so we’ll perch on a seat outside and have one of their amazing pastries or a toastie, which is a punchy breakfast. I might get a peanut miso cookie to take away for later, too.

Lunch soup - ham hock or chicken broth with vegetables (1)

Lunch is always pretty chilled. It’s just soup – ham hock or chicken broth with vegetables, such as mushrooms or broccoli – and a bagel. Then, there’s always oatcakes in the house, so I might have some with cheese or ham, if I want a snack.

Dinner is quite traditional: we tend to do a roast chicken, and the leftovers are great in sandwiches over the next couple of days. Then, lots of green vegetables, cauliflower cheese, yorkshire puddings and tons of gravy. I’m not making the gravy myself at home, though; I’m fine with Bisto, it’s one of those nostalgic things I grew up with. We’ll treat ourselves to something from The Pastry Section for dessert; their chocolate cakes are amazing. We then stick something on the TV and most likely fall asleep while watching.

‘When I’m at home and don’t have a lot of time, I’ll cobble together a caprese. I could eat this every day’

Simon Rogan, chef and owner of L’Enclume, Cartmel, Cumbria

I flit between having honey porridge with a side of Bovril on toast, which is something I grew up with, or strawberry yoghurt, a cup of tea and an orange juice; or a bowl of muesli with berries and yoghurt, which is quicker and easier to make at work. One of those will fill me up.

When I’m at home and don’t have a lot of time at lunch, I’ll cobble together a caprese – I love it and could eat this every day. For something more substantial, though, I’ll go for a pitta pizza with various toppings (chilli, Italian meats, basil) and a side of chips, salad and garlic mayo.

Dinner is never at a set time, depending on if I’m at home, working, or visiting the restaurant. At home, my all-time favourite is a green papaya som tam salad, and I always have a batch of this on the go. Today, I served it with chicken thighs roasted in five-spice, plus some rice. My family loves it.

I’ll have a beer or a vodka lime and soda – I’m trying to reduce my sugar intake, so it’s my drink of choice at the moment. Having said that, I do love a slice of lemon meringue pie for dessert.

‘The team eat dinner early, at 5pm – usually offcuts of the whole animals we have in’

Max Rocha, chef and owner of Café Cecilia, London E8, and author of the Café Cecilia Cookbook

We serve breakfast at the restaurant Fridays to Sundays, so on those days I’ll get stuck into the breakfast mise en place at about 7.30am and make myself yoghurt and granola. Otherwise, I’ll grab cold porridge and nuts from Marks & Spencer – there’s something about the cold part I love. I’ll also have sparkling water, then a coffee at 9am.

We have a late staff breakfast at 11am, before lunch service. On a Wednesday and Thursday, front-of-house makes it, otherwise whichever chef is on the breakfast shift will. It’s always eggs, because they’re such good energy for the day, so we’ll have either a frittata or scrambled eggs, toast, plus bacon on weekends. Sometimes, we have pancakes as a treat.

Max Rocha breakfast of cold porridge and nuts from Marks & Spencer

Max Rocha lunch prepared for and by the staff at the restaurant, always involving eggs.

Max Rocha dinner of chicken Caesar salad prepared for staff in the restaurant kitchen

I stopped drinking a couple of years ago, so snacks were a big thing for me to alleviate stress. I’m trying to snack less now; I can’t have one of something or I’ll eat a thousand! I might have something around 3pm, though, like a granola bar. And if it’s a busy service, I’ll have a Diet Coke to take the edge off.

We eat dinner early, at 5pm, and that’s quite important as I then sleep better. What we have depends on what’s in the kitchen. We get lots of whole animals in, so there’s usually offcuts of lamb legs. We’ll do mince, or lasagne, but today we have chicken caesar salad. I like one of the newer members of staff to make it, as it’s good to learn how to be organised with prep, but it also gives them a creative outlet. Don’t get me wrong, it can also be a lot of tomato pasta, and once in a blue moon I’ll order us all a pizza. When we first opened and I was stressed, I’d get a takeaway when I got home, but that made me feel worse, so after the staff meal that’s me done. It’s hard to wind down after work, but I’m usually asleep by 9pm. It’s not very rock’n’roll, but it suits me – and the restaurant is better for it.

‘This is the healthy version of me now; I used to stay up drinking until 4am’

Abby Lee with all the food she eats in a day.

