5 Minutes with Theo Randall

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When did you decide that you wanted to be a professional chef?

My mum was an amazing cook, and I always loved cooking. She was an artist and my dad is an architect – I had this very artistic family, so originally I thought I was going to get into some sort of sculpturing or metalwork.

And then, I had a meeting with someone at school – a careers advisor – and he was very straightforward. I told him I liked metalwork and he said: “That’s not a good job. There’s no money in that.” When I started to talk about cooking he said: “You should be a chef.”

On my 18th birthday I went to a restaurant called Chez Max, a family favourite, and I got a job as a waiter. I was the world’s worst waiter, but after three months, Max's apprentice decided to move on, so I had the opportunity to step in. It was meant to be! 

While you were head chef at River Café it was awarded its first Michelin Star, what lessons did you learn there that impact your kitchen now?

I was very lucky to work with great people – Rose Gray and Ruth Rodgers. Ruth sadly passed away in 2011, but I learned so much from them, not just about how to run a kitchen but about life. They ran a business that was very much about nurturing people and getting the best out of them.

I think now I have a nice environment in my restaurant, in the front, in the kitchen and on the floor. It’s important that you have that because people stay and they progress. Sometimes people come with no experience at all, and then two, three years later they’re absolutely amazing at cooking, at talking and serving people. At the River Café there was so much time invested in the team, and I learned that you must give people that time and encourage them.

What makes Italian food so special?

There are 20 different regions in Italy, which is like 20 countries, and each region has something different to offer. Every time you go to Italy you find new ingredients, the diversity from north to south is just extraordinary. The north take influence from France and Austria, whereas the south has North African and Greek influences – there is something for everyone!

With Italian cooking it’s all about simplicity and the ingredients, and I like that – I don’t like complicated things, I take the less is more approach. It’s very healthy food, food that you can eat all the time. Recipes are seasonal, so it’s very frugal cooking, the food just makes sense.

What was the inspiration behind The Italian Table?

The book is set out exactly how you would have a meal in Italy. The sections are antipasto, primo, secondo, contorno and dolce. So you've got the starter dish, the pasta dish, the main course, the side dish and the dessert.

They are all regional recipes, there might be a risotto from Veneto or a pasta from Emilio Romagna, and each recipe tells you the story behind it. It’s a real eclectic mix, For example, there’s one recipe from Fergato di Venetziana which is fried calves’ liver with sweet onions – I’m just salivating talking about it! It’s one of the most delicious recipes but you just don’t get it on restaurant menus anymore. You shouldn’t forget these dishes because they are very important.

What is your number one top for cooking Italian food at home?

Generally, what people tend to do is get a small pot of water, put in the spaghetti and bring it to the boil. They don't put enough salt in the water, because they're worried about their salt intake, and then they cook it for however long the packet says. They end up with badly overcooked pasta, they put it in the cullender, throwing the pasta water away.

What you need to do is you have a nice big pot of water. You put enough salt in there so the water tastes like sea – it should taste really salty. The salt will remain in the water; you're not consuming that much salt; it's just going to season the pasta. And then you weigh out 120 grams per person. Any more than that, it's too much pasta. And then, say you're making a lovely garlic, tomato and basil sauce, you cook your pasta, if the packet says 10 minutes al dente, cook it for 3 minutes less than the packet says, because you want to cook the pasta for the last three minutes in the sauce. Take the pasta out with a pair of tongs, put it in the sauce, add a couple of ladles of pasta water, and cook that pasta for further three minutes, stirring so all the starch comes out. That will thicken the sauce, and the sauce will absorb into the pasta, You can add a bit of olive oil, some basil, some black pepper, and just make sure that pasta's moving around in the pan. If you do that, you'll end up with really good pasta every single time.

During your podcast, The Recipe, you interview guests about their favourite dish. Why do you think that food makes such an engaging and emotional premise for an interview?

Food is such a comforting thing. It’s a basic need, but there is something more behind it. Everyone remembers their mum’s Sunday roast and all the things that go with it, even if that’s fighting over the roast potatoes. I would say that being able to cook is the best social skill you can possibly have, because if you can cook a meal, you can invite people around, you can talk to people and engage with them just by cooking – food is the biggest love of them all.

With each guest we talk about a dish that they loved. And it could be a childhood dish; it could be a dish that changed them. They may have had some health issues, and this was the dish they first went back to. People do get very emotional talking about it, that’s what makes it real, and the fact that we're cooking the dish together, and we sit and eat and talk about the dish. Sometimes it’s more emotional, and sometimes it’s just really funny.

If you were a guest on your own show, which recipe would you pick as the dish that has defined you?

I would probably do a fish stew. When we first opened the restaurant here, I did a fish stew, and I remember Jay Rayner had it and was incredibly complimentary – he gave the restaurant an amazing review. The recipe was actually very similar to the one that's in the new cookbook; I just love that kind of thing. I love fish because all the work has been done, the shellfish already tastes amazing, your job is just to get the most out of the flavours. I do a sofrito recipe in the new cookbook: you take celery, carrot and onion, cook that really, really slowly. Then make a stock with different shells, like lobster and prawn shells. Cook that down, add the stock to the base, and then add some tomato, reduce that down and cook the fish in the pan. Add the broth to that, and then just simmer the broth with all the fish and some potatoes, and it's just absolutely the most delicious thing to eat. That would be my dish.

Do you have a guilty pleasure food?

I do love a Tunnock’s tea-cake – the trick is to put the in the microwave for just a second! But my favourite thing to eat when I come home from work is a slice of toasted sourdough bread, with some olive oil or butter, with some anchovy fillets on top, a squeeze of lemon and some black pepper – that, for me, is the most delicious treat in the world.

In November, Cucina Italiana will turn 20. What are you most proud of in that time?

There’s been loads of achievements – just having the restaurant for 20 years is pretty amazing considering what we have been through. We won Italian Restaurant of the Year at the London Restaurant Awards in our first year which was fantastic, and now we have restaurants in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Zurich. It’s also been nice to see the people that I have worked with go off and do their own thing; it’s always rewarding to see them be successful.

In the past 20 years I have written six cookbooks, I’ve been on Saturday Kitchen and MasterChef, but my greatest accolade would be receiving the Order of the Star of Italy. I went to the Italian embassy, and the ambassador gave me the award. They don’t get given out very often, I received the award for Italian food. I think what is lovely about the restaurant is that lots of Italians come in and eat, the fact that they have embraced it means I’m doing it pretty well, so I am very proud of that.

Read more about The Italian Table.