It's difficult keeping up with Andrew Turner - the man can talk for England. I have pages of notes scribbled down at wrist-breaking speed during a recent interview with him to prove it. We'd met to discuss his part in Yes Chef!, TV's most recent incursion into the cut and thrust of the professional kitchen. In quick succession, we covered how he became involved in the series; how he'd structured a three-week work experience programme for the two college students placed in the 1837 kitchen at Brown's, where he is executive chef; food traceability; salmon farming; supplier relationships; how difficult it is having a camera poked in front of your face all the time; the characters and qualities of the two students... oh, yes, and a trip to London's three major food markets.
Turner was approached to do Yes Chef! by production company Endemol (of Big Brother, Food and Drink and Ready, Steady, Cook fame) after they'd seen him do slots on programmes such as the BBC's Saturday Kitchen. Endemol had picked up on the huge interest sparked by Jamie's Kitchen, which charted the setting-up of Jamie Oliver's east London restaurant, Fifteen. It wanted to follow the progress of six NVQ level 2 students from Westminster Kingsway College, whom the programe placed in three London restaurant kitchens.
Turner was asked to take two students, Dizzy Tamankueno and Matt Agass, under his wing. "I had a phone call from Endemol, and the producers came to meet me and talk about the concept," he recalls. "We basically put together a programme for Dizzy and Matt there and then. I didn't have a say in choosing them - that was all decided before I got involved. But the training they got here was down to me."
So why did he agree to it? "I wanted to put my food and my restaurant on the map," he admits. But I don't think he's being totally honest. He's clearly a committed trainer (he always has four apprentices in his brigade at Brown's) and wants to pass on his enthusiasm for his job to the next generation.
Early in the conversation, he stresses: "My job is to teach willing and able chefs to cook without fear." But he adds: "If I can't teach through discipline, instruction, through recipe format, through checking, I'm not worthy to be in the position I'm in. I wanted to teach Dizzy and Matt the most I could about cooking in the time we had, but I wanted them to enjoy it - to go round with a smile on their faces." But that didn't stop the odd bollocking coming the duo's way. "I'm hard, but I'm fair," protests Turner. "I don't have to make a person cry, I just want him or her to be more disappointed than I am when they let themselves down."
This is confirmed by Agass. "He just wants to get the best out of you. If you do something good he always tells you," he says.
The training programme started on a Wednesday with three gentle introductory days. Working no split shifts and going home at 3pm, they helped prep a bit of food and get a feel for kitchen life. Then the duo were given homework for the weekend before being subjected to a full week each in pastry and all sections of the main prep kitchen at 1837, Brown's fine-dining restaurant.
Homework involved learning 16 starters (ingredients, recipe and method), ready for a grilling by Turner the following Monday. "They absolutely fell through the floor, when I handed that to them," he says with a grin. "But they both achieved a 95% pass rate. I was really impressed."
The aim behind all the intensive studying was to get the young chefs familiar enough with 1837's dishes to allow Turner to involve them in actual restaurant service.
"Once you've learnt what garnishes, for instance, go with what dishes and how to do them, you can just do them automatically," explains Turner. "It's like getting out of bed in the morning. You do things in a certain order methodically, without thinking about it.
"You must have that ability when you've got 50 booked in and the tickets start coming through all at the same time. I wanted Dizzy and Matt to become involved as much as possible, so they had to learn the basics."
The students' penultimate day involved a jaunt to the market. "When you're at college all the food arrives in the kitchens and you don't really get a sense of where it comes from, where it started out, how it's stored, the real importance of seasons in availability," says Turner. "So I thought a trip to Smithfield, Billingsgate and New Covent Garden would be fascinating for them."
He also asked the duo to cook a five-course menu with the produce they'd seen at the markets on their return to the restaurant.
The market trip kicked off at 2am and provided another sharp learning curve. They were shown, for instance, the three-week hanging process for Turner's lamb at Smithfield. They learned that UK lamb has three seasons because English, Welsh and Scottish lamb comes on to the market at different times according to local weather conditions.
They also learnt how to tell the difference between Scottish and Canadian halibut (the latter is always supplied headless due to import regulations), and how to distinguish wild salmon from farmed (wild has firmer muscle-tone and a more streamlined shape).
Tamankueno recalls: "Seeing how live lobsters were stored in salinated tanks was really interesting." Unlike Agass, she was brave enough to handle one.
Every aspect of the students' work experience - tetchiness, laziness, joy, disappointment - has gone on film, and that goes for Turner's behaviour as well. So, I ask, there must have been times when they were tempted to tell the camera crew to back off? "No," they chorus.
But Turner admits: "I only told them to walk once. I'd said to them before we started, 'There are going to be services when we're too flat out for you to be in the kitchen and when I say walk, just walk.' It happened once and they did. It's just communication."
Turner found it hard to pick one student as a winner. "When you're training 17-year-old kids, how can one be better than the other? They've each got different qualities. I couldn't choose between them," he says.
Turner is aware that, for dramatic effect, the TV programme might edit his character down to a less-than-sympathetic figure. But he says: "What's done is done. Obviously I hope they won't portray me in a bad light, but I don't have control over that."
Market day menu
After a morning exploring London's three major markets with Andrew Turner, students Dizzy Tamankueno and Matt Agass used some of the ingredients they had learnt about to cook the following lunch at 1837. It was served to a group of invited guests, including chefs Eric Chavot and Pascal Aussignac.
- Pink Paris mushroom soup, confit onion and truffle samosa n Tomato, Cornish crab and red pepper open ravioli
- Salad of port-cured foie gras with gingerbread and apple
- Seared Celtic sea scallop, cauliflower, sultanas and capers
- Cutlet of new season lamb and cured breast, Savora mash and spinach
- Selection of French cheeses n Warm creole banana and coconut ice-cream
Yes Chef! what is it?
Yes Chef! is a new 10-part series being screened in the London region at 2.30pm on ITV1 from tomorrow (27 June). It takes six students from London's Westminster Kingsway College and places them, in pairs, for three-week stages in three London restaurants:
- North London gastropub the Green (head chef Patrick Williams).
- Holland Park's the Belvedere (head chef Matthew Brown).
- Mayfair's 1837 at Raffles Brown's hotel (executive chef Andrew Turner).
The students, all NVQ level 2 standard, were chosen after a cook-off at their college at the end of March. A week later they were in their placements, at the end of which their respective head chefs were asked to give programme maker Enedemol their candid opinion of their charges.
The students taking part were:
- Dizzy Tamankueno and Matt Agass, 1837.
- Ros Parsk and Daniel Welstead, the Belvedere.
- Shaun Dickens and Charlie Kemp, the Green.
Chefs on the box
Over the next few months look out for:
- Rick Stein BBC2 Rick's Food Heroes begins on 14 August with another series due in March 2004.
- Antony Worrall Thompson BBC2 Saturday Kitchen on Saturday mornings.
- Jamie Oliver Channel 4 Jamie's Kitchen, a two-part update in September on the first intake of students at Oliver's East End restaurant, Fifteen.
Filming Tips for the Uninitiated
- Be yourself. If you over-play to the camera (particulary in a documentary), it'll ring false and you'll just look stupid.
- When interviewed by someone behind the camera, always look to a spot left or right of the camera rather than directly into the lens.
- If you're filming under studio lights, let the make-up lady loose with the powder puff, otherwise you'll look like a belisha beacon in a tropical downpour.
- Be short and sweet when answering questions or explaining something on camera. Waffle goes on the cutting-room floor.
- If you're appearing in your own clothes for an interview, don't wear anything stripey or blue - they're the kiss of death on camera.