Chefs are grazing animals, forever playing with ingredients, nibbling at leftovers and then, back home at 1am, trying to conjure a quick bite from whatever is there. In these moments of curiosity and urgency, bizarre snack habits are born. “People think we go home and have elaborate dinners, but give me some string cheese, chilli sauce, a Fab and a Stella and I’ll be happy,” says Jack Stein, the chef director at the Rick Stein group. At work, chefs are surrounded by the finest ingredients. At home, they frequently crave “simple things”, he says.
“You never think about your own fridge and what you’re going to feed yourself,” says Meriel Armitage, the founder of the Club Mexicana restaurants in London. So when chefs arrive home “really late and really hungry”, they improvise – in extraordinary ways. “I guess we’re confident in putting weird combos together that most people would be quite scared of,” she says.
