Produce

Restaurants are fortunate in the range and quality of supplies available to them – our fish goes from boat to table far quicker than is the case for the home cook; as we buy meat from butchers not supermarkets ours is always properly hung. We can buy unusual varieties of fruit, salads and vegetables from small specialist growers like Frances Smith of Appledore, Kent, who delivers nettle tops, yellow raspberries and tomatoes, white aubergines, the apples of old England, wet walnuts, elderflowers, geranium leaves, purslane, claytonia, even medlars (although I’m ashamed to say I can never decide what to do with them apart from making jelly, which is a bit feeble).