In our fast-moving world, a restaurant that opened in 1869 and whose Victorian interior falls under the protection of a Grade II listing could be seen to have a problem. How do they keep things fresh? An interior shake-up is an obvious no-go. To serve classic British dishes without modification would be predictable, but to pay no respect to the restaurant’s heritage would be a missed opportunity. Thankfully, the team at The Quality Chop House in Farringdon is more than equipped to navigate the path of being a modern restaurant that also happens to be 150 years old.

Much of its success, which its latest iteration has been enjoying ever since the restaurant was reopened by Will Lander & Daniel Morgenthau in 2012, has been pinned to the cooking of its head chef, Shaun Searley. Here, we visit him to talk about his formative food experience, his approach to home cooking and how he stays inspired. Plus, in this special edition of our food series, we get Shaun’s advice for cooking this festive period, and get his recipe for an alternative Christmas lunch.  

Shaun: “What we want people to feel when they come to The Quality Chop House is, fundamentally, that they’ve been well fed. It’s abundant, generous, hearty cooking. The atmosphere is convivial, and people leave feeling nourished. Leaving a restaurant hungry is something that should never happen – you go out to eat to be fed.

“To be modern you don’t have to do molecular cooking, you just have to cook good food with big, bold flavours. Ours is simple, refined and delicious cooking and I hope we represent a great, trust-worthy restaurant where people can have the food they’re looking for. We’re not stale but we’re not following trends, because it doesn’t interest us.

“I grew up in Portsmouth, on the south coast. We didn’t eat a lot of fish, because there wasn’t an abundance of it, strangely. It’s a busy ferry port, and the quality of the fish isn’t great because of it. We ate a lot of meat and vegetable-based dishes instead. 

“I grew up eating planned meals during the week. My parents both worked, out early in the morning, in late at night, so there was a lot of structure to dinner times. And culinary-wise it wasn’t pushing any boundaries, but it was good, hearty food. In terms of the quality, they did the best they could. Roast dinners were always delicious, but I cook beef a little bit differently now…

“We had set evenings for different meals, and Sunday was always given to roasts. I’m surprised at how many people I talk to now who just don’t have that Sunday roast mentality. It was a non-negotiable time of the week where we had to be there, all six of us. My mum would save the beef fat in a bean tin for the week and use it on the potatoes, or spread on toast. 

“It was very English cooking and there is a clear lineage to what I do now. But I think the change is just more awareness and exposure to different ingredients. Being in London helps, and also just where we are in the climate of social media and the number of restaurants there are. And, cooking is way more reputable than it ever has been, which helps.

“We stay true to British food, but maybe flex that a little bit with certain ingredients. I’d hate to be a restaurant that can only use British ingredients because there are so many incredible seasons you wouldn’t be able to enjoy if you just stuck to ours – I want to be able to use lemons!

“I cook a lot at home. But my wife is in the industry as well, so we do eat out a lot too, either because I can’t be bothered to cook, or there is a new opening that we want to support, and sometimes it’s good to go and check out what’s new, to fuel and stimulate your passion for food and ingredients.

“We tend to go back to the same places, like Brawn, where we went two nights ago. The thing about the restaurant industry is that you don’t get many nights off, and if your partner is in the industry too, you get even fewer nights off together. So, when you do have a night off, there is a risk you go somewhere and it’s not good, which is devastating! Brawn is somewhere you know you’re going to get incredible food, service and wine. Another place like that is Kiln, which I really enjoy. 

“Usually, Sundays are when I cook at home, normally a roast when we’re not busy, even if it’s just the two of us. If friends come over, it’s a proper eating and drinking session, where people come for midday and leave 12 hours later. We could be grazing for five or six hours.

“I’m in the kitchen the whole time, but it’s stuff that can go in and out of the oven, so I’m able to talk, play cards or whatever we want to do. Our flat has an open-plan living/dining/kitchen, and I think that’s a non-negotiable for me.

“We always start the meal with snacks, everything from charcuterie to roasted nuts, and more complicated things like baked scallops or cod’s roe. They’re all hit dishes that can be prepared in advance.

“My dad made me a butcher’s block, which always features for the first part of a roast at our place – we sit around it and eat lots of the snacks with a couple of bottles of champagne. From there we’ll move into a whole roast fish or something with a salad. We could go out, but again we run the risk of it not being good. Plus, it only lasts a couple of hours, and then what do you do afterwards? At home it’s comfortable, you instantly feel safe, and you can be well-fed under no pressure. 

