Eat Ethically Why Tommi Miers is backing Real Food

Date Published:

24/03/2009

Real food is simple, cheap and fun, says Tommi Miers. Charlie Cottrell caught up with the Wild Gourmets star to find out why she thinks it's time we brought some love back to the kitchen

Why are you supporting the Real Food Festival?

Because they support small suppliers and producers and it's a lovely way to promote small producers and introduce the public to what they can buy. There's a real emphasis this year on cheap cuts and value for money.

Why should we be supporting these producers?

Because if we don't, they go out of business and if they go out of business we lose choice and quality. The more producers there are, the more choice we have and the more discerning we can be as consumers.

What is real food?

It's not very popular any more but I like to cook; I like ingredients. I like to know what's in my food. The kind of food you buy at the Real Food Festival, and you really can go and shop there, everything is cooked with integrity. You can look on the label and see what's gone into it. It's food that's not been processed too much; that's not full of additives or preservatives.

Isn't it all a bit snobby?

I don’t think real food is snobby. I think that's a really bad British attitude. There is nowhere else where that attitude exists. It doesn't exist in France, in Spain, in Mexico - maybe it exists in America - but if you go to France, Spain, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam, street food is market food, it's cheap food and it's real food - you can see the ingredients going into it.

The idea here that, if you buy food from the farmer, you have to be loaded and therefore snobby about your food is just madness. It's really upsetting. It's so sad that some British people perceive a love of food as being all uptight and expensive. It doesn't have to be expensive.

What are the big issues with the food we eat?

People aren't cooking. Delia, for all her years of trying to get people to cook, then tells people they can get everything out of a tin. Obviously there are times when people have less time. I run around at a million miles an hour but cooking is not only a pleasure, you're feeding yourself. There's a whole problem with nutrition in this country - obesity rates are still soaring and sadly one of the reasons is because people are eating so many processed foods prepared by other people. If you are preparing your own food you've got the control back in your own hands.

For Spanish it's a pride thing. They would never let someone else prepare their food - it wouldn't occur to them.

It doesn't even have to take long. Making your own pesto for instance; it costs hardly anything and takes 10 minutes. Or Savoy cabbage, braised in olive oil and garlic - delicious.

What can restaurants do to help the Real Food movement?

Thanks to companies like Sustain, more restaurants are taking a bit more responsibility. We are starting to source sustainable fish products on our menu and I think more and more restaurants will start doing that. Telling their customers what's on the menu, that's also important.

Organic, local, Fairtrade, seasonal or food miles - which cause is most important?

Seasonal is a given and seasonal and local are linked in. If you can buy strawberries in the summer that are grown locally, why would you bother eating them in the winter? To me it doesn't make sense. And it's a treat then when they come round.

The really sad thing is that people don't know how to cook or shop any more. Most cooks start off by saying, 'I'll go and see what's out there' and they'll go to the market or the veg shop and see 'wow, look at that Savoy - it looks delicious'. Or 'that celeriac is just in season - I want to cook with that' and that's the way you cook. Your family menu for the week is governed by what's out there. That is governed by the seasons and that is the cheapest way to eat.

Fairtrade is important - it’s not just 'Oh let's help some poor people in foreign countries, and then I'll feel better', it's a human thing. If you're going to care about food roots, care about the producer as well - that's the pig farmer in Britain who can't make a living as well people growing basmati rice in the Himalayas or growing cocoa in Mexico.

What do you want people to take from the festival?

For me it would be amazing if they got excited about food and saw something they could cook at home and see that it's not expensive and it is doable.

People are so far removed because cooking in schools wasn't around for so long. People are intimidated, and cooking is not hard - you just play around. It shouldn't be stressful at all; it should be relaxing and fun. If you get something wrong you learn for the next time.

Everything in our society is so 'now' and all these shiny magazines with perfect food and perfect models… People think they need to have the Kate Moss figure and the beautiful food they've seen in food magazines and that's just not real. Everyone cocks up. Even Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay muck up a dish sometimes!

Is food labelling working?

No. I think it needs to be a lot clearer and I think the regulations still aren't strong enough.

Organic - love it or hate it?

It is expensive but I do believe in the organic movement. I believe we've got too many chemicals in our food and I really do believe cancer rates are linked, not just to what's in our food but there must be some correlation between all the chemicals we use these days and the shooting up of cancer.

What is the future of food? Vast supermarkets or local specialist shops?

I don't look to the future too much because it's just so depressing!

It's scary, we have way too many people on the planet and it's really unsustainable. We're eating more and more meat and the rest of the world is catching up with us. We're all going to have to eat less meat. The recommended amount is 500g per person per week based on the current population (read the full Food Climate Research Network report, 2009).

What's the worst food crime you've seen?

Waste is the worst food crime. Especially with meat. We waste so much meat. I go shooting but when I shoot an animal I eat it and I eat all of it. They are living things; it's important to know that what we eat was something that had a life first and was killed.

There are too many people in the world and not enough food, so wasting it is just criminal I think.

Read more on real food and organic issues from Michelin-starred chef Raymond Blanc.

Cook up some real food with Tommi's recipes

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