Abby Lee, chef and owner of Mambow, London E5

I’m not a breakfast person. When you stay up so late for work, all you want when you get up in the morning is lots of liquid. I get up around 9am, do some meditation and breathwork, then head straight to work (unless I need to pick up any ingredients). I get to the restaurant around 11am, and I bring the drinks, which is a decaf flat white for me.

Abby Lee dinner - takeaway from Somine in Dalston. Spiced bulgur wheat box with good flatbread, the garlic-chilli sauce and the spiced lamb kebab.

Abby Lee - morning drinks being delivered to the staff at Mambow restaurant.

There are pastries, such as cinnamon swirls, in the back, as well as fruit. But we all sit down together to eat at about 4.30pm. We alternate who cooks, but this time we have miso butter roast chicken; we always have Chinese-style stir-fry vegetables with oyster sauce, soy sauce, white pepper and leftover chicken stock. We’ll have another salad, too, maybe with red cabbage, za’atar, and crispy onions. As it is a Saturday and we want to use up ingredients, we have an extra treat of calamari. On a good day, we take 45 minutes for our meal, but if we’re in a rush it could be just 15 minutes.

From then on, it’s dinner service and pretty hardcore. We love 100Plus, which is an isotonic drink, and we also use it in our cocktails in the restaurant. It’s so good, but otherwise we’ll have juices with turmeric or ginger. I don’t have a sweet tooth, but towards the end of the night, I’ll pick at any desserts we can’t keep.

I finish up about half-midnight, and I’ll have a takeaway from Somine in Dalston at 1am. I always get the spiced bulgur wheat box, which comes with good flatbread and the usual garlic-chilli sauce, and the spiced lamb kebab. I’ll have a sleepy tea, which is a Vietnamese herbal tea called trà tim sen, to try to wind down, then I’ll have a hot shower and go to bed at 2.30am. This is the healthy version of me now; I used to stay up drinking until 4am. My body didn’t agree with this cycle of eating, especially when I started. Adrenaline does fill you up and it’s unhealthy, which is why I’ve tried to put in these systems.

‘I’ve had to teach myself that there’s a difference between tasting and eating, because I’m a very greedy person’

Tommy Banks, chef and director of The Black Swan at Oldstead; Roots York, and The Abbey Inn in North Yorkshire

I eat a lot of eggs, and I have to have them every morning with a cup of Yorkshire Tea. Right now, I’m having six scrambled eggs, but I go through phases – before this, it was a big omelette. Sometimes I finish the scrambled eggs with cheese, but we’ve been making merguez sausages from our Herdwick lambs, so I’ll have a couple of those as well – but they’re only small. I would never find myself in a situation where we don’t have eggs in the house.

I have a disease called ulcerative colitis, so I’m quite particular about what I eat. I changed my diet last October; my lifestyle was to eat everything and drink most evenings, but I feel so much better now. I’m going to sound like the most boring person, but during the week I always have the same lunch: I love the full-fat cottage cheese and Greek yoghurt from Longley Farm in Yorkshire, and I’ll have a big bowl of that with berries or other fruit, and almond butter. I get so much grief from my team for my diet, but as I’m always in meetings and popping between restaurants, it has to be something I can eat with a spoon. We have amazing staff teas in the restaurant, so I might have some meat from that, but I’m also tasting all the time. I’ve had to teach myself that there’s a difference between tasting and eating, because I’m a very greedy person.

Breakfast - Scrambled eggs with merguez sausages made from their own Herdwick lambs and a cup of Yorkshire tea

Dinner of rib eye steaks with bearnaise sauce, courgettes from the garden and olive oil potatoes.

My day-to-day is generally 8am to 7pm, but if I’m working service then I don’t get home until midnight. As we have animals on the farm, we always have a freezer full of meat at home, and I like that there’s no food miles. My daughter’s favourite thing in the world is any kind of hollandaise sauce, so we have bearnaise with rib-eye steaks, and courgettes from the garden. Most nights, we’ll also have olive oil potatoes: boil new potatoes, crush them with the back of a cup, then roast them in olive oil and salt until super crisp. Whenever I’m at home, this is what we do, then on the weekend we’ll go to our pub, and I’ll fill my boots with a massive ice-cream sundae.

‘If I’m peckish, I’ll have green apple with some peanut butter’

Romy Gill, chef and author of Romy Gill’s India
Being freelance, it’s so important to have a routine. I get up at about 7am, then religiously make chai. I love a good sourdough, so sometimes I’ll have that with honey, or homemade jam – my neighbour recently gave me some blackcurrant jam.