“Our cookbook has just come out, and I think my advice to anyone using it, or looking to cook more at home in general, is to read the recipe, relax and don’t be afraid to splurge on some of the ingredients.

“A lot of the dishes may seem simple, like the bone of ribeye I’m making today, which is just cooking a steak at the end of the day, but our technique is slightly left field for a lot of people – it’s a sure-fire way, though, of getting delicious, soft, edge-to-edge steak, with an even temperature and colour throughout the meat. And it’s also done in a way in which, when the meat’s in the oven, you can crack on and do the other last-minute things. 

“The mistake at home is overcomplicating things. I’d hope that there is enough description in our recipe methods that you can get a grasp of what we do, and that is trying to have a balanced meal in terms of work output. If you put all the most complicated dishes together, you’re going to have a full day in the kitchen, and you’re not going to be able to relax. If you pick a mixture of moderate and zero effort dishes, then you can put on a really great Sunday or Christmas lunch, without the burden of worrying about overcooking something. 

“I’m not allowed to cook at Christmas, I’m banned by my mother-in-law, who we go to every year. I have cooked my fair share of Christmas dinners, though. My mother-in-law overcomplicates it a bit, with three or four different types of stuffing, which everyone loves, but do you really need four kinds? Probably not! But she does good gravy and a few different types of vegetables. She keeps it just simple enough that it’s not too stressful.

“If I was cooking, I think I would concentrate on one type of meat with one, really good stuffing. Keep the vegetables refined and bold in flavour, like the carrot dish: there is a bit of cooking to do, but you can actually do it advance because they can be reheated without any effect on their quality. 

“To jazz them up we throw on some caramelised walnuts, done in advance too, two or three days before if you’d like. The tops from the carrots add freshness and then we finish it with some olive oil. There’s also some caramelised onion puree underneath, which adds richness and sets the dish apart from just roasting carrots with honey. That dish is a winner.

“Potatoes. You can’t have a Christmas dinner, or any Sunday without them. And then great turkey, or the bone-on ribeye we’ve done today, which I’ve done for Christmas in the past. It’s slow-cooked at 90 degrees, so, even if you take your eye of it for 10 or 15 minutes, it’s not going to overcook. Roasting it on the bone retains flavour and moisture.

“Then it’s just about having a couple of other dishes you really like. At Christmas, I love sprouts and bacon, which is easy to do. It’s just cooking onions and bacon together and then throwing in quartered sprouts, a big knob of butter and salt and pepper – they cook in five minutes.

“You need good gravy, of course, but that’s not always easy to make when you’re cooking pieces of steak. In that case, we’ll cook beef and chicken stock, slowly reducing it with some wine, and you have a beautiful, rich sauce.

“Make sure you enjoy it, and don’t get stressed. I try and arrive to the table having drunk as much champagne as everyone else, only with the added praise of having cooked the meal, so it’s a win-win. It’s a classic mum move to not be able to enjoy the meal because they’re asking everyone how it is. My mum always asks how the beef is, when she knows full well it’s absolutely caned! But there you go…”

Shaun’s recipe for ribeye, roast potatoes and honey glazed carrots with onion and caramelised walnuts

Make the potato and carrot components first, as they can be kept warm while you cook the steak.

Lyonnaise Onions

6 small white onions, thinly sliced
150g sliced beef fat
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp picked thyme leaves

First make the Lyonnaise onions. Combine the onions with the beef fat and salt in a heavy-based saucepan and place over a low heat. Add the thyme and gently stew until the onions begin to caramelise, stirring occasionally. This takes a couple of hours to do properly. When the onions are a rich golden brown colour, remove from the heat and strain off any excess fat. If you want to store them for a few weeks, don’t discard the fat but leave it covering the onions to preserve them.

Caramelised Walnuts
We’d advise hiding them from partners and children if you want to make sure you have some left over to use!

400g caster sugar
400g water
200g walnut halves
Oil, for deep-frying
Maldon salt

In a heavy-based saucepan, warm the sugar and water over a low heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, drop the walnuts in. Bring to a medium simmer until the water reaches 116°C on a kitchen thermometer.

Meanwhile, heat some oil for deep-frying in a small saucepan to 180°C (or use a deep-fat fryer).

Drain the walnuts through a colander and shake off the excess sugar syrup.

While the walnuts are still hot, deep-fry them in the hot oil for 15–20 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and leave to drain on kitchen paper. Season generously with Maldon salt.

Roast Potatoes
For these, you must use a floury type of potato that is low in sugar, so that as they are boiled the flesh starts to break down. Most importantly, don’t shake the pan! That’s our tip to get the crispiest potato. Do be gentle when you’re draining or the potatoes will fall – we use a perforated tray, rather than a colander.

