OLLY JACKSON'S - Trelowarren

MEET
THE
CHEF
NEW YARD RESTAURANT
OLLY JACKSON’S
As Head Chef at the New Yard Restaurant for the last three years
Olly Jackson’s experience has led to his influencing the menus
and inspiring the kitchen staff that help create them. Last month
Taya Black caught up with the well travelled chef to interview him for
myCornwall magazine.
Olly Jackson, Head Chef at the New Yard Restaurant on the beautiful
Trelowarren Estate, has a lot to offer those diners who travel the extra
mile through the estate’s grounds to feast on the exquisite dishes on
the menu. When using suppliers, like Kernow Sashimi for fish and
Primrose Herd in Redruth for pork, Olly’s preferred choice is to keep it
as local as possible when sourcing ingredients.
The chef’s reputation has grown in leaps and bounds thanks to the
wide variety of experiences, from travelling on a food tour across
Australia to his appearances on Channel 4’s ‘Three Hungry Boys’ and
ITV’s ‘Britain’s Best Dish’. So what makes him tick?
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Ingredients;
16 Asparagus spears
4 Egg yolks
Pea shoots
Rapeseed oil
Flour, an Egg and Breadcrumbs -
for coating of the egg
Warm Asparagus with a deep fried
hen’s egg yolk
Serves 4 as a starteror 2 as a light meal
When I was younger, I wasn’t really sure what to do with my
life career-wise. I never really liked school and I’ve always been
far more practical than academic, so my mum suggested that
I should become a plumber or a chef. I’ve always liked cooking
and so the choice was easy. When I was 16-years-old I went to a
college in Northampton, where I’m originally from, and eventually
worked my way up through mostly two-rosette rated restaurants
and hotels, from a part-time pot wash to being a head-chef at the
age of 26.
I have been in the cooking industry for 14 years now, and
have worked for Ruth Watson and travelled around Australia for six
months with Bill Granger, a self-taught Australian chef. I eventually
became the head-chef at New Yard Restaurant about three years
ago after moving down to Cornwall to join my wife.
My earliest food memory is probably of my mum cooking
cakes for our local church’s bake sale in Northampton. Our
family wasn’t particularly ever cooking-orientated but I remember
my mum baking regularly and I would help her out with it.
At New Yard, all the ingredients we use in our dishes tend
to be from local sources. We use local companies such as the
Cornish Duck Company and Beef off the Heath, our fish comes
fresh off of the local dayboats and we use pheasants, rabbits and
pigeons that have been hunted on the Trelowarren estate. All of
the vegetables used are also sourced from local farmers. At the
moment the main ingredients we are using are the garlic leaves
found on the estate, Cornish new potatoes and all of the usual
spring greens such as asparagus, sprouts and broccoli’s.
The hardest thing about being a chef is the unsocialable
hours. A lot of my family and friends are getting married this year
and it’s really hard getting the time off, I’m usually here all day.
However the thing I love about this job is that everyday is different,
it’s never boring as there’s always something happening and
always a challenge to overcome.
Method
Trim the asparagus so all spears are the same
size, making sure the woody part is snapped off.
Blanch the asparagus spears in boiling water for 3
minutes - to check they are ready use a small knife
it should just slide through the stalk. Once cooked,
place the asparagus in an ice bath to chill and stop
from overcooking. Poach the egg yolk in simmering
water for 3 minutes, remove from the hot water and
transfer straight to an ice bath to chill. Once chilled
remove from ice bath, place on a clean jay cloth or tea
towel and gently dry. Carefully coat in the cooked egg
yolk in flour; then beaten egg and then breadcrumbs.
To serve
Reheat the asparagus spears by placing in boiling
water for 1 minute. Fry the egg yolk at 170oc in deep
fat fryer for 1 minute. Arrange on the plate and serve
with pea shoots and a drizzle of a rapeseed oil.
Food & Drink
Darvosow
The main people who inspire me are the producers, such as
the Cornish Duck Company, who supply us with the products.
We only use the best of the best and so it makes me want to turn
the products into something great for our customers. One of my
most prominent ‘chefing’ memories is from using a beef fillet
supplied for an outside company for a function I was working at,
it was so tender you could have cut it with a spoon - definitely the
best beef fillet I’ve ever seen!
I’m often asked what my signature dish is, but the truth is I
don’t really have one, I believe that every thing you cook should
be your signature dish. I guess the most popular dish we serve,
the one that everyone comes back for, is the pork belly, (a personal
favourite) – we cook it really slowly overnight a 95 degrees with
loads of herbs and salt and then roast it again the following day,
it’s lovely.
I love the French style for cooking and so I would say this
hugely influences my own cooking style. I’m not about small
portions and I want my customers to leave New Yard feeling full.
There’s nothing worse than leaving a restaurant thinking ‘that
tasted great, but I’m still hungry’ so its very important to me
that we deliver great tasting food that will satisfy our customers.
Presentation is also extremely important, because at the end of the
day, people initially eat with their eyes.
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