With the unsettling but necessary closure of restaurants, chefs, like the rest of us, are turning to their home kitchens for nourishment, comfort and connection in this period of lockdown. Here, we’ve reached out to chefs in our community to get their thoughts on what a good meal can do for morale right now; hear what food they are leaning towards and learn how they’re making ingredients go further to minimise waste. Check back in the coming weeks for Tomos Parry, Nicholas Balfe, Seppe Nobels, David Gingell, Shaun Searley and Clare Lattin’s thoughts.

Jeremy Lee of Quo Vadis
“It always starts at home for me. My mum was gifted in the kitchen and cooked for her family every day of her life. When I was young, we ate good plain simple food, which I love still. Scotland has a wealth of beautiful produce that required very little in the way of embellishments. As I grew older, British and French regional cookery began to appear and so was laid the bedrock of the food I love best to prepare, cook and serve; in the restaurant and at home.

Finding myself, along with the rest of our dear world – as an insidious presence stalks our lives – at home, most often alone, one great solace is having that rarest of luxuries: time. Time to cook in an unhurried fashion. Buying fresh produce and cooking every day is proving to be a very great pleasure. I love buying small amounts of the best quality produce I can find and making several good things from them.

A favourite salad is green beans, sprouting broccoli dressed in anchoiade, which is anchovies pounded with garlic, egg, olive oil and lemon – capers are a welcome thought here too. This is very good with most meats, such as a few slivers of duck breast.

A trip to a fishmonger or a butcher, or delivery of, say, a whole duck, guinea fowl, chicken or a rabbit goes a long way. Putting the joints of these into braises, soups, preserves, pots and crocks is a happy use of time, using all and every part to make good things. Soups have pleased mightily, be it a great pan of coarsely chopped vegetables, beans, lentils, split peas, greens and herbs.

Good olive oil and good bread are, of course, vital. Lightly curing joints of bird or beast and fillets of fish is proving equally helpful and delicious. If at all possible, fresh herbs and freshly ground spice are a boon to the home cook.

“Adventures with eggs are splendid: omelettes, frittata, eggah, kuku, a tart with no pastry, are easily and swiftly prepared, delicious and nutritious, wholesome and pleasing. Porridge for breakfast every day is just ace. A homemade muesli or granola with an excellent yoghurt and rhubarb compote is as pretty as it is nourishing. Any scraps of meat remaining are excellent in a hash, a great vehicle for many vegetables too.

I find generally that I eat a little meat, a lot of vegetables, some pulses, some fish, tinned, fresh, cured and smoked, and some bread. As I settle into a routine of sorts at home my appetite is small, so a few delicious things through the day seem to happily keep the wolf from the door.

I am quietly gathering the wherewithal to bake a cake now and again, perhaps some biscuits for treats are vital. Oh yes, and for pastry, I have a keen need to try a galette of spinach, feta, onion and anchovy… or sardines. Don’t forget tinned sardines.

Finding out who is still trading and making every effort to support the small and local traders and producers in remote addresses is so worthwhile during these difficult times. Using everything and incurring as little waste as possible is a worthy endeavour. The stockpot is a great friend to the cook, as is a ‘chopped salad’, brilliant for a fridge and larder sweep. Is it now time to mine the mysteries of making mayonnaise? How to make your own yoghurt? How to make soda bread to accompany smoked fish?

Writing menus for the following days is amusing and most beneficial as you can shop and use what you have in a reasonable fashion. The great, huge, random shop of old seems at odds in these times. Taking a small shopping bag when out for a walk that takes you past a favourite merchant with something of a treat within is always worth considering.

Erchen Chang of Bao
“Cooking is always important. But during this difficult time, it’s even more important as it gives us a routine to our days. It makes the days in isolation something to look forward to. Eating well is also vital to keep our mood and mental health balanced and in the attempt to try and stay healthy.

I am planning what to cook a lot at the moment, as certain deliveries and local suppliers are beginning to have limited options. Some wholesale suppliers have now started home delivery, which is great as not only can you get high quality produce, but you are also supporting them at a time when they have pretty much lost all their restaurant trade.

Being at home all the time gives me more chances to cook things that require slower or longer cooking, such as broths, stews and dishes that need marinating. A good broth or stock is the basis of cooking – to make a good sauce or stew always requires a good stock.

I enjoy my usual pantry, especially my Chinese dry goods for broths. Ingredients like dried red dates, black-eyed beans, longan berries, dried lily bulbs and lotus seeds make a good tonic that warms up the body and are all things I couldn’t imagine living without. They are all dry goods that can keep for a lengthy period and provide lots of energy without needing to be used in large amounts.

The photos I have sent through are what I made recently: salted duck congee and duck noodles with a restorative broth. I love making three to four meals out of a bird. I received a whole duck last week. The carcass was used to make a broth. Normally I would use this broth for anything that needs a top-up of stock during the week. Here I used the broth to make a medicinal soup base for noodles and seared the duck breast to top it off. The leg was salted and slow-cooked in the congee. I still have one breast and one leg for later use. Both dishes are what I am enjoying eating currently, which is something hearty and soul-warming. But it’s important to mix it up here and there to give a bit of variety to your routine.

Skye Gyngell of Heckfield Place and Spring
“I think the fact that the pace of life has slowed down so much has given everybody a chance to spend time doing all the things that they never really get around to doing at home. Cooking is one of those things, and it has been incredibly heart-warming to see so many people post dishes that they have cooked online. It seems like the simple act of cooking is giving a lot of people comfort and pleasure right now.

Cooking is such a joyful act, especially when you have space and time to do it. I have always found it very meditative and grounding, especially cooking at home rather than in a professional setting, where the stakes and the workload are a lot higher. It’s also a way of nurturing others; an expression of love. Eating together and sitting at the table is also a very healing and healthy thing to do. My hope is that people may continue to cook more once this is all over.

I’m eating simply and shopping little and often. I’m lucky enough to get vegetables from Jane Scotter at Fern Verrow. I’ve been making sourdough bread at home and just largely eating vegetables: in soups, simply roasted or raw in salads. We are in a time that farmers call ‘The Hungry Gap’, so while they are busy sowing and planting for vegetables and fruit to be ready in late spring, there is actually very little available right now: some roots and spring greens, spinach, leeks and lettuce.

The other night I ate a bowl of buttered swede laced with black pepper and some spring greens. My taste always runs to the very simple and I’ve always focused on nutrient-dense, whole foods. I do see good food as the best medicine, and I find what tastes delicious also always feels good for me. I think I choose to cook in a very pared-back way at home as well because how we cook at the restaurant is often more technique-driven and I like to have a break from that.

It really helps to buy little and often. I think about what I feel like eating and just buy what I need for that. I don’t buy anything in larger quantities unless it is things like oats, dried grains and pulses – things that I know have a long shelf life and I can dip into when I need to. I also make use of anything left over from the day before so if I have a few vegetables from lunch or the night before I will add them to a salad with a little goat’s curd or fold them through an omelette.