interview with will bowlby, head chef & co-founder of kricket

I don’t really cook outside the restaurant, but my go-to recipe if I was cooking for other people would probably be my mum’s recipe - chicken in a pot.

It’s my favourite thing. It’s very easy, it’s comfort food. A whole chicken in a pot with lots of other things, all cooked together.

I’m super bad at eating. Most chefs are. They kind of spend their lives cooking for other people, not being hungry, then going home and being hungry but, by then, it’s midnight. I make the same mistake every day. I’ve had breakfast today - but just something from Pret. It’s so annoying; I must have spent thousands of pounds in Pret

If I can’t be bothered to cook, I cook steak.

A good bit of beef. It’s super easy and it’s a quick. I would go rib eye and I would want it medium rare because there’s a lot of fat in it. You want a super hot pan for a nice crust and, particularly, with the rib eye, keep it moving around the pan.

For my last meal, I’d want the best quality piece of beef that you could get your hands on. For me, there’s nothing better than good-quality beef versus standard - it’s like a different product. So, my last meal would have to be the best quality beef with loads of horseradish and chips.

A combination of people taught me how to cook.

My mum, myself and the first chef I worked with, Rowley Leigh.

My favourite restaurant in the world is called Shree Thakur Bhonjalalay.

It’s a vegetarian restaurant in Mumbai and it’s really hard to find. It’s in the middle of Bombay which is mad, but you go up these stairs and suddenly you’re in a very clean restaurant which is sort of unusual. It’s just an absolute machine. You know Thali - you get a big plate and they put lots of stuff on your plate. I’ve been there twice, maybe. Every time I go back to Mumbai I go there. They work seasonally which is quite unusual. You get 36 elements on a plate and every single one is done perfectly. The service is good and it’s just a breath of fresh air in the city. I think, technically, I have got the most joy out of eating in that restaurant so, to me, that’s the best restaurant. And you’ll pay £5 for a meal. When I think about the best restaurant, it’s about something that sticks in your mind, it’s something that gives you the most pleasure and whether that’s a McDonald’s or a 3-star restaurant, it’s up to you.

My go-to restaurant in London is Brasserie Zedel.

I get the same thing every time - the Prix-Fixe, two courses with the carrots and the steak haché. It’s cheap, you know what you’re getting. I was there for lunch on Monday and it was rammed.They’re very good at what they do, Corbin and King. I’m always there by myself; it’s a nice place to be and they give you a paper.

I wish I could cook pastry. I probably could but I don’t. I’d like to be naturally good at pastry.

I try and avoid eating animals that haven’t been terribly happy.

I very rarely eat KFC or McDonald’s - not out of snobbery just out of principle. We only serve happy animals at Kricket. Our chicken is free range. Some days we sell as much as 50 kilos of chicken thighs and we have to pay more to get a better product but all our food is responsibly sourced. All our fish come from the UK, you’ll never see prawns on our menu. It’s the same with our meat. Sometimes we have to outsource it but most of the time we get our meat from the UK and that’s something we decided before we even started. It’s very important. If I’m not going to eat something from a moral standpoint, then I can’t expect others to eat it. I shouldn’t expect others to.

My favourite cuisine is Chinese food.

Ironically I actually can’t eat that much Indian food. Chinese food is comfort food - every Sunday I get a Chinese takeaway. Japanese would be up there as it has massive variety of stuff - healthy, non-healthy, but my go-to is Chinese. It feels weird if I don’t have it on a Sunday. If I’m at home in Sussex, I’ll get something local. If I’m in London, then I order from New Culture Revolution on King’s Road.

I’d invite Elvis to my fantasy dinner party.

I used to be obsessed with Elvis. I get a lot of shit for that now. I love Tu-Pac, so he’d be there. I’d get my grandmother in because I’d like to see her again and she’d get on well with Tu-Pac, I think.