Flash-grilled: Mark Greenaway
What was your first industry job?
The Cartland bridge hotel, just outside a small town called Lanark, in Scotland.
If you weren’t in kitchens, what would you do?
Something design related, I think, I love design.
What industry figure do you most admire, and why?
Thomas Keller, he was and still is a visionary in the culinary world, and has obviously surrounded himself with great businessmen, which for a chef has to be admired.
What's your pet hate in the kitchen?
Staff being late. There really is no excuse not to contact the chef and inform them.
What’s the oddest thing a customer has said to you?
I am allergic to the white part of the leek, but I can eat the green part…?
Sum up your cooking style in a single sentence…
Modern, light, fresh
What’s the worst review you’ve ever had?
It was on Tripadvisor, long long ago...
What advice would you give someone starting out in the industry?
Do stages in different kitchens to learn the style of food you want to specialise in. Then study and pick the best restaurant to work in to learn that style.
Which single item of kitchen equipment could you not live without?
A Thermomix - they are so handy.
What would you choose to eat for your last meal?
Roast chicken with all the trimmings. And yes that does include Yorkshire puddings.
À la carte or tasting menu?
As a chef, tasting menu that way I get to see a broad range of skills from a kitchen.
What’s the best meal you’ve ever had in a restaurant?
Quay, in Sydney. I still remember the pork and scallop starter and the chocolate dessert.
MasterChef or Great British Menu?
Great British Menu.
What's the most overrated food?
Cheap chocolate.
Restaurant dictator for a day – what would you ban?
No shows.
What’s your earliest food memory?
Making bread from the back of the flower packet as an 11-year-old and turning the oven off once it was cooked but leaving the bread in the oven. I had no idea it would keep cooking obviously. My family still ate it.
Twitter or Instagram?
It used to be Twitter, but now Instagram.
What’s the closest you’ve ever come to death?
I have clinically died twice and been revived, does that count?
Mark Greenaway will open an as yet unnamed fine dining restaurant in central London this year.
