Suffolk &amp; Cambs


<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1031" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/adam-spicer.jpg" alt="Adam spicer" class="wp-image-29355" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/adam-spicer.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/adam-spicer-800x550.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/adam-spicer-1000x687.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/adam-spicer-400x275.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/adam-spicer-764x525.jpg 764w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-your-first-job-in-a-kitchen">Your first job in a kitchen?</h2>



<p>I was probably about 15 when I did a little pot wash job in a pub in Hertingfordbury in Hertfordshire. One day the chef there had a paddy and refused to do service and so I just jumped in and realised I quite liked it. I&#8217;ve always had a passion for food from a young age, I used to watch the food channels with Rick Stein and Keith Floyd on TV constantly. I went off to uni and did something completely different, but I always had that passion and when I finished my degree I just wanted to get back into the kitchen. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What was your career journey to Retreat East?  </h2>



<p>I&#8217;ve worked in kitchens in Cambs and Suffolk mostly. I started off at The Pantry in Newmarket and I was there for a long time under Vince, then I opened The Tack Room in Newmarket with him and worked as Head Chef there. I&#8217;ve also worked on the private dining arm of The Jockey Club Rooms in Newmarket and at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge. Then it was onto All Saints Hotel in Bury before I came here. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What&#8217;s been your career highlight so far?</strong></h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/adam-spicer-masterchef.jpg" alt="Adam Spicer masterchef" class="wp-image-29368" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/adam-spicer-masterchef.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/adam-spicer-masterchef-800x533.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/adam-spicer-masterchef-1000x667.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/adam-spicer-masterchef-400x267.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/adam-spicer-masterchef-788x525.jpg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



<p>I went on Masterchef and that was a great experience &#8211; I did quite well so I was very happy with that. Also Cambridge Chef of the Year was a really nice thing to win. But to be honest, I&#8217;ve always wanted a restaurant where I&#8217;ve got a brilliant kitchen garden, some really supportive owners and complete freedom to do what I want, so this right now, head chef at Retreat East, is a career highlight. We&#8217;re really big on sustainability, and no waste cooking and it&#8217;s amazing that the owners have the same outlook as this creates lots of possibilities and I don&#8217;t feel restricted. And so far it&#8217;s going really well &#8211; we&#8217;ve got a lot of tasting menus and we&#8217;re consistently very full.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Sum up your cooking style in a sentence?</h2>



<p>No waste, seasonal, local, modern British.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What&#8217;s your current focus for Retreat East?</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="899" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/retreat-east-food-899x1000.jpg" alt="food at retreat east" class="wp-image-29371" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/retreat-east-food-899x1000.jpg 899w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/retreat-east-food-719x800.jpg 719w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/retreat-east-food-360x400.jpg 360w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/retreat-east-food-1381x1536.jpg 1381w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/retreat-east-food-1842x2048.jpg 1842w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/retreat-east-food-472x525.jpg 472w" sizes="(max-width: 899px) 100vw, 899px" /></figure>



<p>It&#8217;s all about local produce at the heart of our cooking here and using really good quality ingredients. We&#8217;re a seasonal ingredient-led restaurant so there&#8217;s a massive focus on no waste and sustainability. In the kitchen we push every day to have less food waste, and use less plastic. It challenges you as a chef, but then it also brings up new ideas that you wouldn&#8217;t do otherwise, so it&#8217;s quite interesting. We&#8217;re trying to use things up all the time so for example we&#8217;ve made banana skin ice cream, carrot jam and sourdough macarons recently. We also do no-waste smoothies &#8211; we work with Anglia Produce to take the fruit and veg that they would bin, but there&#8217;s nothing wrong with. It might just be a bit wonky or a chef&#8217;s sent it back. So we take them and turn them into smoothies, so nothing gets wasted. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Have you cooked for anyone famous? </h2>



<p>Yes! Back at The Tack Room I cooked for the Queen. We&#8217;ve had quite a few famous people at Retreat East too &#8211; Boy George, Kylie Minogue, Westlife, Ashley Banjo, Tom Daley and lots of actresses and actors. At some point we will have some royalty coming to Retreat East, but I can&#8217;t say any more than that! Retreat East is that kind of place, it&#8217;s a little hangout where famous people can come and relax, not be treated any differently and just have a nice holiday. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What are your favourite local places to eat? </h2>



