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HALL FOOD
Interview: John McGeever Chef John McGeever has reinvigorated the Hall’s menus since his arrival in 2011, bringing with him a wealth of experience from cooking at the highest level in hotels and restaurants that have been starred in international guides. He is also an Honorary Vice President of The Master Chefs of Great Britain. French. All the calls were French: all the orders and replies. I was shocked and had to learn French very fast! It was very standard in kitchens in those days. They were all British but when it came to service time they spoke in French, which was madness! After four years I moved to the Albany Hotel in Glasgow, and did my degree in catering part-time for seven years. Then I moved to London and later worked abroad, travelling a lot.
What challenges did you face when you started working at the Hall? My first day’s work was actually the St Edmund’s Feast. We did plated food for the first time ever for a banquet at the Hall that night. Before, it all came on big platters – silver service with vegetable dishes on the table. It was very 1970s, so I had to change that as soon as possible. Then I had to buy some nice china – the china was terrible! The kitchen had been run by the same chef for forty years and he’d let it go to his way of working. When I came here there were several freezers full of food, which I disposed of! There were also four large sinks for defrosting food, which have now gone. That’s now a pastry kitchen. I came in with my background in hotels and restaurants – a mentality of five-star hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants around the world – so I’m used to doing things to a high standard. How did you become a chef? My grandmother was a chef all her life, cooking for the shipyards in Clydebank, and my dad was a baker, so cooking was more or less the family business. As soon as I could leave school at fourteen, I went to work as a junior chef in the four-star Royal Stuart Hotel in Glasgow. The first morning was spent just chatting about the football or your girlfriend but, once lunchtime started, it changed to 26
When I came back to England, I got my first star at Congham Hall in Norfolk, aged twenty-eight. It was quite a shock to find you’ve got a star at that age, so it was a bit of a surprise. What are the most popular dishes on the Hall menu? People always love anything to do with pasta: meatballs, mince, lasagne. We do a Teddy Burger: that’s a nice home-made burger with Swiss cheese, onions, tomatoes. That goes down well; the kids want food they recognise. But we do things that are off the wall sometimes, for formal dinners, which they always enjoy. They love puddings, especially if I do mini puddings with three on a plate. It’s all about theatre!
“It’s not about awards though; it’s about happy customers. A student’s mother rang me up and said thank you very much. That’s lovely. ” What’s your favourite dish on the menu here? I love a good lasagne. A really well-made lasagne is nice because it’s fresh meat, vegetables, pasta, cheese – things that I enjoy together. Either that, or a nice ham sandwich is sometimes lovely.
What’s the most bizarre request you’ve ever had in the suggestions book? Somebody once asked for clam chowder – for breakfast! Do we have an ethical food policy? We do. I buy free range and fair trade whenever I can, and we try to buy locally as much as possible. What are your least favourite foods? I don’t like snails – I think they’re just a waste of time. I’m not big on some shellfish because they’re pretty risky things and sea urchins disgust me intensely! Once in Singapore someone served me snake that had been killed at the table and then stir-fried and I had to eat some of it as a guest at a banquet. Then in Bogotá, the head chef of one hotel did an office breakfast and had this vine leaf filled with some sort of meat, with grubs inside it that were still alive. I declined that breakfast and had a cup of coffee instead! What meal would you choose as your last request? It would have to be seared foie gras with roasted peaches and five spice, and then sea bass with seared scallops. Dessert would be passion fruit soufflé with vanilla sauce. How does that fit in with the ethical food policy you mentioned earlier? Foie gras is something that I just love, and the one I use is from Spain where the ducks are free range and not force-fed. How many stars have you had (so far) in your career? Just the one, at Congham Hall – that was enough. We got a Michelin and Egon Ronay star at the same time and three AA rosettes. It’s not about awards though; it’s about happy customers. A student’s mother rang me up and said thank you very much. That’s lovely, and that’s what counts for me now. If people are happy, saying thank you, that’s enough for me – that, and being paid on time!