Taunton and South Somerset Living Apr - May 2020

COOK, SLEEP,
ROCK, REPEAT
Katie Thomson caught up with
chef James Martin ahead of his
summer festival circuit and
discussed stellar culinary talents,
his new book and finding time to
rock out...
Katie: We must talk about Pub in the
Park – we spoke with Tom Kerridge a
couple of years back, just as he was
expanding the event out of Marlow
to include Bath and a couple of other
areas. In the past few years its really
become huge, attracting so much
talent from the food industry but also
the music industry so it must be quite
exciting to be involved?
James: He has roped me into it! He roped
me into it last year as he had managed to
double book himself! So now he wants
me to do it again! He’s probably off on
holiday! But it’s good fun, and anybody
who’s been there will know that its unique
and there’s nothing else like it.
So you’ll be hosting the Tunbridge
Wells and Chichester events?
Yeah that’s right, and I’ll be appearing at
the Bath one, Tom is hosting that one but
I’ll be there doing some demonstrations
and other bits and pieces. It’s a great lineup
of people that he’s got and I’m very
pleased to play my part.
I think it’s really nice that you try
to reflect the local restaurants in
each individual area plus there’s
some serious culinary talent from the
country as a whole.
Well the thing about the chefs is you get
the great and the good from all over the
place. So for example with Bath, you’ve
got Paul Ainsworth coming up from
Cornwall, Atul Kochhar from London,
Steven Terry from Wales, Angela Hartley
from London…we’ve got people from all
over the place! It’s the same with music;
there’s something for everybody.
Who are you looking forward to
seeing if you can steal a little time
away to enjoy it?
I’m a wannabe musician, I’ve got a little
band so I’m looking forward to seeing
a few of them. I listened to Toploader
when I was training as a kid working in
kitchens, so I’m looking forward to seeing
them. Beverley Knight I’ve known for
quite a while so it will be nice to say hi to
her and James Blunt is playing as well!
So I’m looking forward to chilling out and
fundamentally seeing my mates! All these
chefs I speak to on the phone quite a lot
but I only really ever see them at these
festivals so three in a year is great for me.
How does the cookery stage in the
festival setting compare to live
TV? I can image you are quite unflappable.
Well you’ve got a bit more to hand at my
place when we film at the house, and I
know where everything is. But they build
an amazing marquee where we do the
demos, that almost looks like something
from outer space. You never know with
the weather, we might get wet, so the
marquee is amazing. But the same team
that work on my show work on Pub in the
Park, so the industry is big but that group
is quite small. I’ve known the guys that
organise Pub in the Park from the twelve
years of doing Carfest.
So you are an old hand on the
festival circuit then?
I’ve been around it a long time! I do
certain food festivals, the biggest one
of its kind is in Bolton and had 400,000
people last year, and I usually do that
after Carfest South. I’m Hampshirebased,
so sort of in between the two
from Bath to Chichester area. I’m looking
forward to Chichester because I spend
a bit of time at Goodwood - so I know
and love the area. Tunbridge Wells I’m
interested in going to see because I’ve
not really been there a lot, and I love
going to Bath because there’s a great
guitar shop there that always gets a visit!
Your show Saturday Morning always
looks like a lot of fun to film, and in
particular you and Galton seem to
have a really great relationship.
The great thing about the show is the
chefs that come on I’ve known for years –
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