Q & A with Jacob James Garwood

How long have you been cooking and what made you decide to be a chef?

I have been cooking for nearly 15 years, my Nan and Grandad were bakers and I baked with them and my Dad from a very young age. Although after school I decided to pursue art, it was only a few months before I was working in a kitchen part time and eventually left art all together to pursue cooking.

Can you talk us through your style of cooking?

I would say my style is sort of modern an Anglo French but really, I just cook using seasonal local produce in a way that interests me and I believe ways to get the best out of ingredients.

Which chef has influenced you most during your career?

I’m a big fan of Antonio Bachour and Daniel Watkins but from an early stage in my career I loved the food of Fergus Henderson. There are so many great chefs out there at the moment though.

What are your favourite garnishes to use when plating up?

I love using lemon balm, red amaranth, micro parsley and coriander more than anything else but again Nurtured in Norfolk have such a good and varied range really it depends on the flavour profile of the dish.

What is your favourite product to work with?

At the moment, I’m the pastry chef for St Giles house and love working with rhubarb for our upcoming ala Carter but again it changes as the seasons do, I just love working with anything fresh and local.

What does the future hold for you as a chef, what is your ambition?

I want to start looking for somewhere to call my own, a very hard ambition to balance with a full-time job but am looking for something small, more local to my home life and somewhere where I can cook my style of food in a relaxed setting.