Phil Vickery on Food

Ella Walker grills telly chef Phil Vickery on the foods that make his world turn

Phil Vickery,

Telly Chef

If you’ve ever caught one of Phil Vickery’s cheffing segments on ITV’s This Morning, you’ll know he is effortlessly enthusiastic about food – and always up for a natter.
We caught up with the presenter and cook, 59, during the first lockdown, to chat about his latest cookbook, Diabetes Meal Planner (written with Bea Harling BSc), and popped in some very serious questions, like, ‘How do you like your eggs?’ and, ‘What’s your takeout of choice?’.

Your death row meal would be… It would be cottage pie and red cabbage, and then either my egg custard tart, or clotted cream meringues for pudding.

The thing you still can’t make is… I’m not very good at – well, I’ve mastered it now – but choux pastry for a long time I couldn’t get right. And I’ve never ever successfully cooked pheasant to be perfect. It’s so hit and miss. I’ve had more complaints about damned pheasants than anything else.

Your favourite store-cupboard essential has to be… Either canned tomatoes or canned Aldi baked beans – Aldi baked beans are the best.

The kitchen utensil you couldn’t live without is… Whisk – hand whisk.

Your late-night snack of choice has to be… Cheese. A little bit of cheese. Not a lot, and the great thing about eating cheese at night is it can counteract the acid in your mouth. It’s good for your teeth apparently.

Your signature dish is… Well, it’d be a few, but I think what I’ve really been known for is my egg custard tart. In 1995 I won dessert chef of the year [Egon Ronay Dessert Chef of the Year] for that. I was doing it long before anyone else was doing it.

You like your eggs… Eggs – I go through stages. I love fried eggs but at the moment I’m into hard boiled eggs, but not for too long. So about six minutes, and then I put them in the fridge and I eat cold boiled eggs with celery salt. I eat that a lot as a snack for lunchtime.

Your favourite childhood dinner was… When I was growing up, dinner was lunchtime. My mum used to do crispy bacon, baked beans and mashed potato, and on top of the mashed potato she would soft boil an egg and peel it, and put it on top and when you broke it, all the egg came through. That was like a Saturday dinner – oh my goodness, it was delicious.

Last night you ate… I had roasted salmon – so you roast it halfway and leave it, Jersey new potatoes, and Tenderstem broccoli.

If you’re ordering takeout, it has to be… KFC. I get thighs and fries, and sometimes barbecue sauce, but it’s a bit synthetic for me. I just love that, and I don’t get corn because they boil it and it’s horrible, but the actual chips are quite nice.

Your ultimate hangover cure is…The cure is probably… another bottle. No! I don’t often get hangovers. Probably a fried egg sandwich with brown sauce; no ketchup.

You really cannot stomach… Gingernut biscuits. Hate them. I had an Aunty Gwen and she used to stuff them into us as kids, when my mum was at work, and she’d force feed us full milk with the skim on and gingernut biscuits, and both those things I cannot abide now.

Diabetes Meal Planner by Phil Vickery with Bea Harling BSc, photography by Kate Whitaker, is published by Kyle Books and supported by Diabetes UK, available now.