1) Tell us what you do.
2) What do you always have in your pantry for knocking up a quick meal at home? any secret ingredients?
Good instant stock cubes (chicken, vegetables) or dashi bags to make quick soup as I love soups! Various Miso pastes are also important for my quick miso cup soup which I don’t even bother using dashi. I just add some bonito flakes with miso paste and pour boiling water in a mug. And tinned tomato – love tomato sauce.
3) How do you juggle eating healthily and working on location and do you get to sample all the food you shoot?
balance my diet and I am still far from perfect. I love food, I am naturally too greedy and too curious, I often eat way too much on set. Travelling is the hardest as I cannot balance my daily intake that well. So in general, when I am at home, I eat super simple and healthy food, I don’t cook anything too elaborate and rich for myself. A lot of soupy things and light Asian food. But generally, my work is very physical so it does keep me reasonably fit…
Travelling is my passion and a total joy but it can be hard especially when I don’t get enough fresh vegetables and when I don’t have much control over what I eat for days. I will try anything local, new or any food offered to me. I believe it’s part of my work to try and experience everything while travelling but sometimes that is hard work, more than you think.
Staying healthy and fit is vital for what I do so a well-balanced diet is hugely important to keep me going physically and mentally. So in general, I keep my home-cooking light and simple with lots of veg and pulses.
4) Do you have any secrets you could share on how you make the food in your photographs look so tasty?
“I always have a variety of miso in my fridge, including my own homemade one…”
5) Do you use miso in your cooking? If so, how do you like to enjoy it?
6) Tell us something you recently made and how you made it.
The other one for picnics that worked well was Chinese minced pork, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and carrot cooked in miso, soy, sugar and sake which was served with crispy iceberg lettuce, simply wrap it with the lettuce before you eat it. The left over cooked mince was great on rice and noodles the next day too. The crooked cucumber salad with lots of coriander, peanuts and tomatoes, dressed in a light Thai style dressing was delicious when I managed to buy smaller cucumbers from Peckham Rye Lane – so much tastier and crispier than the ordinary supermarket cucumbers. Lastly, I made Onigiri for a breakfast picnic last weekend with seasoned rice with fresh peas and homegrown Sansho leaves. Anything eaten outside always tastes so much better in my opinion.
6) As we ease out of lockdown, which restaurants are you most looking forward to visiting the most?
6) We love the travel page on your website, if you could travel anywhere in the world to take pictures, where would that be and why?
Fish Nabanzuke – a Japanese fish dish believed to have been brought to Japan by the Portuguese in the 1600s.
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