The Farm Table: THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

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Julius Roberts is a British Chef and farmer, who ditched his job as a London Chef for life growing veg and raising goats in Dorset. Some of them will be melting, others will still have bite, and then you go and squeeze a lemon and add either a handful of mint or basil, and that can go in an omelette, or you can toss it through pasta, or have it on on toast, or with burrata, mozzarella, on flatbread. There’s an obsession for crispy skin, and the dish uses local cider because we’re in apple country, prunes, onions and sage, with this very slow jelly-ish pork and it’s unbelievable.

Julius Roberts’ Epic Tarragon Roast Chicken - The Happy Foodie Julius Roberts’ Epic Tarragon Roast Chicken - The Happy Foodie

Of course, not all of us have the resources to rear our own pigs, but for Julius, awareness of where food comes from, bridging the disconnect between farming and food, is key.

There began a wonderful journey of learning, animal husbandry, and foraging and growing his own food on a small farm in Dorset. There are very few on my shelf of 200+ cookbooks that are there because I love them in their entirety. There’s some cloves in there and some warming spices and the caramel that’s in the pears starts infusing into the cake batter and so you get this crispy, juicy, lovely edge which goes well with creme fraiche.

Julius Roberts: The Farm Table - The English Garden Julius Roberts: The Farm Table - The English Garden

It is an outstanding collection of more than 100 recipes inspired by the British countryside, making the most of affordable, seasonal ingredients. How refreshing then to meet with Julius Roberts, who, eight years ago at the tender age of 23 made a decision many of his peers may have considered ‘before his time’, to flee a bustling capital city life as a chef to start a new one as a self-taught, first-generation farmer in rural Suffolk, and by doing so, has inspired a generation to look at life, success, food and opportunity quite differently. Recipes can be scaled up or down, such as his lamb stew with pearl barley and wild garlic, or fish cooked in spiced tomato sauce (see opposite), and he also encourages substitutions depending on what is seasonally available.So summer is fresher, lighter, a lot of cold food, zingy salads, whereas winter is much more unctuous and hearty because you’re trying to keep yourself warm. Or perhaps they’re just wondering what business a Mini Cooper has on the mud-strewn back lanes of Dorset? Finally, there’s one of the biggest jobs of the summer to tackle and a lot of hard work ahead gathering his sheep for their annual shearing. And it’s the sauce of this chicken that really sets it apart: handfuls of tarragon, lashings of cream and a proper dollop of mustard, which when combined with the cooking juices, garlic and wine creates a truly epic mouthful.

Julius Roberts the chef turned farmer championing the Meet Julius Roberts the chef turned farmer championing the

Julius Roberts is a first-generation farmer and restaurant trained chef, on a mission to live a self-sufficient life down on his family smallholding in Dorset, whilst also cultivating the finest ingredients, and cooking and eating the very best food. You cook down some pears in caramel, chuck them in the bottom of your cake tin and then put the cake batter on top which is bursting with walnuts, so it’s quite savoury and not too sweet. This book reminds me a little of Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries, but I prefer Julius's version (sorry Nigel!

I park up in the yard and introduce myself to a party of goats who seem genuinely interested in some banter, before a troop of hens, led by a puffed up cockerel, swing by to see what all the fuss is about. The nail trimming doesn’t go to plan as Julius only manages to catch one goat — and it’s a bit of a cheat because Heather is one of his tame hand-reared goats. The first thing that I would recommend trying with courgettes is to chop them up, not too small or thin, because they’re quite nice when you keep that bit of texture in the pan with tonnes of olive oil, garlic, chilli, lemon zest and just gently cook them. They are the most curious and charismatic animals - there’s so much intellect and individuality in them.