All In London talks to John Williams

Where do you source your ingredients?
My philosophy has remained the same throughout my career: use ingredients of the highest quality, use them at their seasonal best, and marry best of British ingredients with Escoffier-influenced classical French recipes. As such, more than 90% of the ingredients I use at The Ritz Restaurant are grown or reared in Britain. The rest, such as truffles and poultry, are sourced from France.

Which are your favourite London restaurants?
Aside from The Ritz Restaurant, my favourite restaurants in London are The Ledbury and Trinity Restaurant. Both restaurants have made their mark on London’s dining scene, offering dining rooms that flood with light, exceptional outdoor areas for dining al fresco and some of the finest food and wine menus in town. These two chefs are ones to watch!

What is your favourite food to experiment with?
At The Ritz, truffles are an everyday ingredient when in season and there are few flavours and ingredients that cannot reach heavenly new heights with a delicate shaving of their dark, pitted flesh. From the simplest act of grating a few slices over scrambled egg to creating the ultimately decadent dish, Egg Fabergé - a mousseline of lobster cooked in an eggshell, with a mosaic of truffled macaroni and a soft, fondant-like poached quail’s egg set in the centre - this is an ingredient that begs to be experimented with.

Can you name a food that you regard as a guilty pleasure?
Anything my pastry chef makes, the man is a genius. His desserts are at the same time both classical and innovative. My personal favourites are his gingerbread and peanut butter parfait with glazed banana and his apple and vanilla terrine with a date doughnut and toasted sesame ice cream.

Is there an ingredient you hate using?
The use of truffle oil in cooking is one of my pet hates. Though it is an inexpensive substitute for the real thing, most truffle oils are actually synthetically flavoured olive oil that use a compound called 2,4-dithiapentane. Their one-dimensional flavour is lacklustre and in my opinion there is no substitute for the heady scent of the real thing.

What do you think restaurant trends will be for the year ahead?
I think that there has been a resurgence in classical cooking and a rediscovered focus on the quality of the ingredients used and the traditional preparation styles and techniques. In addition to this, with the current craze for pop-up shops and the unyielding demand from Londoners’ for the latest boundary-pushing cuisines, I think there is the likelihood of more pop-up restaurants coming to London, bringing styles and flavours of chefs from around the world.

What has your most valuable experience as a chef been?
When I was 21, I turned up at the back door to Roger Vergé's restaurant unannounced with a friend. He was a fantastic 3 star chef of his time, and I was only there in the hope of meeting him. It just so happened that the great James Cockburn turned up at the same time looking for a feed, but despite the excellence and grandeur of this great actor, Vergé asked Mr. Cockburn to wait a moment whilst he “assisted these two young chefs”. What followed was the most amazing experience - a tour, tastings, tales from his kitchen. I can still to this day remember some of the delicacies I tried. The best part of the whole experience was the humbleness of this great chef, who was not only happy to meet some willing young cooks, but that he was so impassioned in passing on knowledge and experiences to like-mind folk. This is very much a lesson that I have carried with me through life. To share great knowledge is to use it.