I am a chef and author whose work focuses on Local, seasonal food.
My book, Food for All Seasons - a personal wander through the food year, featuring many of my favourite recipes - is published by Faber and available online and from all good bookshops.
I am passionate about sourcing local produce, both for the seasonality it entails and the narrative it brings to the food I cook. My work also focusses on sustainability and how our eating and cooking cultures impact the planet. I believe that working seasonally and fostering strong, local food systems is a key part to unlocking the agro-environmental issues we face.
I trained at Moro and then set up, ran and cooked at both Konstam and Konstam at the Prince Albert. The former was my café in London's King's Cross, the latter was my ultra-local restaurant over the road from the café. My search for high quality, local ingredients in the build-up to opening the restaurant featured in the BBC2 series 'The Urban Chef'. Adhering to a strictly local sourcing policy lead to an acute awareness of the seasonality of the produce we were cooking with, and it was this immersion that inspired me to write Food for All Seasons.
Since closing the cafe and restaurant in 2010 I have worked on a variety of food projects, from residencies, demos, pop-ups and seasonal supper clubs, to food administration, food photography, growing projects and farm work. My work as a food stylist has appeared in several books and many publications including The Guardian, The Observer and The Sunday Times.
I am based in London, but my projects take me to a wonderful variety of locations, from Devon to Holland, Italy to Hungary, Cornwall to Australia, Wales to the US, The Isle of Man to The New Forest, Sweden to Kent. Hopefully it will take to many more in time.
"Oliver is a uniquely talented and erudite chef. His early experiment with hyper-local food at Konstam gave him an insight into the fine detail of seasonality long before foraged foods and local produce became the trend so evident in the cuisine of today." - Jacob Kenedy, Head Chef & Proprietor, Bocca di Lupo