New covid rules mean ‘don’t bother opening’ says Mark Hix I’m presently sitting in my fish truck in Lyme Regis, where I’ve been since the crack of dawn so I can get the best produce straight from the local fishermen. It’s a far cry from the life I had this time last year, when I might have been preparing the staff at Hix Soho for [...]
Mark Hix tosses a celebratory salad to welcome you back to the office I’m now back up and running at the Oyster and Fish House in Lyme Regis and it’s been surprisingly busy. Both locals and London-folk have been making the journey, which is really heartening after a terrible few months. This week’s recipe is my take on a Salade Nicoise. Tuna stocks are not in a good [...]
Mark Hix on the best way to show off your mushrooms Times are tough, so let me make my usual reminder: foraging is free and you can find some of the best produce in this land or any other just by knowing what to look for. This dish is virtually free for those in the know – all that’s required is a bin bag and an [...]
Mark Hix on how to make the perfect seasonal risotto August 15, 2020 Risotto is a great comfort food, and I think it’s safe to say we could all use a little comfort right now. It can be a base for all sorts of flavours, from seafood to seasonal vegetables, so it’s a favourite of mine all year round. It’s important that before you start making your risotto [...]
Mark Hix on starting afresh with a fish van… And his new role at 1 Lombard Street August 8, 2020 Just as the coronavirus shit hit the fan, I was told by my business partner that the company was going into administration. All the restaurants would go, and the 130 staff were left high and dry with no furlough and no redundancy. I was devastated. It was a surreal moment, realising that all these people [...]
Mark Hix returns with a recipe for delicious home made pea soup July 25, 2020 Those of you who read this column regularly know that I love nothing more than growing my own veg, cooking it, and then banging on about the results in the pages of City A.M. Pretty soon I’ll be lusting over peas. Ideally I put them in a soup, but to be honest they’re so delicious [...]
Cupboard Love: Our new daily column on isolation cooking – today, braised butter beans March 27, 2020 I remember being a kid, when my grandmother’s neighbour would give me M&S butter beans in a creamy sauce straight out of the can. It seemed like the height of sophistication to a young me, and I’d look forward to it all week. So here’s a quick recipe for you, which you can rustle up [...]
Cupboard Love: Our new daily column on isolation cooking – today, chickpea curry March 26, 2020 Chickpeas are a mystery to science. At some indeterminate point in modern history, every household in the UK was issued with between one and six cans of chickpeas, which were arbitrarily distributed at the back of their cupboards. Nobody knows how they got there, and most people don’t even know they exist, but search your [...]
Cupboard Love: Clever cooking for an isolated population March 25, 2020 In the first part of a new series on economical home cooking, top chef Mark Hix demolishes a whole duck. I’ve written a few times about people buying too much food, not looking after it in the fridge, and it consequently ending up in the bin. I’ve also written many times about getting the most [...]
Mark Hix heads to the Tuscan hills to bring home the bacon October 30, 2019 I recently went on my third boar hunt in the hills of Tuscany. The first time was 20-odd years ago, and I only managed to get a single shot off, which went about a foot over its head. It didn’t even flinch, just continued to stare at me, indignant. Since then I’ve taken up game [...]