James Knappett: The Michelin-starred chef bringing the art of foraging to Fitzrovia

James Knappett wants to talk about foraging. It is something he takes great joy from: a way to tie people to the land, but also to the seasons – to time and to place. But he didn’t discover what a great bounty the UK had until he spent two years at one of the best restaurants in the world, Noma.

He is very clear: pick what you need, pick what’s delicious, and pick only what you know – after all, there also some dangerous things out there. Soon after you start, he says, you’ll get the bug; you’ll never be able to walk outside again without wondering what things you can and can’t eat.

Knappett is now executive head chef at the two-Michelin-star Kitchen Table in Fitzrovia. The knowledge he gained about ingredients, from places such as New York’s Per Se and Copenhagen’s Noma, is brought to London, where the menu is driven by seasonality. So much so that Knappett is sceptical of the new seasonality fashion among restaurants. To him, rather than being a fashion, it is normal to eat ingredients only when they’re in season – and they taste a lot better too.

Kitchen Table has been undergoing renovations during the pandemic, and will open once again in July 2021. Knappett is excited to get back to making great and surprising food for people. Kitchen Table is about an experience, not just about food.

Here he speaks to The Independent about Kitchen Table, his career, and working at some of the best restaurants in the world.

Can you tell me about the first time you set foot in a professional kitchen?

I was in kitchens when I was very young, but my first professional kitchen was Royal Hospital Road, Gordon Ramsay, around 1999. He only had two stars at the time, but he was on the TV and famous, and I met him in a hotel and I went up to him and said: “How do I get a job in your kitchen?” He told me to turn up at the back door and we’ll see how it goes. I was living at home in Soham at the time and so I got a train to London and went there and knocked on the back door. There were another couple of guys there but I did a trial and got the job. The funniest thing about it was the advice that Gordon gave me after. He said: “If you go for any more interviews, don’t wear a f***ing suit. Chefs don’t wear suits.” But going to Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen, when you think you know something, you realise quickly that you know absolutely nothing; it was a big shock. I was doing 18-19 hour days minimum and I quit after about six months. I remember being on the train home and feeling afterwards that I’d messed up. “Why have I gone home”, you know?

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How would you describe the food at Kitchen Table?

The main thought of every dish, and the cooking, is seasonality. Now this is a new word and a new fashion, people are making a big deal of it. We’ve been doing this since the day that we opened and I don’t understand that it’s not just natural. It’s the new molecular now. Even growing up, getting fresh produce from where you’re from just tastes better. We ate strawberries in the summer; we wouldn’t touch a strawberry in the winter because we couldn’t get it. And then working in restaurants like Thomas Keller’s Per Se and Rene Redzepi’s Noma, you’re like, yeah these guys really understand food, and you fall in love. So the food at Kitchen Table is very driven by the seasons and ingredients. It’s the feeling the seasons give, as well. You don’t just use strawberries in summer because that’s when you’re meant to use them. Instead it’s about the feeling of wanting something fresh and clean when it’s hot outside and you want to eat lightly. In the winter you’ve got an onion that’s been roasted in beef for about eight hours because it’s cold outside and you want the comfort of it. And that is why I’m super happy and very proud to be a chef in England. It doesn’t just rain in England; actually we have four seasons, and even eating in the UK and cooking in the UK, the four seasons are hugely emotional in terms of how you think and how you want to eat.

What was it like working at Noma?

My time at Noma was very, very special. I arrived at Noma when I didn’t even know where Denmark was, let alone Copenhagen, and even though Rene had already achieved greatness – he already had two Michelin stars – people had only just started to recognise him. He had just brought out his first Noma cookbook, and people started to see him and realise this guy was doing things using only ingredients from his own country, and using things that were wild.

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I got there by mistake. I was cooking at Per Se and a guy came over from Noma for three months and was put on my section, and he was telling me what he was doing – taking stuff from rivers and picking things from trees – and I was like, “What’s that all about?” Later, after that, I had just proposed to my wife, so I said let’s go to Copenhagen for a weekend. I got us a table at Noma and I was gobsmacked. I’d never seen anything like it. We were eating king crab rolled in burnt hay ash and so Rene came over and said hello, and I asked if he had any jobs, and he said, “When can you start? You’ve got Per Se on your CV, so when can you start?” Two weeks later I was living in Denmark. We were taking the leaves off watercress and putting the stems on the plate, and for eight years I’d been doing the opposite. You have one of his sauces and you put a pinch of salt in it and the guy goes absolutely nuts because you’ve ruined it. The sauce doesn’t need salt because the vegetables already taste delicious. When I got there not many people knew who Rene was, but he rose rapidly, and very quickly we became the number one restaurant in the world.

Is Noma how you first got into foraging?

