Welcome back to What’s Cooking, Metro’s food series taking a peek inside the nation’s kitchens. This week we’re at home with John Gregory-Smith, rifling through the content creator’s cupboards, fridge and freezer.
You might recognise the London-based foodie from his various stints on TV, cooking up a storm on the likes of Sunday Brunch and BBC Morning Live. But he’s also known for sharing recipes on social media, where he’s amassed more than one million followers on Instagram alone.
The 44-year-old’s most beloved creations are his traybakes, which have proved so popular he recently released a book, not so subtly titled: The Greatest Traybake Cookbook Ever.
We’ve delved into his strange snack obsessions, best recipes, and discovered why he doesn’t want to work in restaurants.
First, tell us a secret. What’s the most unhinged thing you like to eat?
I can’t stop eating hummus, rose harissa and fried eggs. I’m obsessed with the combination, but some people think it’s strange, as we don’t often eat eggs and hummus here, but it’s really common in the eastern med. You take a flatbread, smother it in hummus and harissa, then top it with two buttery fried eggs. When the yolk hits the hummus, it’s heavenly.
Which dish instantly transports you back to your childhood?
My mum’s spag bol. Most people make it on the stovetop, but my mum would just put everything in a pot and put it in the oven for three hours. We’d come home from school and everything smelled amazing. To serve, she would toss the spaghetti in loads of melted butter, then top it with a rich ragu and cover it in so much cheddar cheese.
Name one thing that’s always in your fridge?
I’m obsessed with pickles, so I always have different jars of them – everything from a standard sour gherkin, to spicy pickled Guindilla Chilli Peppers. I make a lot of kebabs and pickles are great for those, and they also go well in salads. You can use the brine to make all sorts of dressings too.
What about the freezer?
My freezer is basically just a herb graveyard at this point. I use things like Thai basil and curry leaves a lot in my cooking. If there’s any leftover I just bung it in the freezer and it lasts ages in there.
And in your store cupboard?
I like things that help cut corners, so I buy lots of pastes and seasonings, like chipotle chilli paste or Schwartz Cajun seasonings. When you’re short on time, these little things just add a ton of flavour quickly and easily, and I think that’s amazing.
Is there anything you can’t stop yourself splurging on at the supermarket?
I always splurge on wine, as I really enjoy having a nice bottle at home. My go-to is Mirabeau Classic Cotes de Provence Rosé and I drink it all year round, as it makes me feel like I’m on holiday. It’s about £15 a bottle, but it’s very yummy.
What do you always get the own-brand version of?
This is going to make me sound like Patsy from Ab Fab, but I think the best champagne is supermarket own-brand champagne. The cheapest one at M&S, the M&S Delacourt Champagne Brut, is £25 and it’s so good – plus it’s more than half the price of most others.
What’s the greatest traybake ever?
The recipe I make the most from the Greatest Traybake Cookbook Ever is the Chicken Shawarma and its received thousands of likes online. It really is the best, tastiest and quickest chicken shawarma recipe that I know and I literally make it once every single week as it’s so easy. It’s got chicken thighs and you use mayonnaise instead of yoghurt to make a marinade – this is a tip I learned years ago in a kebab shop in Ramallah. The mayonnaise helps keep the chicken succulent and juicy and stops it from burning in the oven. Then you add tomato puree, sumac, Turkish pepper flakes, garlic powder, baharat, salt and pepper, and oil, mix it all up and roast it for 20 minutes. Serve in a wrap or as a salad and enjoy.
Gordon Ramsay once gave you a job, what was that like?
It’s still one of the coolest things that’s ever happened to me. I was in my early 20s, and basically my older sister met Gordon in a bar and told him I loved cooking and asked if he would give me a job. He said yes and handed over his details. It wasn’t anything weird, just a fax number, but I got in touch and he sorted two weeks of work experience for me at Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road, which is a Michelin starred restaurant. This was my first foray into food I had no training at all and it became very apparent, very quickly, that I had no idea what I was doing. It was an amazing experience and I’m so grateful, but by the end of it, I realised working in restaurants wasn’t for me. I didn’t really fit into the well-oiled, slick operation they had going and at the time, I thought that’s what all restaurants were like. I decided I wanted to learn about Indian food, and Chinese food, so I decided to start travelling to these places, to learn the cuisines firsthand.
Do you have any game-changing cooking tips to share?
When I have people over, I don’t do any cooking once guests arrive, I get it all prepared beforehand and just do a tiny bit of reheating ahead of dinner. This takes all the stress out of entertaining and means you don’t miss out on the action. The only exception is if I’m doing pasta, as I’d cook that fresh, as it doesn’t take long.
And finally, what’s been cooking lately?
On TikTok, I’m working my way through chapters of my cookbook, so I’m making lots of dishes from there. Last night we had harissa meatballs with giant cous cous and it was delicious.
