The December issue of Olive magazine has just come out and one of its lead features gets well known chefs together with their mums to talk about their early cooking experiences.
Most of it is as you would expect with Jamie rhapsodising about his mother’s bacon sarnies, Michel Roux being teased at school for eating Camembert and Heston having fond memories of being fed chicken soup.
My favourite quote comes from Lady Simone Warner, the mother of Valentine ‘Yom!’ Warner. ‘He really took me by surprise with his cooking when he was still at school,’ recalls Ma Valentine. ‘He raided the larder – we had two quails and some bread and anchovies – and just cooked.’
How posh is that? Never mind the alphabetti spaghetti, frozen burgers or mince that characterised most Seventies childhoods. I can just imagine little Warner coming home from school and saying, ‘Mum, I’m starving. Can I have a snack?’
Ma Warner: ‘There’s some foie gras in the fridge, dear. It’s just behind the truffled sturgeon.’