2.5kg King Edward potatoes, peeled and cut into 4cm pieces
200g duck or goose fat
2 whole garlic bulbs
A good handful of thyme
A good handful of rosemary
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 220°C.

Rinse the potatoes thoroughly in cold water while you bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add the potatoes and gently simmer for 15–20 minutes – they should be completely cooked through but still holding their shape. Carefully drain the potatoes using a flat perforated tray if you have one, to avoid piling the potatoes on top of each other. Leave them to air dry for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the duck or goose fat in a large roasting tray and heat in the oven for 10 minutes. The potatoes should now be nicely dry and cracking on the outsides. Pull the tray of duck fat from the oven and carefully lift the potatoes into the fat. At this stage a few of them may break into smaller pieces – don’t worry, varied sizes means more texture, with potatoes cooking at different times. Baste them with some of the fat and season with sea salt. Roast for 15-20 minutes.

Break the garlic into individual cloves and crush with the back of a knife. Add to the roasting dish along with the herbs and gently stir. Roast for another 20 minutes, stirring the potatoes halfway through. Remove from the oven and give them another stir – at this stage the potatoes should be crisp and golden brown ­– put them back in for another few minutes if not. Transfer the potatoes and garlic to a preheated serving dish and season with more salt and pepper.

Honey Glazed Carrots

2 bunches of leafy carrots
50g beef dripping
100g butter
100g honey
Lyonnaise onions, blitzed to a purée with a stick blender
Caramelised walnuts (see above)

Preheat the oven to 190°C.

Cut the tops away from the carrots, leaving 3cm of stalk still attached. Pick the green leaves off the tops, wash and reserve. Peel and wash the rest of the carrots.

Coat the carrots in the beef dripping in a small roasting tray and season with salt. Roast for 15 minutes before adding the butter and honey. Mix well and roast for another 15 minutes. You want the carrots to caramelise but still have a little bite – keep testing them with a skewer.

Leave the carrots to rest while you heat the onion purée and roughly chop the walnuts. To serve, get yourself a lovely sharing dish or platter and start by spreading over the warm onion purée. Add a layer of carrots and pour over the carrot resting juices and fats. Finally, sprinkle over the carrot top leaves and the caramelised walnuts.

Ribeye for Two – scale up as necessary
Although you’re ‘just’ cooking a steak, it’s not actually that easy. So herewith a forensic but faultless approach to cooking your meat perfectly. We’re using aged bone-in ribeye as the bone ensures a moisture retention that intensifies the flavour and protects the texture of the meat as it cooks. Moreover, there are three distinct and delicious flavours going on: the sweet eye of the meat, the soft and buttery rib cap around the eye, which tends to take on most of the caramelisation, and the half-fat half-meat hinterland towards the perimeter of the rib, which is the sweetest part yet. In terms of size, thickness is key – the ribeye (ideally cut to order by your butcher) needs to be about 5cm thick, which translates to about 800g.

800g bone-in ribeye steak, 5cm thick
Salt, to taste
75–125g cold unsalted butter
A large sprig of thyme
2 garlic cloves, crushed

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 90°C. Once it’s up to temperature, it’s time to start pan-frying.

Unusually, we cook ribeyes directly from the fridge rather than letting them get to room temperature – this can quicken the process but it can also mean the centre of the steak cooks too quickly. Our method ensures an even cook.

Season the steak with salt and put in a pan. Turn the heat to low. Start by cooking the ribeye standing upright, fat side down, to render it. Gradually increase the heat to medium; after about five minutes when there is a pool of bubbling fat sufficient to caramelise the steak in, turn the steak onto its side. Turn up the heat. Flip the steak after two minutes and cook the other side for an additional two minutes. At this point, you may wish to open a window or turn off your fire alarm.

When both sides are nicely browned, add 75g of the butter to the pan. Cook for another four minutes on each side. If the butter starts to brown but the steak hasn’t caramelised (you’ll know if the steak has caramelised because the crust of the steak should be nut-brown like a light ale and smell sweet rather than burnt) add another 50g butter.

For the last 30 seconds add the thyme sprig and crushed garlic and then transfer to a baking tray to rest for five minutes.

Now probe the centre of the steak with a meat thermometer; it should be just under 200 Transfer to the preheated oven and cook for 25 minutes, then remove and probe the centre of the steak again – you are looking for it to be between 48-52°C. It may need a bit longer back in the oven.

Rest for five minutes before removing the bone from the meat and slicing. Pour over the resting juices and season with a pinch of sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper.