L'Interview Gourmande de Sophie Conran

Mon Interview Gourmande se mondialise. Aujourd'hui, en effet c'est la ravissante Sophie Conran qui répond à mes questions. Designer (notamment pour les porcelaines Portmeirion, ou la marque Yoo), la fille de Sir Terence aime aussi passer du temps en cuisine pour régaler ses deux enfants. Son livre (Sophie Conran's Pies) a connu récemment un grand succès au Royaume-Uni.

Merci à elle d'avoir bien voulu répondre à mes questions et à Sarah Canet d'avoir joué pour moi les intermédiaires.

Pour ceux qui auraient du mal avec la langue anglaise, je leur propose d'utiliser l'outil de traduction de Google (c'est mieux que rien) en cliquant ici.

My favourite products
Lovely fresh ingredients, great farm reared meat, fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables. I always have a bowl on my kitchen table that over-flows with fruit. At the moment it’s full of beautiful blood oranges, pomegranates and passion fruit, all of which are exquisite at this time of year and which bring some zing and sparkle into the dreary February days.

Those which I do not like
I really don’t like biscuits unless they are freshly baked double chocolate chip cookies made by my daughter Coco. She is amazing at baking.

My favourite drinks
Fresh Juice. I like a mixture of fruits and vegetables. Carrot juice made with organic carrots is one of my particular favourites. The organic carrots that I buy have a much stronger, sweeter flavour than the bland versions sold in the supermarkets.

Those that I do not like
I like the odd glass of champagne but I really don’t like spirits.

In my kitchen there are always
Onions, garlic, leeks, carrots, celery – the basis of many a fine dish. Loads of herbs, potatoes, Parmesan, bacon lardons, goats cheese, smoked fish, salad, chutney, French mustard, anchovies, fruit, chorizo, tapenade, horseradish sauce, fresh berries, Reese's chocolate, salami, a selection of cheeses, Manchego, (membrillo) quince paste, Greek yogurt, fruit juice, milk, eggs and a bottle of white wine.

The persons with which I would like to share a meal
Mrs Beeton, Elizabeth David, Brillat-Savarin, Jeffrey Steingarten.

The last time that I cooked to seduce somebody, I made
A shepherd’s pie which can be found in my book (Page 28).

My last time in a fast-food...
I made a sandwich for myself a few days ago – but I really can’t remember when I last bought anything from a "fast-food joint". I don’t like that kind of food and luckily neither do my children.

My next dinner in the restaurant...
I'm going to one of my father's restaurants - Blueprint Café. My friend, Jeremy Lee, is the wonderfully creative and eccentric head chef there who hosts an occasional book club. We're going to have a pie feast where all the guests of the restaurant will be served a meal with a rich and unctuous steak and kidney pie as the highlight. Jeremy's preparations for this have been inspiring especially the selection of the meat which is guaranteed to melt in the mouth. I can't wait.

My easy recipe of the moment
Fish Pie – also in my book.

My next projects
Two of my pies have just been selected by the supermarket Sainsbury's and we are now working on the new Autumn range and a range for summer 2008. I've been asked to write another book so I am in the preliminary stages of researching that. I write or style a lot of magazine articles usually based around food - feasts, parties, cooking for children etc. I'm designing some more pieces for my porcelain range "Sophie Conran for Portmeirion" and working on new porcelain collections, which you can find at The Conran Shop, Paris. My newest project is the creation of Sophie Conran for Yoo, with John Hitchcox and Philippe Stark.