Luke Johnson, Quite Simply French in Lancaster 

What is your current role and what does it involve?

Head chef at Quite Simply French, which is a five-star restaurant with rooms. My job involves managing a brigade of chefs, creating menus, setting standards to produce quality French-style food. Training younger chefs to become the best they can be. We are open seven days a week for breakfast, dinner service and lunch on Sundays. I change the menu daily to utilise produce that is at its best. What the French call menu 'Du jour'

How long have you been a chef?

Fifteen years and counting!

How did you first get into cooking?

I always had a passion for cooking from a young age. I remember making a mess in the kitchen at home. My mum was never too pleased. I was and still am a big fan of Raymond Blanc and Marco Pierre White. I'd watch all the chef programs like Great British Menu and MasterChef. When I left school I got a job as a commis chef at a local restaurant whilst studying at college.

Where did you learn your craft?

I studied professional cookery at Wigan & Leigh College for three years. I learnt the classical French way to cook and became fully qualified. I moved on from the local restaurant I was working at and ended up working for some really talented chefs at a hotel on the outskirts of Wigan called Ashfield House. I got the role as demi chef de partie and worked my way up to become sous chef. The different style of food and how the chefs engaged with each other, was a real eye opener. I was like a sponge and soaked up everything I was being taught and being told. This really advanced me into the culinary world of being a chef.

What was your first job in hospitality?

I started glass collecting from the age of 14 at the local labour club. However, my first chef job was straight after I left school at a steak house restaurant called The Poacher, as commis chef. I was 16 at the time. I remember my first night my head chef said we had 100 people booked. It was fast-paced, stressful and hot. For some reason, I loved every second of it. After a couple of years I moved on. It was a really good starting place for my career as a chef. Every place is slightly different but you learn something new every place you work.

What is your signature dish?

A lot of chefs don't have a signature dish (maybe it’s only famous TV chefs?) However, I like to keep things simple and my signature dish would have to be my favourite fish, a lovely piece of Scottish halibut. Pan roasted finished with foaming butter and a squeeze of lemon. At the restaurant, we would serve it with wilted cavolo nero and spinach, some lovely roasted pink fir potatoes, and lobster bisque cream sauce split with dill oil.

What’s been your worst cooking disaster?

I was catering for a wedding for 150 people and we were just about to start sending the main courses. We had a massive pan of gravy on a trestle table and the table collapsed. The gravy went everywhere. We had no option but to send the food with no sauce. Big disaster! It was very serious issue at the time but I look back and laugh about it now.

What are your culinary ambitions?

If you asked me when I was younger it would have been to get Michelin stars. However, as I've got older, my aim is simply to create honest food, quality ingredients, locally sourced and cooked to the best of my ability - food you can relate to. And to create a happy kitchen where people feel appreciated and want to work; where you turn up every day to be the best you can be and where you help to train the younger chefs. If awards and accolades come with that then great. One day I would like to have my own little place.

What do you like to eat?

I'm from Wigan so I've got to say a Wigan kebab! But day to day I love any pasta dish, especially carbonara. My wife makes an excellent risotto with chicken and wild mushrooms so I do enjoy that.

How do you achieve a work/life balance?

All our chefs work a four day week, which gives us three days off to spend with family and friends. I switch off from work on my days off and utilise all of my holidays, which I feel is very important working in hospitality. Work hard play hard my dad brought me up saying, and it really stuck with me.

Quite Simply French, 27a St Georges Quay Lancaster LA1 1RD

Tel: 01524 843 199

Located on Lancaster’s historic dock, Quite Simply French is a restaurant with rooms that offers honest, rustic French food with extraordinary character and flavour; with their Champagne and lobster and steak and mussels nights a firm favourite with their fans. Perfect for a great day out in Lancaster.

Quite Simply French is a Visit Lancashire Partner and part of their Taste Lancashire campaigns and activities. www.visitlancashire.com/Taste

Crab and gruyère ‘crème brûlée’ recipe

Apple and walnut salad • truffled sourdough 

Ingredients 

200g Devonshire white crab meat

60g grated Gruyère cheese

60g grated Parmesan cheese 

1tbsp Dijon mustard 

1tbsp garlic puree

500ml double cream

6 egg yolks

Salt 

White pepper

1 Granny Smith apple 

Handful of walnuts

1 loaf of sliced sourdough

A little drizzle of white  truffle oil

Method 

  1. bring double cream to a light simmer take of heat before it boils 
  2. In a bowl whisk egg yolks, garlic puree + Dijon mustard 
  3. Using a hand blitzer ~ blitz together egg yolks mix with half the Gruyère and half the Parmesan
  4. Slowly add the double cream
  5. Find suitable ramekins to pour mixture into
  6. Add crab meat and remaining Gruyère and Parmesan evenly between the ramekins 
  7. Season the mix with salt and white pepper to taste
  8. Pour the mixture into the ramekins
  9. Create a Bain Marie - an oven tray with water half way up the ramekins
  10. Cook on 130oc for 25 minutes
  11. Let cool ideally in the fridge to completely set for 3/4 hours
  12. Once they have cooled sprinkle lightly with  Demerara sugar and blowtorch 

For the salad 

  1. Jullien the apple
  2. Toast walnuts
  3. Toss together with any salad 
  4. Toast sourdough and drizzle with truffle oil