Kate Humble and the handmade at home
Kate Humble’s latest book Home Made, like all good things, is the result of a collaboration. Alongside delicious, warming home made recipes it celebrates the artisans and makers that are behind our food. We’re very grateful to have been included, you might recognise the brilliant salt maker Nigel who is photographed below.
Kate kindly sat down to answer a few of our questions about the project and how she brings the hand made into her home.
Here at Halen Môn we know how important it is to tell the stories of people who make, grow and produce our food. Have you always been interested in the people behind our food?
It is something I’ve become increasingly aware of and conscious of since becoming closer to the ‘sharp end’ of food production myself. Working so closely with farmers, having a better understanding of the many, many challenges that face anyone growing or producing food that they can often do nothing about – weather and unpredictable costs being just two of them – has given me a far greater appreciation of how food reaches our kitchens and made me particularly conscious of the evils of wasting food.
How does cooking fit into your life at home? Do you have lots of time to cook?
It depends on the day. But I’m not a great one for spending hours in the kitchen. I enjoy cooking, but I don’t like faff and I have neither the patience nor the technical skill to spend hours on twiddly food. My philosophy is very much ‘if you have good ingredients, muck about with them as little as possible’. But I love the gently creative process of putting food together, of making a dish look appetising – even if it’s just scrambled eggs – and I love cooking for friends. If I know I’ve got a busy week ahead, I’ll plan ahead a bit, but just as often I open the fridge, see what’s there and cobble something together!
Tell us a little more about how you bring the Homemade into your everyday life – do you have favourite handmade ceramics/ baskets/ clothes?
I love anything with a story – I think we all do. There is something very special about using a mug that was made by someone you know, or bought from a craft market rather than something mass produced. Similarly I love using bowls – wooden and ceramic – that have come from makers like Michelle Mateo and Gill Thompson, who are both featured in the book. The basket I use every day to collect eggs from my hens was made by a friend. I have a dress made by Toria Whitfield, who also makes the aprons featured in the book, and I love wearing it because it reminds me of her. I’m not mad about things that are merely decorative – I love things that have a purpose, that are utilitarian, but that doesn’t mean they can’t still be aesthetically beautiful to look at and use too.
It’s not the first time you’ve brought storytelling into your recipe books. Do you feel they go hand in hand?
I do! I love recipe books that give context, tell stories and maybe reveal something of the author – a bit of how they cook and what motivates and inspires them. Some years ago I was asked to be on the BBC Radio 4 Programme With Great Pleasure – a sort of Desert Island Discs for literature. One of the extracts I chose was from Nigel Slater’s first Kitchen Diaries and his description of making a simple salad sandwich. It is a joyously sensory piece of food writing that makes you immediately want to taste that crunch between soft, yielding white bread.
You must have met some wonderful people while putting this book together? Which artisan surprised you most? Who did you learn the most from?
I really did! I have been lucky enough, through the community I live in and the work that I’ve done – particularly the BBC series Back to the Land – to discover that the people who take the brave step to forge their own path and to make a living from their craft and skills are always inspiring and always have a good story to tell. Every one of the twenty artisans featured in Home Made had been courageous, true to themselves and in some cases, just bloody stubborn! – to allow them to turn their passion into a living. I love that David White can whittle beautiful spoons and for it to be something that is valued and earn him a wage. I love Ben Ward’s passion for growing vegetables and his willingness to give up the security of a corporate job to follow his heart. I can’t single out any one of them, they all inspired, delighted and enthralled me and left me with a feeling of enormous respect and admiration.
Tell us a little more about the Size of Wales schools competition, such an inspiring project. How did you get involved?
Size of Wales is a charity that has been working with schools in Monmouthshire, where I live, to examine and address the connection between global deforestation and the food we eat. They tasked primary school children in four schools to do an audit of one of their regular school meals – a chicken korma. The children discovered how damaging and costly that dish was to the environment, and with the help of the brilliant Cookalong Clwb founded by Angharad Underwood – they developed their own alternative – a chickpea korma, using British grown ingredients, that was not only cheaper to produce but was nutritionally better too. I was asked to host an event with the participating schools and Size of Wales at Abergavenny Food Festival to highlight what these young people had achieved. And the wonderful outcome, was the person responsible for school dinners throughout Monmouthshire’s schools made a public announcement that the chickpea korma developed by the children would be available on school menus throughout the county.
If we cook one thing from the book tonight, what should it be?
It’s coming into Autumn, so I look for something comforting and warming. The cauliflower curry is a quick, easy and delicious bowl of food, but it would be very remiss of me not to also suggest whizzing up some of Jess’s Oak-Smoked hummus, using Halen Mon’s oak-smoked water while the curry is cooking for lunch the next day!
Kate’s latest book Home Made is out now and you can order a copy here. Huge thanks to Andrew Montgomery for the beautiful imagery.