Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: ‘Nettles, grey squirrels and the occasional placenta? I’m relaxed about that’

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Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is very worried about my tomatoes. They are one of his 12 food heroes in his newest cook book, the Sunday Times bestseller High Fibre Heroes, but I am recklessly squandering my seedling’s chances of success. As a long time eater, but first time grower, I naively chucked two packers of seeds into a window box and left them to get on with it. More fool me.

‘Have you got them outdoors?’ Hugh probes. ‘Do you have a greenhouse?’. I answer no. He begins to panic. ‘WHERE ARE the tomatoes?’ Hugh implores anxiously. ‘How many plants have you got in there? Are they all the same variety? If not, did you label them? How long have they been in there?’ My answers (outside but coming inside, way too many, no, no, two weeks from seed) do not satisfy Hugh. ‘My greenhouse is right by my garden office,’ he says, lifting me up (we are Facetiming) and helpfully walking me over to show me the ropes.

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The greenhouse in question is in the Devon countryside where Hugh has been for 17 years. Born in London in 1965 and raised in Gloucestershire, the celebrity chef and food writer is best known for the Channel 4 series River Cottage, which he named after his home.

Hugh’s cooking career began at a young age, helping out at his mother’s dinner parties in the 1970s by making the desserts. The path to greatness never did run smooth, however. Hugh was sacked from an early cooking job at the River Cafe after a few short months. ‘Even though I think I was sort of fairly in tune with the ethos at the place, it was fair to say that at the time I lacked the discipline and professionalism of a trained chef,’ he admits. After that, his path was unclear. ‘I thought: “Well, if you've just been fired from the most relaxed restaurant kitchen in London, do you really want to go and work in some dungeon for some crazed chef trying to get their third Michelin star?’ Hugh decided on a career writing about food instead.

He was a restaurant critic for Punch magazine and the Independent on Sunday. TV work and plenty of books followed. Now, Hugh runs a cookery school at River Cottage at Park Farm, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. He lives with his wife Marie Derome, with whom he shares four children.

His latest book celebrates all things vegetable. ‘I think it's probably the case with quite a lot of young cooks that the meat and the fish are very exciting, but they're also quite tyrannical ingredients, because they hog a lot of attention,’ he says. ‘If we give the same kind of attention to vegetables in a really thoughtful way, they can be so incredibly rewarding and delicious.’ However, Hugh is an omnivore — and an adventurous one at that.

‘The weirdest thing that people think I've ever eaten is probably a placenta,’ he says. For a TV show, he attended an alternative christening where he made the mother’s placenta into a pâté with sage, onion, red wine and a splash of port for the guests. ‘It was really tasty,’ he says, though admits it’s not a chance readily available to many, unless you’ve given birth. ‘You’ve got my number. I can give you a recipe,’ Hugh reassures me. I reply that if I do have children and the desire to eat my own placenta also arises, he will be the first to know.

Has he eaten any other weird or wonderful things? ‘I’ve eaten quite a lot of things that are not mainstream but I haven’t eaten wood or, you know, a car, or something that people online seem to be able to work their way through for a challenge, or whatever. I think there’s a guy who’s eating a small airplane — I don’t think that’s good at all. But I mean nettles, [grey] squirrels and the occasional placenta? I’m relaxed about that.’

An exhibition that has really impressed you

I went to the Francis Bacon exhibition at the National Gallery a year or so ago and I thought that was incredible.

The last thing of note that you bought for yourself

I bought a heel for one of these shoes. I went to Timpson's in Honiton, and they put two new heels on and basically resurrected my garden boots, which I thought were probably a goner, and now they've got a whole new lease of life. I wouldn't say they're as good as new, but they're as good as new for gardening.

A possession that you’d never sell

I mean, I've got lots of possessions that I would never sell, but I suppose I would choose a very beloved hand-forged kitchen knife that was made by a brilliant West Country blacksmith called Sebastian Pole at The Forge. I use it every day.

Your favourite painting

My mum and dad have a few prints by an artist called Patrick Caulfield. They are very simple household scenes in bold primary colours and they're just, sort of, witty and intriguing. Every time I go to my mum and dad's house, I enjoy looking at these Patrick Caulfield prints.

A book you’ve found inspiring

From a food point of view, probably the most inspiring book I've read is Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking, which I started cooking from when I was a teenager, so I've cooked my way through that. On the fiction side, I've just read a brilliant book called Reunion by a writer called Fred Uhlman. I'd recommend it to anyone. It's an extraordinary story about a friendship between two boys just before the Second World War. It's incredibly touching.

The music that you work to

On the whole, I don't work to music, but I do like to have music playing when I'm cooking in the evening and I'm usually very happy to let any younger members of the family choose the playlist. And as a result of that, I've discovered some tunes that I wouldn't otherwise have come across, and now I might even go looking for them myself. Recent favourites that I've discovered through my kids include California by Delta Spirit, Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap, Space Song by Beach House and Losing My Edge by LCD Soundsystem — because I love it and it amuses me at my time of life to think about the lyrics in the context of the world of food.

The last podcast you listened to

I'm a bit old school, and I tend to listen to the radio in real time. So, the other thing I do when I'm cooking is I listen to the Radio 4 comedy thing, particularly the Monday one at 6:30pm, and if it's not my bag then I will listen to music, as discussed. But I did listen to a podcast about Russia, Putin and the apartment block bombers. That’s another BBC one — it’s brilliantly done.

The person that would play you in a film of your life

Maybe Steve Coogan or Eddie Redmayne?

What you’d take with you to a desert island

I would take a mask and snorkel — and some other bits of fishing kit as well. Also, I’d like to take one bulb of garlic.

The thing that gets you up in the morning

A cold shower. That’s my coffee. That’s my jolt.

The items you collect

I collect unnecessary amounts of fishing tackle because I always think there might be something I can buy that will help me catch more or bigger fish. It's a sucker's market. I walk into a fishing tackle shop and it's full of things that I really don't need, but somehow want.

Your aesthetic hero

I'm going to say Ben Stokes, because I've really been enjoying watching the cricket for the last few years, and I love the sort of soap opera that is the England cricket team.

A hotel you could go back and back to

The Bull Inn, in Totnes, which is a really lovely organic pub with rooms run by my friend Geetie Singh-Watson.

The most memorable meal you’ve ever had

My mum’s shepherd pie.

The best present you’ve ever received

My attitude about receiving gifts has changed. When I was a kid, the thing I most dreaded getting for Christmas or a birthday was books and socks. I’d think that if anyone gave me a book or a sock, it was just a loss. I'd probably never read the book, and what could be more boring than socks? And now the things I most like to be gifted, and luckily, my family knows this, are really nice socks and books that I actually do want to read.

High Fibre Heroes by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is out now.