I’ve been cooking over open fires since I used to spend my pocket money on matches and bacon and go and light fires in the woods when I was eight. I’ve never really grown up and I’ve had a life long passion for food, the outdoors and the good life. Having moved to london and gone soft I decided to toughen myself up and raise money for the Woodland Trust by doing a ‘sponsored live in the woods for a year without a tent’ whilst commuting to work in Sotheby’s in Mayfair. By the end of the year I was hosting dinner parties for my friends cooked over an open fire and someone said you should do this as a restaurant, so I did.
The first step was moving to the Switzerland and learning to cook (and also living in the snow without a tent for a winter) after eight years cooking in various professional kitchens, chalets and as a private chef I returned to the UK and opened Off Grid Gourmet. The idea is to show that living a sustainable life doesn’t mean you can’t also have some decadence.
This isn’t some gimmicky concept, it’s a lifestyle.