My favourite meal is scrambled eggs from my chickens with chorizo and cheese on top. My youngest son and I make it whenever we’re home alone. It takes five minutes and then we’re back outside again playing football. I like to get some bread, slam it on top, flip the plate over and you’ve got a nice, hot open sandwich. I’ll do it with everything, even spaghetti — but not when we’ve got visitors.
My wife Gerardine and I spend half our time in London and the other half on the south coast — we have a house by the beach near Chichester. We grow a lot of our own food; everything that you can grow in Britain. We’ve had a fantastic crop of asparagus and rocket and this year we’ve tried pak choi.
It’s strange, because I didn’t eat a single vegetable until I was 16. All I ate was chips and hot dogs from the can and that was about it. It used to upset my mother a lot but she’d buy concentrated orange juice so that at least I’d get some vitamin C. The first time I ate a vegetable was when I was 16 and went for a curry with some friends in Bradford, and loved it. From that moment on I ate everything.
Gerardine has grown to be a fantastic cook over the years. We’ve been together since our teens and were each other’s first loves, so we’ve grown together. She generally takes charge of the cooking, but sometimes she gets her head so stuck in work that I’m left to my own devices.
We throw three big parties a year, where we invite about 250 people to come to our house. They camp in the garden and we cook up lots of food and have music and play games. It’s a big thank you, really, to all the people who have helped us.
Advertisement
My wife and I have been running businesses since our teens, and we couldn’t have done it without all the help we’ve received along the way. Her sisters come down and everyone cooks their speciality — theirs is spicy hotpot, and we’ll also have a huge pot of Thai curry and Indian and tonnes of salads. Good food is so important, it’s exciting, and if you’ve got friends who work hard, like ours, it’s a good way of getting them into the party spirit. After dinner I’ll usually get on the decks for a bit and we’ll bring a DJ down, too, and everyone dances. It’s like a mini-festival.
My signature dish: Scrambled eggs with cheesy chorizo
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 chorizo (I like them extra-spicy)
Any leftover vegetables you have lying around — I like green beans
5 eggs
Whatever cheese you have, grated
Warburtons white sliced
Method
Slice up the chorizo and fry it on a high heat for several minutes. If you’re adding vegetables, chuck them in now. Whisk the eggs in a bowl with some pepper, and add to the pan with the chorizo. Turn the heat down and let them cook slowly until they reach the desired consistency. Tip on to plates, sprinkle with cheese and slap on your sliced white. Spin the plate and voilà!
Wayne Hemingway’s Vintage festival at the Southbank Centre celebrates music, fashion, design, art and culture (July 29-31); vintageatsouthbank centre.co.uk