Chef Angela Hartnett shares her top tips from new cookbook

Virgin Radio

25 May 2022, 10:15

Angela Hartnett joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky this morning to talk all about her new cookbook, The Weekend Cook, Good Food for Real Life.

The latest from Hartnett has been inspired by her and her husband Neil’s famous gatherings from their home and offers a relaxed guide to hosting anything from small dinners to raucous street parties.

As well as the 80 recipes, the book also includes some pretty good tips and hacks when it comes to hosting and cooking, and Hartnett shared her best ones with Chris this morning.

Her first tip was on how to make a good soup for starters.

She said: “I think it’s the base isn’t it? It’s just slowly, slowly building the layers and it’s getting great stock to cook your soup. You know, if it’s something like a potato and leek soup, you’ve got to cook those leeks properly, cook the onions and your potatoes in a great stock.”

She added: “I love soup, and I judge a restaurant on a good soup.”

Once you’ve nailed the starter, it’s time to move on to the main event and blow your guests away with an incredible main.

For Angela, you can’t go far wrong with a good roast chicken, and she, of course, had some tips on how to make it delicious.

She said: “I like it with lemon and garlic, in a roasting dish with loads of rosemary on there and the key afterward, I think, after you’ve got all those juices, get a lovely slab of sort of bread- like thick bread- and put the chicken on top of it as you serve it so then all the juices soak into the bread.

“After you can then eat the bread because it's got all those beautiful roasting flavours.”

Sounds divine!

Depending on how good your night has gone, your guests might decide to spend the night and have breakfast with you in the morning.

If that is the case, Angela has you covered once again.

For her, the best way to prepare an egg is to fry it in butter.

She says: “As soon as the butter goes in and sizzles, get your egg ready and crack it straight away. That will bring the temperature down, but it will still get a crispy side to it.

“Add a little bit more butter. I don’t like to turn it- I’d rather use a spoon and tilt the pan, and just coat it. Then I like to put a little bit of sage in there with my eggs as well. So you’ve got fried eggs with sage which are absolutely delicious.”

Angela hopes her new cookbook will help people fall as much in love with cooking at home as she is.

She added: I love cooking at home, it's no pressure. So why not? With a glass of wine, you got virgin radio in the background, and you can relax and take your time.

“I love it. When people bring stuff we sort of share a bit of the cooking and I do cook a lot at the weekend. So if we've cooked something or there's more of it, we'll always just ring or text a few neighbours, and they come on over. So I think it's really easy. I love it.”

Angela Hartnett’s The Weekend Cook, Good Food for Real Life will be out tomorrow.

For more great interviews listen to  The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or  catch up on-demand here.