6 minute read
SORTED FOOD
DINNER SORTED
Absolutely Hertfordshire uncovers the story behind four friends from Brookmans Park who created a buoyant foodie movement online
By MARK KEBBLE
MICRO GREENS AND EGGS
Sorted Food – the social media movement dedicated to cooking and inspiring millions of people to get joy from food – recently launched a new cookbook that tears up the rulebook for traditional cooking with more than 55 recipes for those looking to shake things up in the kitchen. Aptly titled Can’t Be Arsed with Rules delivers eight chapters of dishes packed full of hacks from using cheats ingredients to ingenious ways to use kitchen gadgets, all in the pursuit of saving time, effort and money, but still delivering dishes with maximum flavour.
It’s just the latest development for the movement, which started 12 years ago with four friends from Hertfordshire just talking about food. “We all went to school together, but the idea for Sorted Food began when we ventured off to universities across the UK,” says one of those four friends, Jamie Spafford. “We soon realised that our cooking knowledge was incredibly limited and started asking Ben [Ebbrell, co-founder], who was training to be a chef, for tips and tricks. Sorted grew from this conversation as we tried to help more people in a similar predicament.”
Jamie and Ben, alongside Barry Taylor and Mike Huttlestone, started to upload videos to YouTube concerning these discussions, and soon enough interest started to grow. “As we uploaded more videos to YouTube, more people started to join the conversation and asked us to show them how to cook different dishes,” Jamie explains. “It was a really safe space for ‘normal’ home cooks to ask a chef for advice, where there was no such thing as a ‘stupid question’, and people could share their own tips and tricks – rather than TV chefs who told you just to do it their way.
“It took a while for the videos to get going in views, but when we started to get comments from people living in the US and Australia, and people were sending us photos of our recipes that they had cooked, that’s when it started to feel like this could evolve into something bigger,” Jamie continues.
Today, Sorted Food offers a wealth of resources for the would-be cook. “We’ve expanded what we do to showcase the world of food around us – learning from our global community and travelling to other countries to try the cuisine first hand, and share our experiences with the community through video content, social media and our Sidekick app, which helps people create awesome dinners, save money and reduce food waste. The recipes share ingredients across them, which means you buy less and use all the fresh ingredients you buy each week – by just doing this, an average couple can save £360 per year on their food bills!”
Can’t Be Arsed with Rules is the latest burst of inspiration from the quartet. Following recipe successes with too often shunned ingredients including instant mash, gravy powder and corned beef, the team of Sorted Food chefs decided to experiment with ripping up more traditions in everyday cooking. With revolutionary new recipes that will have some traditional chefs spinning in their whites, the line-up includes ‘Instant Ramen e Pepe’, ‘Leek and Kettle Chip Soup’, ‘Naanzanella’ and ‘Waffle Chive Blinis with Smoked Salmon’ – made in a waffle iron! “It has to be the Leek and Kettle Chip Soup,” Jamie says on his favourite recipe.
The four have certainly come far from their secondary school days in Brookmans Park, but Jamie insists they aren’t too different despite the success of Sorted Food. “Much of what we do has stayed the same – it’s still a group of friends exploring food and trying to become better cooks – but it’s just grown a lot bigger. We now have a community of millions who join us at least twice a week for our videos, and cook with us daily using our Sidekick app… But it’s still just as, if not more, fun!”
CRAB AND AVOCADO TOSTADAS
A RARE BREED
Take one globally acclaimed chef, pair with Rare Champagne, and you have recipes that will dazzle and delight
Rare Champagne offers carte blanche to chefs whose talent reveals a diamond in the rough, fresh and with an exceptional future ahead. Now, Rare Champagne has entrusted chef Mélanie
Serre with their new Rare Pairings series.
In Megève, St. Barts, Monaco, and
Paris, chef Serre approaches her work with a joyous heart, while creating tailormade dishes that show a deep respect for the terroir and nature. Because of her philosophy, Rare Champagne have entrusted chef Serre with this new Rare Pairings series. Rare Champagne allows her to explore her creativity, linked to each of the
Rare Champagne Millésimes, for a unique sensory experience. Chef Serre, a Gault & Millau Young Talent Award winner, is also listed among the “1,000 Women Chefs who Count in the World” and is one of the six French female chefs recognized for their personality, as much as their culinary art, by Le Parisien magazine. Serre’s first position was as chef at Atelier Etoile Joël
Robuchon, a two-star Michelin restaurant in Paris, where she became executive chef one year later. She now officiates at Louis
Vins restaurant, near Notre Dame in Paris.
Her Rare Rosé Millésime 2012 spring/ summer menu features: Razor clams in parsley sauce with pine nuts and basil for an amuse bouche; Fresh tomato soup with black cherry, goat's cheese ice-cream and crushed pistachios as a starter; a vegan course of salad of green beans with raspberries, almonds and date vinaigrette; fillet of red mullet with edible scales, young courgette and bouillabaisse sauce for mains; and a dessert course that is featured right.
NAGE OF SPICED FOREST FRUIT AND SPECULOOS BISCUITS
INGREDIENTS
• Water • Sugar • Vanilla • Fresh basil cinnamon • Speculoos biscuits • Fresh forest fruit
PREPARATION
1 Prepare a syrup with water, sugar, basil and the stick of cinnamon; 2 Prepare the Speculoos biscuit paste and cook. While still hot, shape it as desired; 3 Wash, sort and prepare the forest fruit; 4 Place the forest fruit on a plate. Once cold, add the syrup and the basil; 5 Add some Speculoos biscuits to the side of the plate. Place the rest on the sliced forest fruit.
FASHION
FANTASY FASHION
SOMERSET BY ALICE TEMPERLEY Somerset by Alice embodies all of the hallmarks of the Temperley aesthetic –whimsy, unabashed femininity and wild prints. The dress that floats from office to after hours. The cornerstone white blouse. The cut-to-the-bone jumpsuit. It’s every day – but for escapists who dream of fresh air and wild spaces. somersetbyalice.com
