4 Chefs Favourite Seasonal Ingredients
With the arrival of spring, we spoke to some of our chef community Roxii Knight, Adebola Adeshina, Rashida Spyriades and Chloe Bailey-Williams about the season’s produce that they are excited to be using, and dishes that they are planning to make with them.
Roxii Knight of ‘Roxii’s Kitchen’ is a Junior Sous Chef working in London, cooking professionally for around 3 years. Roxii believes food should be ‘fun as well as providing sustenance’, but doesn’t shy away from asking necessary questions on her blog.
Adebola Adeshina of The Chubby Castor has a refreshing outlook on life– good food, fine wine, and happiness. Ade spent his early years in the industry working for the Aubergine team under Gordon Ramsay, where he stayed for six years. Nowadays, Ade runs restaurant The Chubby Castor, which places team well-being and responsibly sourced ingredients above anything else.
Rashida Spyriades is a pastry chef with 16 years experience working within the hospitality industry. She started an apprenticeship at age 16 straight into the busy Hilton London Metropole Hotel, where she fell in love with patisserie. Since then, she has worked across the board as a Senior Pastry Chef in hotels, restaurants, events and contract catering for companies like Restaurant Associates, Compass Group and Coutts Bank, to name a few. She now runs her own business called Rashida’s Patisserie, allowing her to share her love for baking and pastries from home.
Chloe Bailey-Williams is founder of The Breakhouse Cafe in East London, channelling her passion for coffee and amazing food. She’s created a community space that strives to be as sustainable and ethical as possible, aiming to be inclusive of a variety of tastes to reflect the diversity of her customers. She has worked in hospitality and events for over 6 years, and opened the Breakhouse 2 years ago- managing to stay afloat during the challenges of the pandemic.
Frankie: What does spring mean to you in terms of the ingredients/produce available?
Roxii: I’m a chef who loves every season for their own reasons but spring for me is pure magic. Wild garlic! Asparagus! Beautiful new seasonal salad leaves!
It always feels like kitchens everywhere shake off their winter coats and all the new and exciting stuff happens around now.
Ade: Spring is full of colours and flavours, the produce is just brighter and more uplifting!
Rashida: It’s always lovely to draw inspiration from nature and what is seasonally available. I love to use Viola flowers to garnish my cakes in this season.
Chloe: The start of spring means to me a new beginning, out of hibernation and darkness and into the light to enjoy longer days (can you tell I am a summer baby?). It is an exciting time for fruit more than vegetables as we are lucky enough to have a decent range of vegetables growing throughout the year. I always love when we get the first set of the strawberries in May -then you know summer is really here!
Frankie: Do you have any spring/summer recipes that you are planning on making?
Roxii: Pastry is my favourite section so I’m really excited about all the new seasonal fruits we’re about to get in, as well as using the last of the winter rhubarb.
I’m also excited to try and elevate an asparagus tart. I’ve had an idea for a super seeded pastry laden with cheese that will allow the filling to sing of its main component.
This is a season for lightness but still comfort, so I’m excited to see the results of our experiments!
Ade: I am sharing with you one of my favourite spring dishes which is a Chargrilled wagyu salad. The wagyu is thinly sliced and grilled which adds a beautiful charcoal flavour.
The best thing about the salad is that we can make it with vegetables from our own garden. We use lettuce, carrot, beetroot and radish along with edible flowers such as Violas and Nasturtiums and Red Vein Sorrel!
Rashida: I’m planning to put an elderflower and raspberry ripple genoise on the menu for this spring/summer.
Chloe: I love switching up the soups in the café after a few months of winter and making them cosy and comforting, now it’s time to make them light and colourful! Pea and mint soup or risotto does really well at the café around this time- fresh, light and tangy!