Forget foie gras. For me, one of the best meals you can have is a bowl of fresh tagliatelle with a tasty Bolognese sauce and heaps of Parmesan. My grandmother was Italian and my mum is a great cook so I grew up with lots of good, basic Italian food: salami, fresh cheeses – and you can’t beat it.
I’ve just come back from the little seaside town of San Sebastian in Spain, where you can spend all day grazing on brilliant tapas. But it also has an incredible amount of Michelin starred restaurants. I particularly love Arzak (arzak.info), which offers really interesting Basque cooking.
But my all-time favourite place to eat – money no limit – is the French Laundry in California (frenchlaundry.com). For consistency and excellent food, it is the best in the world.
It’s very trendy to be experimental with menus at the moment, but that’s not me. My basic way of cooking is using what works well together – basil is wonderful with tomatoes, lamb and rosemary taste fabulous. So why change a great combination?
It hasn’t hindered me being a female chef, in fact it has probably helped me. I’ve stood out more in a predominantly male environment. I really admire Nadia Santini at the Michelin-starred Dal Pescatore in Mantova, northern Italy (dalpescatore.com) and Jean Georges in New York (jean-georges.com).
It makes sense for me to stick with Italian cuisine. It’s what I know and love. That’s what Murano is about. York & Albany will be totally different. It’s a small townhouse hotel with a deli, and the dining room will offer simple British dishes, like steak and chips or omelette Arnold Bennett.
Angela Hartnett is executive chef at London’s Murano, 20-22 Queen Street, W1, and York & Albany, 127-129 Parkway, NW1 (gordonramsay.com).
