Steve Guy - Slow Food UK Person of the Year 2023

Steve Guy is a chef, food educator and Slow Food UK’s person of the year 2023.

From head chef for Jamie Oliver to being an integral part of the community cooking project ‘Time for Lunch’ Steve has always embraced the ethos that delicious, sustainable, and exciting food should be for everyone.

The Interview.

I hadn’t planned on who to talk to first when this idea stared rattling around in my head but I’m so glad I chose Steve. He has taken my little idea and run a bloody marathon with it. To be honest, I’m worried this might be the first and last edition of the Pick-Me-Up because he has set the bar so high. Talk about fulfilling the brief. It’s an epic introduction into exactly what I want this newsletter to be so grab a glass and settle in for this month’s Paso-Pick-Me-Up.

PP - It’s January, which is a pretty rubbish month anyway but I’m particularly irritated because we go from December when everyone pulls out all the stops and cook indulgent family favourites, into a month of self-enforced abstinence and denial. So what are you cooking this month that would get me back round the family table and feel excited about my dinner again?

SG - I don't know, its weird. I don’t think I have ever suffered from the so called ‘January Blues’ but then Christmas has never been some sort of super powered self destruction mission for me. I mean, don’t get me wrong I will eat like I don’t know where my next meal is coming from on Christmas Day; even though I know it’s going to be around 30 minutes until my next meal. And no doubt the sherry will start to flow as presents are being opened first thing in the morning; but over the festive period, it’s never to a constant excess where I feel like I have to abstain from anything in the new year.

Maybe it’s because I have worked over most Christmas periods that it just doesn’t signify the opportunity for total self destruction. It’s not something that I feel the need to build up to for 2-3 months and then go out every possible night throughout December, blowing all my cash with the idea; its going to be fine, I’ll just have a quiet one in January. It seems counter intuitive to me. Everyone acts like caged animals at Christmas, like they haven’t had a chance to go out all year? Or is that just the pure power of the festive spirit?

For me, my habits don’t really change come the new year - I drink and eat as much in Jan as I do Feb to December (which is probably definitely more than I doctor would recommend) but I love food; and it’s not a particularly trendy thing to say at the moment but I also really like alcohol (in moderation of course - there will definitely be some people with stories to tell that might on occasion demonstrate a lack of moderation). I love the social aspects and the culture around it and like food, it’s ability to bring people around a table, to bring people together, to break boundaries and to form bonds. Why would you want to give that up for a month? This is obviously all about moderation - I don't for a second condone over doing it, binge drinking and/or getting out of control and I think that’s the important thing I have learnt - everything's better in moderation (apart from a red wine and Boxing Day cheese board session - but that’s once a year. That’s moderation, right?)

Let’s face it, though, even with some moderation we are all going to spend a bit more cash over Christmas so January is likely to be that bit leaner than most months. The weather is also pretty naff. You never quite know if its going to be beautiful and brisk, sunny mornings (my fave weather), snowing or the usual period of torrential rain and inevitable flooding that wreaks havoc with just about every aspect of our life. Weather seriously affects the food we cook in our house. We love a bit of comfort and seeing as we can’t afford to put the heating on very often these days, we use food to help keep that boiler turned off for a little longer. We crave big flavours in our meals in January. We make a lot of Thai and Asian inspired Hot & Sour soups. The Asian supermarkets in town sell some seriously tasty Thai pastes for next to nothing. Its usually a case of using up whatever leftovers we have in the fridge - we love veggies in our house, we eat a veg heavy diet so we usually have plenty of bits and bobs to throw in the pan; with some rice noodles, a pouch of Thai paste, water and then lashings of fish sauce, rice vinegar and hot sauce to really get our juices flowing. Beans are the other big comfort food for us - such a great ingredient but so undervalued and underused. I mean, come on, a proper jacket potato with baked beans and cheese - that’s a hug in itself. And by proper - I mean air fried! This is 2024, right? I made one of the nicest dishes in a long time last week, a smokey sweet potato and bean goulash - you can find the recipe on my website (link below) but yeah, it’s all about big, bold and warm flavours, plenty of veggies and beans to give us that little pick me up when we might need it :

Roasted Sweet Potato, Kale & Butter Bean Smokey Goulash.

PP - Food is obviously the focus of your world but where does wine fit into it? Have you got any early memories of when wine first crept onto the table? Is it the catalyst for meal inspiration or more of an addition to the evening?

SG - I feel extremely fortunate that I grew up in family that appreciated food and more importantly the culture of food. We almost always had dinner around the table - something I totally took for granted until I moved out. We went out for dinner fairly regularly. Occasionally to a nice restaurant but largely to local pubs. My Dad especially used to enjoy the pub scene in the local area, although this was often just to go and see who he might know there and get some gossip.

