Our Kitchen Stories series has called upon top chefs like Seppe Nobels, Skye Gyngell and Erchen Chang for some home cooking inspiration. Here, Hanna Geller, Tomos Parry, Nicholas Balfe and Shaun Searly share their thoughts on shopping responsibly and what they’re cooking under lockdown.

Hanna Geller of Building Feasts
As a mother of four boys between the ages of five and 16, lockdown is mainly about keeping them buoyant and happy with endless snacks and numerous meals a day. To keep things interesting on my end, I have devised a few games for me to play and amuse myself as days and meals blend from one into the next……

1. We are baking our way through my privately curated chocolate chip cookie compendium and re-ranking the recipes (there were apparently some errors and oversights in previous cookie status).

2. I am mainly trying to purchase groceries from my favourite local independent suppliers and keep online supermarket spots for isolated people who possibly cannot easily access some of their local shops. 

3. I am shopping more consciously with more meal plans in mind and am determined to have absolutely zero waste of food. I am enjoying finding new creative ways to use up or preserve slightly sad leftover fruit and veg before re-stocking the fridge.

4. I make at least one dish a week from a favourite/memorable restaurant. I miss the ceremony, inspiration and overall treat of eating out and it’s also my way of reliving some precious moments while separated from those I love. 

Tomos Parry of Brat
Spending time in the kitchen is both a necessity and an opportunity at the moment. There’s scope for bigger projects like pickling, preserving and fermenting which retain their goodness for a later date and minimise waste. I’m using lots of Asian vinegars from the back of my cupboard for preserving rhubarb and making kimchi.

We are still buying from our great suppliers and farmers at Brat, and once a week we get different cuts of meat. Cuts such as brisket require much more time­ – you can now braise things slowly, developing much more flavour, for classic Italian dishes such as bollito misto. Each Sunday we roast a whole chicken, making stock from the bones, and using the cold chicken in a salad. It’s a slower time at the moment. 

Shaun Searley of Quality Chop House
For me home cooking is more important than ever. There is an obvious cost aspect in that its cheaper than getting a takeaway but it’s also a time to get your family and loved ones in the kitchen, whether for a baking session or just teaching/learning the basics.

I’ve been baking sourdough bread every other day. We make it at the restaurant every day but somehow it feels different at home. In terms of what kind of meals, I have been cooking a lot of brunch dishes, and then dinner. I try to stick to just that, otherwise I find I end up eating all day! 

Last week we had hummus, topped with creme fraiche and black pepper, thinly sliced tomatoes with olive oil and chilli, poached egg and freshly baked sourdough on the side. Dinners are things like roast chicken and salad, lasagne or curries. 

Forward planning is more important than ever now. Write a meal planner with brunch and dinners and snacks, or however many meals you want. Throw nothing away – I got three dishes from a cauliflower: cauliflower cheese, soup and roast cauliflower florets. With a roast chicken, whatever you don’t eat pick away from the bone and make a stir fry or a pie, and the carcass can be made into a stock to make chicken noodle soup, that sort of thing.

Nicholas Balfe of Salon, Levan and Larry’s
Mealtimes are always special in our house, but have taken on so much more significance of late. My daughter is just 10 months old and is very quickly learning how to eat, or at least how to turn whatever’s in her bowl into mush that ends up on the floor! Meanwhile, my stepdaughter is a constant source of entertainment, giving us insightful commentary on what’s going on in the world, seen through the eyes of a very switched-on eight-year-old! It’s been wonderful to sit at the table together and eat three times a day, every day. That’s certainly one really positive thing to come out of this period; something I’ll look back on and cherish. 

We generally eat fairly healthily at home, sticking mainly to vegetarian or vegan dishes in the week and perhaps one meal containing meat or fish at the weekend. We’ve been cooking simple, nourishing meals and making sure we have enough left over to eat the following day, or turn into something else in another meal. It all sounds quite earnest really, but we’ve allowed ourselves a few treats, too. We bought some delicious cheeses from Provisions in north London (who supply Levan & Larry’s), as well as a cheeky tub of pork rillettes and some black truffle-flavoured crisps. The perfect accompaniment to a case of natural wine, delivered to our door from Salon Wine Store! 

The reality is we still have access to most of the ingredients we want from online retailers, our local greengrocer and a couple of our work suppliers who are now doing domestic deliveries, but we’re still mindful of what we use and how we use it. This evening we’re having sausages from Flock & Herd, who supply our meat at the restaurants, cannellini beans, which I slow cooked yesterday afternoon with carrots, shallots, paprika and a little maple syrup, some radicchio which was hanging around at the bottom of the veg tray in the fridge, braised in sherry vinegar and pomegranate molases, and some steamed cavolo nero for greenery. Baked beans and sausages, really – simple enough for our eight-year-old to enjoy, but really healthy and full of flavour. 

We’re certainly cooking more, and judging by my social media feed, lots of other people are doing the same too. It’s great to see people being creative and finding new ways to be inspired. Perhaps there are some benefits of being in isolation after all.