Bucks &amp; Oxon


<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Sam-Squires-1000x1000.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-139831" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Sam-Squires-1000x1000.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Sam-Squires-800x800.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Sam-Squires-400x400.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Sam-Squires-525x525.jpg 525w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Sam-Squires-500x500.jpg 500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Sam-Squires-1100x1100.jpg 1100w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/Sam-Squires.jpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>It&#8217;s not often you get served by the same chef who&#8217;s knocked up dishes for American presidents and Saudi Arabian royalty, but that&#8217;s just where Muddy found ourselves when we tucked into the (excellent) tasting menu at recently opened restaurant The Ballroom, at <a href="https://www.theoldcrowncoachinginn.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Old Crown Coaching Inn</a> in Faringdon&#8217;s market place (<a href="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/eat-out/restaurants/review-the-old-crown-coaching-inn-faringdon-oxfordshire/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">read our review here</a>). Luckily, we managed to tear ourselves away from the freshly-baked brioche roll with blackcurrant butter long enough to collar man of the hour Sam Squires for a tête-à-tête. Take it away, Sam&#8230;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-your-first-job-in-a-kitchen">Your first job in a kitchen?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>At fifteen I worked at The Grove in Watford as a kitchen porter. I was never good academically, and I struggled to find motivation at school, but being more hands on in the hospitality trade gave me the inspiration to train as a chef at college to see if it was something I could do. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Career highlight?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>Getting the job at The Ritz. I started off as a Commis Chef &#8211; which is basically one step above pot washer &#8211; and left as a Demi Chef De Partie, which took me four years. I worked there for a month during my second year at college, because my advisers said to go somewhere out of our comfort zone, and I got offered the job shortly after. I learnt so much there. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Impressive! Any celeb goss? </h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/New-Rivoli_Bar_1_2022.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-139833" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/New-Rivoli_Bar_1_2022.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/New-Rivoli_Bar_1_2022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/New-Rivoli_Bar_1_2022-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/New-Rivoli_Bar_1_2022-400x267.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/New-Rivoli_Bar_1_2022-788x525.jpg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption>The Rivoli Bar at The Ritz</figcaption></figure>



<p>You had to wear a suit and tie to dine in the lounge, and the only person I ever saw there who didn&#8217;t meet the dress code was Bill Clinton. He wore jeans and a shirt! I think when you&#8217;re the President of America you can probably wear what you want. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Did you do a lot of cooking for the rich and famous?</h2>



<p>Yeah, there was quite a lot of royalty. I once got a £500 tip from a Saudi prince just for heating up a shisha block for him in the oven. I remember I had to do a four-hour service for a royal function when I felt really ill &#8211; it was the longest four hours of my life! </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How would you sum up your cooking style and food philosophy?</h2>



<p>I&#8217;m classically French trained, but as I&#8217;ve gotten older I&#8217;ve really wanted to understand the seasonality of food. Our current culture is about getting the food we want all year round, but it&#8217;s important to me to have produce on the menu that&#8217;s seasonal. When an ingredient is out of season, we&#8217;ll drop it from the menu and swap the dishes around. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Most memorable moment at work?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>I was at The Ritz during the riots in London. You had sixty angry chefs trying to serve while rioters were throwing tear gas into the restaurant. We didn&#8217;t know if we were going to have to defend ourselves &#8211; one chef was wearing a pan on his head, another was talking about using a baking sheet as a shield &#8211; and then all these riot police came charging through the kitchen and looked at us like we were nutcases. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">You’re tired, starving and impatient: what do you cook for dinner?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>Probably a bacon sandwich, honestly! I&#8217;ve always got white bread and bacon in the fridge. I might push the boat out and add a bit of cheese, like brie. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What would you cook to impress a date?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>I&#8217;ve been married for five years, so I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m impressing anybody! My wife likes simple food, well cooked, and she&#8217;s a fan of fish, so I&#8217;d probably whip her up a sole meunière with new potatoes, butter, seaweed and lemon. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Who is your favourite chef?</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1500" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/grant_achatz.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-139834" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/grant_achatz.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/grant_achatz-800x800.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/grant_achatz-1000x1000.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/grant_achatz-400x400.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/grant_achatz-525x525.jpg 525w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/grant_achatz-500x500.jpg 500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/grant_achatz-1100x1100.jpg 1100w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption>Image credit: @grant_achatz on Instagram</figcaption></figure>