Wine was never a hugely significant aspect to these evenings growing up. If we were in the pubs, my Dad would always lean a little more towards trying local ales and beers but if the wine came out, it sort of signified something a bit more special. It was always with the nicer meals, the better restaurants that the wine would come with the meal. So I always grew up around a food culture where wine was kind of a sign of something special. Almost for a special occasion. When we were all trying to be a bit more sophisticated. It was also one of those drinks that, at a family party or celebration you would be given a sip to try and you would reel from how totally disgusting it was. Looking around the room wondering how the hell everyone is drinking it without any problems. Thinking you’d never enjoy that! If only that young whippersnapper could see me today….…

It’s not something I have really looked back at before but I definitely wasn’t enjoying drinking wine until maybe my mid-20s. It felt like a drink for the older generation - but then this was also when the labels all had to look like they were from 17th century France and from memory, the branding was pretty old fashioned. Also expensive. In my late teens, why would you buy a bottle of wine when you could get a pint of Carling for £1!

Wine being something a bit more special, sophisticated and for the older crowd started to change when I went to Uni. It’s amazing how a tight budget can totally change your determination to enjoy a terrible drink. The era of the 2 bottles for £5 from the corner shop had begun. The key to this kind of wine, drink it as fast as you can. Or as my Dad always says ‘its the kind of wine that gets better the more you drink’. Of course, the functionality of the booze had also changed. There was absolutely nothing sophisticated about the way we were enjoying booze at this point. By the end of Uni, we had progressed to enjoying some slightly higher standards of red wine and I do remember us throwing a black tie, red wine dinner party (in our dingy, stain ridden, hell hole of a student house) - although looking back, that might have just been an excuse to get even more wrecked because lets face it, you always get more drunk in a dinner suit!

It was my mid/late-20s when I really started to join the dots with wine. When I started working as a chef - suddenly the focus was entirely on flavour, on making things as delicious as possible and ultimately on customer enjoyment. So it was sort of this point that I was really exposed regularly to delicious wines, by people who also really knew their trade (not just the local Blossom Hill salesman in the corner shop). There’s that age old thing of ‘cooking wine’ and keeping the cheap stuff entirely just for that. But in good kitchens, that goes out the window. You’re drilled as a chef to cook with wine you enjoy drinking - and that makes total sense. A dish can only ever really taste as good as its ingredients!

With any part of the food industry, this is where the appreciation comes from - its the exposure to what good looks like. It is so important to understand what the standards are and sticking to them. It was this experience that also took me full circle to understanding what my parents were on about with the sort of sophisticated, special occasion view of nice wines!

Sorry, I still haven’t answered your question…too busy giving you my life story…....we will get there soon, promise……..

In the past, wine has definitely been an accompaniment to an evening or a meal. I can’t think of a wine that has really a catalyst for a dish - I mean, I’m not sure I have ever been to a pub and asked what wine is in the Red Wine Jus….or really cared for that matter. I also don’t see my self as having the most wonderfully refined palate for these things. But the more I have been exposed to wine, wine making, the nuances, the variances of it all and the sheer celebration of this incredible product I have started to really piece together flavours and flavour pairings based on tasting the wine. This has been a conscious effort though - it is a skill you have to learn, train hard at and really focus on. As I have gotten older, I am consciously looking for quality over quantity. My natural curiosity to understand the wine making process more has extended and is constantly moving forwards. I want to understand the natural variances year on year, the weather and climate influences, the various fermentation techniques, how the bottling affects the final product - it's all fascinating. It's a fascination that started with my Hungry Guy journey - meeting local producers, listening to masters of their craft, like yourself, talk passionately about what they do, why they do it and how they do it. And especially listening to the Stories about overcoming the various elements to still produce a great product. Making do with various situations and rolling with the punches, that sort of thing. Its total inspiration and something I think everyone should listen to. It’s the heart and soul of the industry. It’s the artisan producers of the world that will continue to build the highest of standards.

So the answer to your question is……yeah!

PP - I’m a big believer in ‘wine moments’. Beer has advertised itself so well around the evocative idea of that thirst-quenching first drink after work but wine seems to struggle to capture the imagination in the same way. When are you most excited to reach for a glass of wine? What’s the moment when only a glass of wine will do?

SG - As I mentioned in my life story above (congratulations to any readers who made it through that and deepest apologies to you if I have lost you some engagement there, Tom!)……..

…the enjoyment of just a simple glass on wine has come quite late in life and I look at my relationship with wine with fondness. It brings a smile to my face. Whether it’s with home cooked food, out for dinner in a local pub or restaurant, going to a wine bar or simply sat in front of the telly with a glass - it holds so much weight for me.

For me, I’m most excited about wine when I am with my wife. We have a joint appreciation for it. I think our wine journey has been pretty similar (basically drinking enough terrible and great wines to really appreciate what we do and don’t like). It’s something we find exciting to try together and something we both get excited about introducing each other to. Whenever I taste that first sip of a delicious wine, it is always my wife who I think of first and immediately want to pass the glass to enthusiastically - hoping that she will love it as much as I do. If she isn’t with me, I note down the name, so I can surprise her with it at some point. Its just about sharing the joy.

