Anthony Demetre Kitchen Confidential

Anthony Demetre, Michelin-starred chef-patron of three London restaurants, including Arbutus, looks forward to sea trout season and the shoots of spring

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Not that I don’t love the slow cooking and comfort food of winter, but it’s when I think of all those spring vegetables lying dormant, biding their time until they finally burst into our kitchen and onto our plates, that I really get excited about cooking.

Nettles will soon be coming into season, which we use in a lovely soup starter. The base is actually a winter preserve, made from blood orange, ginger, pink grapefruit and spices, which we then blend with fresh nettles and top with a poached egg. Come 23 April, St George’s mushrooms will find their way onto the menu, gently cooked in butter (I hate it when chefs pan-fry the hell out of mushrooms – there’s so much flavour in the liquid, you don’t want it to evaporate) and again topped with a runny egg and garnished with wild garlic flowers.

There’s a wealth of options that come with rose veal in April. I source mine from Elwy Valley in Wales, and it has an incredible flavour. We’ll use the whole animal, making a blanquette with the shoulder, spring cabbage, Jersey Royal potatoes and a cream and marjoram sauce; the shin gets served with a little bone marrow on the side; the liver is slow-cooked, sliced cold, warmed in salted butter and paired with baby peas and carrots.

I’m sorry to see the back of partridge as winter fades, but wood pigeon is right there waiting to steal the limelight. It’s so good roasted and served with a chilli and chocolate mole poblano sauce – ancho chillies give it a lovely mild kick. (I like spicy food, but heat should never be the main focus.)

I stick to three or four key ingredients in all my dishes – there’s no point overcrowding flavours, especially when it comes to seafood. Brown Dorset crab is brilliant cooked plain, picked and paired with raw peas (for crunch) and something fruity – often a bit of avocado and alphonso mango – then drizzled with a little olive oil. Sea trout has such a short season and I’m a big fly-fishing fan, so I use it at the restaurants whenever I can. Beech-smoked with rosemary, orange, cucumber and horseradish it makes an incredible tartare. For something pretty, I cure it with lime and top it with wild salmon caviar and deep purple beetroot mousse (arbutusrestaurant.co.uk)

Who i'm using

Secretts Farm in Eversham supplies most of my vegetables, including early asparagus (secretts.co.uk). I’ve been working with Bobby Lee at Daily Fish for years and just tend to tell him, ‘Send me what you’ve got’ (dailyfishsupplies.com).

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