London-based cook and food stylist Anna Jones is a multi-award-winning writer whose books like One: Pot, Pan, Planet and The Modern Cook’s Year have won her legions of fans around the world.
“The voice of modern vegetarian cooking” first cut her teeth in the kitchen of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen programme and went on to work for him for seven years. With her latest book, Easy Wins, on shelves now, Verve chats with Anna to learn more.
“It was fantastic working for Jamie,” she says. “It felt like learning to cook on fast forward. We had such amazing access to suppliers and brilliant chefs teaching us. Then when I went on to work for Jamie in his food business it was the most nurturing and fast-paced environment to learn about food media. I learned very quickly how what was important in a recipe and what made it work. About the accessibility of ingredients. I owe him a lot.”
What advice would you give to young chefs coming through now?
“Write and ask to work in the kitchens of the chefs that you respect. You might not get paid a lot, but you will learn. My experience of food people is that they are open and generous and if you go in intending to work hard and be helpful and learn, then most people will be open and generous in sharing the knowledge they have. I would also say that now there are so many different jobs in food, it’s not just about cooking in a restaurant, there are so many places within the media where you can work on food. There are so many amazing producers that need help making their artisan products. It’s a different industry to the one that I started out in and that’s undoubtedly a good thing.”
Anns reveals that Nigella Lawson was her “first love in terms of cooks” (“I loved how she was a proud feminist woman but still cooking on her own terms”) and singles out Nigel Slater (“his food writing is poetry”) and “my friend Gurdeep Loyal” for his “interesting work”. As for heroes outside the kitchen?
“My grandma on my dad’s side had 12 children and was a brilliant mother to all of them. I think there is a definite heroism in that. Also, the doctors and nurses who looked after my baby Eska when he was born struggling to breathe in the neonatal unit at Homerton Hospital.”
Has motherhood altered your approach to cooking?
“Yes, without question. I cook much more quickly now. I want my recipes to be packed with flavour, but I want that to happen quickly and easily without too much fuss. Whilst I am someone who cooks for a living, I still only spend 20 to 30 minutes cooking our family meals on weeknights, so I feel like I cook under the same pressure as anyone else who lives a busy life. My most recent book, Easy Wins, was born out of that. I want the recipes in it to be the recipes that are easy to make when you get home late from work and haven’t got much in the tank or in the fridge. I want the recipes to feel like friends who are comforting you at the end of a long day. I fear like a meal that comes together easily and quickly and that is eaten by everyone in my family feels like a small but important daily moment of triumph.”
What advice would you give for those considering cutting down their meat intake, or converting fully to vegetarianism, but are feeling daunted by the prospect?
“My advice would be to start from where you are and not to be too perfectionistic about every single meal. For me, the aim is to get as many people eating as many vegetable-centred meals as possible. Obviously, the ideal would be a world full of vegans and vegetarians, but the reality is that some people will be shifting one meal a week away from meat, whereas others may be fine-tuning their vegan diet. Know that every meal is an opportunity to make change for a more sustainable way of eating and a great opportunity to put stuff into your body that makes you feel good as well as making it as delicious and joyful as possible.”
“My advice would be to start from where you are and not to be too perfectionistic about every single meal.”
How easy did you find that journey?
“I found the change to vegetarianism very easy! In fact, it opened up a whole new more creative way of cooking which I found really fun. I love the challenge of always putting seasonal vegetables at the centre of what I eat. I often think that the best things we do come out of limitations, and whilst I don’t see vegetarianism as necessarily a limitation, it has made me a better cook. But I’m aware that I cook for a living and it’s not going to be easy for everyone to stop, so my advice would be to find a couple of vegetarian or vegan meals that echo things you and your family already love to eat.”
Do you think a time will come when humans no longer consume meat?
“I would like to think that there is a world in which that might happen. But more than no longer consuming meat, I would like to see us meet the climate pledges which will help us to stay within the warming targets laid out. I think consuming far less meat is an important part of that.”
I ask Anna about her guilty pleasures in the kitchen, she pushes back against the phrase (“I don’t think we should put guilt and food in the same sentence”) but admits to being partial to mozzarella quesadillas: “I’ve been making them a lot recently a lot recently, small flour tortillas stuffed with mozzarella and fried in the pan until melting and crisp around the edges. I eat them with chilli sauce. A quick fun snack!
“My mum used to make an amazing cheese souffle that was part of her weeknight repertoire. She’s not someone who loves to cook, but her souffle is so good.”
As for pop culture guilty pleasures, Anna names the movie Mannequin with Kim Cattrall (“showing my age!”), or pretty much any Jennifer Anniston film (“most of them are terrible but for some reason I find her comforting”), all best enjoyed with sweet, salty popcorn.
I finish up by asking Anna if she’s ever visited Aotearoa New Zealand.
“Sadly no,” she says, “but I would love to go one day. We have lots of friends who live in there and my husband John is keen to come for the surf.”
