Rowley Leigh

After stumbling upon a career as a chef, Rowley Leigh has managed to work with the Roux brothers and is now head chef at London’s Le Café Anglais. He talks to Keya Modessa about his love for all things Italian

You wouldn’t believe it, but I fell into cooking.

I was struggling for work as a writer and money was running out. I saw a job as a grill chef at the Rock Garden in Covent Garden, which had just opened – I applied and got it. I was basically making hamburgers but stuck it out for six months and loved every second of it. After I got some experience I moved on to work at Joe Allen (http://joeallen.co.uk).

I live in Shepherd’s Bush and there’s a great gastro pub

that opened round about the time I started working at Le Café Anglais. It’s called the Princess Victoria (http://princessvictoria.co.uk) and they have nice bar food like hot scotch eggs and pints of prawns. The head chef James McLean serves very good charcuterie. You can usually find me there when I’m off duty with a pint of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord ale.

Once a year I travel back to Rome.

I went about a month ago with my family and stayed with friends in the lively Trastevere area. Although the city is flooded with tourists, it still truly belongs to the Romans. My friends took me to a restaurant called Trattoria Da Teo Di Teodoro Filippini. It’s a small place and I ordered the tripe which came in a rich tomato sauce – I was wearing a white shirt so you can imagine what happened next! The thing I love about Rome is that you’ll find a restaurant around every corner doing simple food like spaghetti, deep fried artichokes, sweetbreads – it’s what they do best and they don’t need to be clever about it.

The strangest thing I’ve eaten was in Italy.

I went to a restaurant called Checchino dal 1887 (http://checchino-dal-1887.com). It’s a charming, old-fashioned spot in the middle of Testaccio, in Rome, where the old slaughterhouse used to be. The restaurant specialises in offal and I tried rigatoni con pajata, which is unweaned lamb’s intestines, still filled with milk. It is cooked so the milk inside curdles, producing a creamy, ricottalike cheese within. It’s disappearing from menus in the city but this restaurant still proudly serves it.

Even in London, I can’t get enough of Italian food

and for a regular fix I go to L’Anima (lanima.co.uk). They do a wonderful fritto misto – their version of the deep-fried seafood dish has red mullet, anchovies and squid. You can find fritto misto all over Venice, but often it’s greasy, smelly and not crispy enough. Here, it’s done beautifully – sweet, crisp and clean.

I’d like to spend time travelling through India.

I was in Sri Lanka last year and I thought the food was fantastic. I went to the local vegetable market in Galle and it’s unbelievable how much they grow on their doorstep – beetroot, potatoes, beans and tomatoes are all so rich and have oodles of flavour. I cooked seer fish while I was here, it’s a type of mackerel and quite big. I grilled it and served with wing bean chutney. http://lecafeanglais.co.uk