Yes, 100 per cent. I grew up in Soham in Cambridgeshire and the surrounding areas and they’re classed as some of the best growing lands in our country. I grew up on a common surrounded by rivers, duck ponds, trees – miles and miles of green land – and as a kid we’d have sword fights with bulrushes, and we’d push each other in blackberry bushes and stinging nettle bushes, and then all of a sudden Rene has a dish on one of the best menus in the world, with stinging nettles and blackberry leaves and taking the stems off bulrushes, and you’re like, “What the f**k?”

I don’t think I went home to England for six months, but when I went back my family must have thought I was a cow, because I was literally out in the countryside finding watercress, chickweed, pine needles, and I was like, “Oh my god, I’ve lived here 30-plus years and I didn’t even know you could eat a bulrush, and Rene’s poaching it with oysters.” You show people two or three things and they get a bug for it. Then you can’t go on a walk without asking, “Is that edible? Is that flower or mushroom edible?”

Do you have a favourite ingredient to find?

Damsons. They’re a wild English plum. You can’t pick it off the tree and start eating it; it’s very sour, you have to cook it and it’s a long process. The old technique I found is called damson cheese. Back in the 18th century they wrote that it should be cooked in this way and then served with cheese. And once you have the end result you can put it with anything: ice cream, duck, it’s just incredible. It used to be in abundance growing wild in the UK, but now it’s like gold dust because a lot of the land where they’re building homes is where these things grow. I also make my own gin with it and it’s so special, and it’s just not something you can buy. When you really taste damson it gives you that energy.

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How important is foraging for developing the menu at Kitchen Table?

I love it because it takes me home. We have an abundance of stuff in London, which really surprises people, but to get on the train back into the country and go foraging was a huge part of me. I’ve slowed down slightly now as I’ve had two kids. But I picked about a kilo of dog rose petals this morning while taking my daughter to school; we both picked them on the way before I dropped her off. So if we see it, we pick it. It keeps you in the zone. We talk about elderflower, for example. It’s the feeling that summer is here. If you’re picking mushrooms you know it’s autumnal. It keeps you very active and alert to where you are, and you keep an eye on what the veg suppliers give you as well. We want to keep the public involved and for a lot of this stuff it’s not common that people eat it, so when people do get these dishes and it has these ingredients in it, you’re constantly surprising people and giving them something that they can’t achieve at home. There has to be an element of that. When you come to Kitchen Table and you pay our prices, you need to think there’s no way you could have done that at home; that’s an experience. Foraging really brings that angle of “What is that? I didn’t know you could eat that.”

Do you think it is important that people should get into foraging?

No, because they’re taking all of our stuff! (He laughs.) But seriously, if people are going out and making blackberry jam at home it’s beautiful, isn’t it? We’re hanging onto those beautiful ingredients that we have. People want to know about ingredients now. It winds me up – like in Tesco you’ll see raspberries from the Netherlands, and then one row over is raspberries from the UK, and you’re like, “Why even bother with the ones from the Netherlands?” And you see they’re two quid cheaper and people are picking them up. In foraging can you be bothered with the work? A day for me picking strawberries, and the engagement with it, is priceless compared to picking up a pack in seconds.

Do you have any tips for readers?

I just say pick what you need to pick, and pick what you like to eat. Young chefs do it all the time – they go out foraging, and they get excited and pick 12 different things, and they’ve only got four dishes and they want to use all 12 things, and you taste it and wonder why some things are on the plate. Or, even though something is edible, you might think it’s gross. It’s bitter, or it’s not meant to be used like that, and they put it in dishes. The advice is, pick what you need and what you like. Pick elderflower, it’s delicious, make a cordial. Go out and pick the wild garlic now and sautee it with your dinner tonight. People will pick like five kilos and not know what to do with it, and then what’s the point? But hit the books, teach yourself. The biggest tip is don’t pick something if you don’t know what it is: there are some dangerous things out there. I sound a bit like a dad with that question!

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What books do you regard as foraging or cooking bibles?

The book I recommend on foraging is called Food for Free by Richard Mabey. It’s the first foraging book I bought, it’s genius. They also do a pocket version and then also a beautiful large-format version. It’s a beautiful book. In terms of cooking, the biggest inspiration to me – it literally shaped my career and gave me enthusiasm to go back to London, travel, and try to achieve greatness – is Thomas Keller’s French Laundry Cookbook. That book came out in 1999, and you look at it now and still wish you were that good – that’s how good he is, and was even back then. It’s a very, very special cookbook.

How are the preparations for reopening Kitchen Table going?

We’re nearly there. It’s been long, and tough, but we’re striving for it to be really, really nice for everybody and hopefully we’re close. We’ve made huge changes to move forward and adapt, but also with the Covid situation it has forced some decisions, and we’re really hoping to be opening in June.

James Knappett is executive head chef of Kitchen Table, Fitzrovia, London. Kitchen Table will be reopening in July 2021