<p>I like Grant Achatz, who runs Alinea in Chicago. He&#8217;s a three Michelin star chef, and some of the stuff he serves up is outrageous but it&#8217;s so interesting to see the method behind the madness. As a chef, it&#8217;s always a creative challenge to take simple things and turn them into absolutely amazing things. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Do you have a favourite cookbook?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>I have many! I love Clare Smyth&#8217;s new <em>Core</em> cookbook, it&#8217;s amazing. A nostalgic one is <em>The Ritz Cookbook</em> by John Williams, because it&#8217;s got loads of recipes in there that I made myself during my time there. There&#8217;s one in there called the Belle Époque, which is a stuffed lamb saddle with mushrooms and foie gras, and I always remember the first time I tasted it &#8211; it was mind-blowing, it tasted like spring. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What&#8217;s your favourite type of cuisine?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>French cuisine has always been a staple for me, particularly because I worked in France, but I gravitate towards Asian food. I like Korean barbecue, yakitori, Vietnamese street food. It might not always agree with my stomach but I do love it! </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Favourite things to eat when you’re on holiday?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>When we go on holiday, I&#8217;m on the swivel all the time looking for where the locals are eating. My wife&#8217;s Ukranian, and we went to a little food market in Odesa before the pandemic, and there were these balls of deep-fried cheese that sort of deflated when you cut into them? It came served with bread and it was absolutely amazing &#8211; I really want to try and recreate it but I can&#8217;t find anything about it online! The best food in Ukraine is made in cantinas by grandmas &#8211; they&#8217;re cheap, humble dishes but it&#8217;s made with love. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Favourite kitchen gadget?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>My Pacojet. It blitzes anything frozen, so it makes incredible ice cream that&#8217;s Mr Whippy smooth. It&#8217;s bloody expensive, but it&#8217;s worth it for a professional kitchen. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Favourite ingredient and why?&nbsp;</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1128" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/timo-c-dinger-VI_PCpBIWpo-unsplash.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-139835" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/timo-c-dinger-VI_PCpBIWpo-unsplash.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/timo-c-dinger-VI_PCpBIWpo-unsplash-800x602.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/timo-c-dinger-VI_PCpBIWpo-unsplash-1000x752.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/timo-c-dinger-VI_PCpBIWpo-unsplash-400x301.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/timo-c-dinger-VI_PCpBIWpo-unsplash-698x525.jpg 698w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption>Wild garlic</figcaption></figure>



<p>Wild garlic. When I get my hands on it, everything ends up flavoured with it &#8211; pestos, butters, chicken Kievs. I love it. It has more of a floral taste than bulb garlic, and it&#8217;s punchy enough that one leaf will do you. Plus it&#8217;s free if you can forage it!  </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Most overrated ingredient?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>Beetroot can be overused as a garnish &#8211; which I&#8217;m guilty of, but I try hard to elevate it and make it the main component of a dish rather than just chucking it on the plate as a garnish. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Tell us your best ever cooking tip?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>Experiment &#8211; and that goes for professional and home chefs. There&#8217;s no right or wrong to cooking, no matter what people say, and if the flavours are good and you&#8217;re happy to serve it, then that&#8217;s a win for me. As long as you don&#8217;t kill anyone, you&#8217;re fine. </p>



<p><em>Catch Sam at The Old Crown Coaching Inn, 25 Market Pl, Faringdon SN7 7HU. </em></p>


What’s cooking? Sam Squires, The Old Crown Coaching Inn in Faringdon

You may also like