“Winter is the price you pay for living in the countryside,” says Instagram sensation Julius Roberts in the first chapter of his deeply seasonal debut cookbook, The Farm Table.
Having grown up in London, and trained in the intense kitchen of Noble Rot (a London restaurant so consistently lauded that it features on many food writers and chefs’ lists of favorite places to eat), he went searching for a life more in harmony with the land.
The book is in stores now in the UK and will arrive next February in the US.
Photography by Elena Heatherwick, from The Farm Table.
Roberts feeding his small flock of goats on his farmstead in Dorset, England.
The family farmhouse, where the chef relocated three years ago.
These dishes are familiar (Roberts readily admits that these are the things he and his family have cooked forever), but they chime right now for their simplicity and seasonality; it’s the kind of food that you want to cook right away.
Self-sufficiency has been Roberts’ aim since he started his first smallholding.
A bountiful tomato harvest results in one of the book’s many tempting recipes — tomato curry. Though Roberts isn’t anti-meat, he is passionate about buying the best quality ingredients possible.
A barrowful of marrow headed for the kitchen.
Roberts has enlisted his brother to help on the farm, particularly with the veg growing operation.
Each season’s recipes channel their essence —the earthiness and abundance of autumn, the verdant zinginess of spring (baked fish with herbs, lemon and asparagus or a courgette frittata with goat cheese, lemon, mint).
Roberts in the squash patch. Elsewhere, as anyone who has pored over the farmer’s videos will know, you may want to adjust the amount of extra virgin olive oil being generously poured into many dishes.But that is the point of this kind of cooking—it’s easily adjustable to your own tastes.
*Excerpted from The Farm Table.
Tarragon Roast Chicken Recipe
Preheat your oven to 220°C fan [convection] and start by spatchcocking the chicken. Then turn it over, open out the two sides and press down hard to flatten it. Your butcher will gladly do this for you.
Smash the head of garlic and hide the cloves underneath the chicken, then roast in the oven for 20–30 minutes, until the skin begins to turn golden brown.