Breakfast - sourdough toast with honey or homemade jam.

Snack of a green apple with some peanut butter

I drink a lot of black coffee, then if I’m peckish, I’ll have a green apple with some peanut butter. Otherwise, I don’t really eat anything else, which I know is a bad habit, but intermittent fasting works for me. When I’m cooking, I just don’t feel like eating, and I don’t really taste [while I’m cooking], either. When I was on James Martin’s Saturday Morning, he said, “You didn’t taste it!” But the seasoning was perfect; I’m Indian and you just know.

Khichdi [rice and lentils] is my go-to dinner, and it’s made differently in every state of India. I have a pressure cooker, so I can make it in 10 minutes – the perfect quick, wholesome meal. You can add a fried egg on top, you can add keema [mince], or I add a radish and onion salad. I was bought up on chutneys and so I’m big on condiments. I put some homemade lemon, ginger and chilli pickle on the side, and I’ll also have some natural yoghurt with black salt, which I love. I have this once a week.

‘I’ve found my perfect diet – although it is a little boring’

Santiago Lastra with all the food he eats in a day.

Santiago Lastra, co-owner and chef-patron of KOL and Fonda, both in London

It’s ironic that chefs often don’t eat well. The hours I work make eating complicated, but I’ve found my perfect diet – although it is a little boring. I wake up at 6am, and have one big date, and a mushroom coffee. I then go to the gym and afterwards I’ll have an acai shake with berries, banana, sometimes apple juice.

I used to have around 10 coffees a day, but then you forget that you’re hungry. Now, I pick up a matcha latte on the way to work, as well as a seaweed, tuna or salmon onigiri, which I’ll have around 11am. As a chef, if you don’t eat anything you’ll still eat, because you’re tasting so many things; it could be a chilli tasting, or just elements of all the dishes – but you need to force yourself to have a routine so there’s some consistency.

At 3.30pm, we have our staff meal. We always have salad and vegetables, and try to add something fermented, such as sauerkraut or fermented tomatoes. Then, it depends on who is cooking: sometimes it will be Korean, sometimes Indian, or grilled chicken with rice and vegetables, or lasagne. But the meal must include salad and a carb (rice, quinoa, barley), and then it can be chicken or fish – I’ll usually be standing very close to the fish tray.

At about 7pm, I have a cup of hojicha (toasted matcha); it’s an amazing tea because it gives you energy. I get home about 10.30pm and make myself soup. I love soup: miso (maybe with pickled or fermented mushrooms), noodle soup, lentil soup. Work can be stressful, so it’s nice to have a bowl of soup, maybe followed by mochi or a cookie.

‘I’ve calmed down on the amount of coffee I drink – no more than three cups. Perhaps four on a big day’

Paul Ainsworth, chef-owner of Paul Ainsworth at No 6, and Caffè Rojano, both in Padstow, Cornwall, and The Mariners, Rock, Cornwall

I always take Sundays off, they’re sacred, but I try to take a second day, too. During the week, I wake up and have an electrolyte drink over ice; it makes me feel sharp. Then, a couple of hours later, I’ll have my first coffee. I’ve calmed down on the amount of coffee I drink – no more than three cups, perhaps four if it’s a really big day. Today, I’ll go for a 45-minute run, so I need carbohydrates. There’s a lovely cafe in Padstow called Cherry Trees, which is where I got my sandwich: granary bread, tuna, cucumber. This plus a flat white is a real treat.

Lunch from the Cherry Trees cafe in Padstow of granary bread, tuna and cucumber with a flat white

Dinner with the family of steak, sweetcorn, rocket with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, feta, nice olive oil and a bit of balsamic vinegar.

We try to eat dinner as a family, something like steak, sweetcorn, and I love rocket with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, feta, plus some nice olive oil and a bit of balsamic vinegar. I had a medical last year, and it turns out I wasn’t eating enough; I would drink coffee all day then get home starving and eat the wrong thing. I was heading for diabetes and had to do something about it, but I didn’t want to feel as if I was on a diet. And what’s not to like about grass-fed steak? Although, obviously, I know there’s a cost attached to it. Otherwise, we’ll have roast chicken thighs, new potatoes with a nice dollop of butter and some sea salt, and a good portion of steamed broccoli.

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