<p>Definitely Pea Porridge in Bury St Edmunds &#8211; I love everything about that place and I try and eat there all the time. Dave at The Unruly Pig is really good too. I&#8217;d say in Suffolk those are my top two at the moment. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Who are your favourite local suppliers? </h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1088" height="1105" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/2DC51076-9A28-4415-89A6-576757C66D98.jpeg" alt="Baron Bigod" class="wp-image-29376" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/2DC51076-9A28-4415-89A6-576757C66D98.jpeg 1088w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/2DC51076-9A28-4415-89A6-576757C66D98-788x800.jpeg 788w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/2DC51076-9A28-4415-89A6-576757C66D98-985x1000.jpeg 985w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/2DC51076-9A28-4415-89A6-576757C66D98-394x400.jpeg 394w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/2DC51076-9A28-4415-89A6-576757C66D98-517x525.jpeg 517w" sizes="(max-width: 1088px) 100vw, 1088px" /></figure>



<p>I genuinely think Suffolk produce is some of the best in the country &#8211; you&#8217;ve got a bit of everything. You&#8217;ve got really good arable land, you&#8217;ve got great poultry up towards Norfolk, then you&#8217;ve got the coastline, so some really good seafood. Because we&#8217;ve got really good flat land it&#8217;s ideal for growing vegetables too. It&#8217;s a good mixture of everything. I think there are a lot of really good artisan producers here that are at the top of their game. They get used nationally, but we&#8217;ve got them on our doorstep &#8211; Fen Farm Dairy for incredible Baron Bigod cheese, Dingley Dell Farm for pigs and I love using wild Suffolk bass. We also buy some stuff from Nurtured in Norfolk &#8211; mainly growing plants so we can keep using them, like nasturtiums that we keep on the windowsill. I also use Yarn Hill Lincolnshire Red Cattle for beef as they&#8217;re all outdoor bred. We also use other suppliers from around the country such as Creedy Carver duck from Cornwall, because they&#8217;re completely free range, organic ducks. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>You’re tired, starving and impatient: what do you cook for dinner?&nbsp;</strong></h2>



<p>I eat and cook quite a lot of Thai food because it&#8217;s easy. Anything that I can just blend into a paste and chuck some coconut milk in is good. You can&#8217;t go wrong with a one pot massaman curry! A roast dinner was probably the last thing I cooked at home though. I love being at home on a Sunday if I&#8217;m off and letting my wife cook and being able to enjoy her food. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Favourite ingredient at the moment and why?&nbsp;</strong></h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="844" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/Kitchen_Garden-1.jpg" alt="Retreat east kitchen garden" class="wp-image-29377" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/Kitchen_Garden-1.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/Kitchen_Garden-1-800x450.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/Kitchen_Garden-1-1000x563.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/Kitchen_Garden-1-400x225.jpg 400w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/suffolkcambs/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2022/10/Kitchen_Garden-1-900x506.jpg 900w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



<p>We&#8217;ve got a kitchen garden here so anything we take out of that we really appreciate &#8211; so it&#8217;s beetroots and carrots at the moment. Tosier Chocolate is really good and another local supplier that I love to use. </p>



<p>My favourite ingredients are anything that we can find and forage. So we&#8217;ve got sloe gin on the go at the moment, we&#8217;ve just lacto-fermented some damsons we found, we&#8217;ve got blackberries on the menu that we foraged. We&#8217;re also preserving things at the moment like fig leaves. Fig leaves are amazing to use. They have a really unique flavour, and are a bit unusual. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Tell us your best ever cooking tip?&nbsp;</strong></h2>



<p>It&#8217;s not exactly a tip or a hack but I really believe that anyone can do anything in the kitchen &#8211; it&#8217;s all just about practice. It&#8217;s not like you can&#8217;t teach cooking skills and there&#8217;s no such thing as &#8220;I can&#8217;t cook&#8221;. As long as you try it over and over again you&#8217;re going to get better at it. You can teach anyone anything in the kitchen, as long as they&#8217;re willing to learn. </p>



<p>I also want to encourage people not to forget about lost and unused ingredients. For example, if you&#8217;re going to cook with animals, try to use every part of it. We do quite a lot with offal here.  </p>


What’s Cooking? Adam Spicer, Head Chef at Retreat East

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