This week's Meet the Chef focuses on Doug Crampton, the chef patron at Eight at Gazegill, an off-grid restaurant serving organic produce.
The restaurant, near Howgill in the Ribble Valley, is located on a working farm with food served going from farm to plate, and opened in the Spring.
The site has housed a farm for almost 500 years, handed down through generations, and is now home to the restaurant, fully powered by renewable energy.
What is your current role and what does it involve?
I am Chef Patron at Eight at Gazegill, my role involves the daily running of the restaurant and managing the kitchen team.
I ensure we are using the best local and seasonal produce by liaising with our farm manager to find out what produce we have coming from the farm.
I also work closely with our on-site butchers to develop recipes, cures and new products that we can serve in the restaurant
How long have you been a chef?
Too long! I was 15 when I started in hospitality so we’re coming up to 20 years this year.
How did you first get into cooking? / What was your first job in hospitality?
I always enjoyed cooking from a young age, I did a lot of cooking and learning with my grandparents, mostly with my grandma.
From there I decided it was what I wanted to do as a career, so I got myself a job in a local restaurant washing pots aged 15.
Where did you learn your craft?
I started doing a little bit on the service side at the restaurant and really enjoyed it, and decided I didn’t want to do any A-levels and instead went to college to study catering.
Whilst at college, I found the best restaurant in the area, because I wanted to work at the best place possible, which at the time was Anthony’s in Leeds; it was an AA 3-Rosette restaurant but it’s no longer there.
I pestered them until they gave me a job and started working part-time while I was at college, then went full-time after finishing college.
What is your signature dish?
I don’t really have a signature dish of my own, but at the restaurant, we do have dishes which really signify what we are doing here and what we like to achieve.
Our Forager’s Chipolatas have zero food miles, as we use our own organic pork, seasoned with ingredients that are foraged from the fields and hedgerows around the restaurant and then glazed with our own honey.
We don’t have specific signature dishes, it’s all about showcasing the best of the produce coming from the farm at any given time.
In the restaurant we also have our raw milk soft-serve ice cream, made with the organic raw milk produced by Emma’s Dairy on the farm, it comes fresh from our cows every morning and within 24 hours it's being used on our menus.
What has been your worst cooking disaster?
I had to once make a dish that consisted of a terrine that required four pain-d’epice crisps per portion, which is a very thinly sliced spiced bread and they had to be cooked perfectly and flat.
It was for 60 people, and I burnt every single one just before service with no backup!
We had to make a pain-d’epice crumb by blitzing all the trimmings from the original batch as a last resort but it completely changed the dish.
The worst bit was owning up to the mistake and I did get into quite a bit of trouble for that!
I also remember once splitting a chocolate ganache on a load of bonbons. I was 18, I didn’t know it had split and piped it all, then got found out.
The head chef was furious because it obviously wasted a lot of money and he put his fist through every tray, splattering chocolate all up the walls. I’ll never forget that!
What are your culinary ambitions?
Just to create a successful restaurant, following the ethos of what we want to do here, using produce straight from the farm, ensuring our status is sustainable, a genuine farm-to-fork, unlike so many other places which claim to be.
Developing the food and making the dining experience the best we can is my main ambition here.
I know lots of people want me to say we want a Michelin star, if anything we’d love to go for the Green Michelin star, which awards restaurants for upholding sustainable and eco-conscious practices and by working with suppliers and producers who do the same.
We don’t operate this restaurant in the right way to earn a traditional Michelin star, focusing on a single menu.
What do you like to eat?
I love shellfish! My all-time favourites are probably scallops but I also love clams, mussels, and lobster.
But when it comes to comfort food, it’s got to be my mum’s roast dinner, and my grandma’s Yorkshire puds!
How do you achieve a work-life balance?
We don’t have a big team to share a huge workload so we purposely only open the restaurant four days a week.
This ensures everyone from front of house and in the kitchen gets guaranteed days off every week and can achieve that work-life balance.
We are also only open for dinner two nights a week so there aren’t lots of late nights either. I have young kids and so do other team members, so it ensures we have real time to rest and have quality time with our families.
Doug's Wood Roast Chorizo Eggs
Ingredients
- 200g chorizo – diced
- 50g diced shallot
- ½ red chilli deseeded and diced
- ½ clove garlic – finely chopped
- 4 Organic hens eggs
- 1 tsp toasted coriander seeds
- ½ tsp garam masala
- 100g cavolo nero
- Sea salt
- Chopped coriander to garnish
Method
- Lightly fry the chorizo in a dry frying pan or a skillet.
- Add the shallot, chilli and garlic and cook with the chorizo.
- Crack eggs into the pan – leaving room between each egg.
- Cook gently at a low heat until the whites are set.
- Top with the cavolo nero leaves and leave to wilt.
- Spiced salt - Combine the sea salt, garam masala and toasted coriander seeds and pound in a pestle and mortar.
- Season the eggs with the spiced salt and snipped fresh coriander.
Eight at Gazegill, based at Gazegill Organics farm in Dancer Lane, near Howgill.
Visit Lancashire, through its Taste Lancashire campaigns and activities, showcases Lancashire’s leading food and drink providers and producers, locally, nationally and internationally. For more information go to www.visitlancashire.com/Taste
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