Every Thursday we interview chefs from around the UK, hearing about their cheap food hacks and more. Today we chat to chef Diego Jacquet, patron and chef at Zoilo and the Florencio pizzeria in London.
My pet hate in restaurants is… when kitchen staff don’t say “backs” or “behind” when passing by behind you. At the least it can result in having to re-do the dish you have just spent time doing, and at worst it can be very dangerous when operating with sharp knives and hot equipment.
The biggest mistake I see in kitchens is… a lack of communication between front of house and kitchen. It is essential to communicate as much as possible. You absolutely need to be working as one team in order to provide good service for our guests.
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My one piece of advice for an aspiring chef is… find a good kitchen, keep your head down, pay attention, focus, always be available, don’t take feedback personally, and don’t make your choices based on money. That’s more than one piece of advice but I think it’s all essential!
With meat, such as poultry or pork, brine it before cooking it… to add flavour and make the meat more tender. To do so, put 1kg of water to 100g of salt into a saucepan (you may need to amend these quantities depending on how much meat you’re brining, of course), put the meat into the saucepan, and bring to the boil. How big your piece of meat is will determine how long to brine it for – there is a lot of information you can find online to help with your particular piece of meat.
My favourite cookbook is… White Heat by Marco Pierre White. It was the first time I saw a chef that looks like a rock star! For me, he paved the way with an age of new cookbooks and made cooking cool. I also like that it’s part autobiography, part cookbook.
My go-to cheap eat at home is… crisp Spanish…