Its also something that me and my wife have bonded over throughout our relationship. Pre-marriage, Sunday evenings, exhausted, my now step daughter finally in bed, we would just sit on the kitchen floor, music playing, drinking a glass of wine (not always the best wine) and we would just talk to each other. Fond memories and so important to both of us. These were really special wine moments. We learnt so much about each other during this time and built a bond so strong. Over time, we seem to have learnt that the sofa is more comfortable than the kitchen floor and we have upgraded from a small kitchen speaker to a record player; so maybe we are finally becoming more sophisticated. Our lives seem to be getting busier and busier by the day, and now with 2 kids and 2 businesses in the house but there is no better moment, on any given evening, when the chaos dies down and the question is fired out ‘Fancy a vino?’ Followed by the clink of the wine glasses. Peace at last - just us two left standing! I wouldn’t swap that for the world.

PP - A lot of wine marketing focuses on food pairings. I’m not sure how relevant most of them are and, with a few exceptions, I’m convinced you can’t go too far wrong whatever you decide to do, but I will always recommend Paso-Primero Rosado with a bag of bacon frazzles. It can’t be beat. Have you got any pairings that you want to share with the world? Are you a traditionalist? Are you drinking champagne with your fish & chips? Are you secretly dunking pickled onion monster munch into your chardonnay?

SG - Your Rosado & Bacon Frazzles - I can’t believe that I still haven’t had the chance to try that yet and I am so sad about it. I'm now gluten free and I think Frazzles might be glutenised! But I’ll find out! It might be worth the consequences anyway!…..I’m holding you responsible…..

It’s a funny thing wine pairings. In fact it's really with any pairings and with food tasting in general. Everyone has a different palate and so everyone enjoys flavours a little differently. Yet we live in a world which seems determined to give you strict instructions on what to eat with what - and don't you dare stray from the rules! It’s beef, you have to have red wine; yet there are 10000000 different red wines out there - some will match better than others.

With the food industry as a whole, I find there is a bizarre feeling that people should really know more than they do. There is a tendency towards a fear of being wrong and maybe that makes people scared to try something a bit edgy or a little different - it's nonsense. Maybe this is why some of the greatest combinations are made a few glasses (or bottles deep). I blame the food world for having a bit of an elitist culture and I think in the past, and in certain parts of the current, the wine industry has been guilty of that. Its that sort of feeling that you have to be sophisticated with wine. How dare you muddle the flavours with your bacon frazzles - heathen!

I teach in a lot of food workshops that there aren’t set rules in the kitchen. I am always asked about seasoning - how do I know if it tastes right? My answer is always the same, that’s your decision to make, own it. If you enjoy it, then its right. I can demonstrate flavour profiles, explain the balance of sweet, sour, salty etc and show you how I would season it, how I would balance those flavours, but that’s not necessarily the same for everyone. So if you like it, puff your chest out, send it out into the world and wait (sometimes nervously) for the feedback. Be proud of it! I can’t even remember the last time I cooked a meal for my wife and she didn’t think it needed ‘more tang’ but then she’s part German and can destroy a jar of pickles in minutes.

We would all be better off if we just stopped pretending there are these rules that we have to live by when it comes to food and what goes with what. Do what you enjoy and stick 2 fingers up to everyone!

There can also be so much pomp and circumstance when it comes to food and wine. I adore the idea of breaking down those boundaries - like champagne with fish and chips - the ultimate 2 fingers up to the elitists! I love it!

Dark Chocolate with Salt & Vinegar crisps is without doubt one of my favourite combos when I’ve got a light red wine in hand - total joy. So much going on. It’s fruity, rich, salty, sour - flavours everywhere. Dark Chocolate, Blue Cheese and a slightly heavier red wine is another good Sunday afternoon effort - watch out for the heartburn if you’ve had a heavy lunch with this one.

Fizz and anything pickled is a winner. Another wonderful thing my wife has bought into my life. Always a Cava if we can - we prefer a dry fizz and lets face it, as far as value for money goes, I don’t think you can beat a Cava. This is a guilty pleasure and slightly against my ethos but we all have to have a day off sometimes………the one from Spar is unbelievable value! Its like £6.49 and really lovely - they tried to put the price up a while ago to £9.99 and no-one bought it - so they dropped it back down - that is fizz solidarity and I am all for it! Co-op do a good one - that’s actually the one we served at our wedding, we couldn’t find a local Spar in London. Anyway, grab a pickled egg, scrunch up a packet of salt & vinegar crisps, drop the egg in and give it a shake - the ultimate eggy tang fest. Wash that down with a lovely drop of Cava……..heaven! (I mentioned my wife was part German, the other parts from Wolverhampton - I think that’s where the pickled egg bit comes in)

PP - What’s on the agenda for 2024? What are you excited about? Where can people find you, support you and, more importantly, eat your food?

SG - I am so excited about 2024. One of my missions when I started as The Hungry Guy was to work with the community. To inspire people to cook more. Learning to cook is a journey - and everyone has to start somewhere. Everyone is at a different stage of their journey. We are becoming disconnected with food, as a whole we are cooking less. Which means we aren’t sharing food as much, we aren’t sitting around a table as much. We are losing our culture!

There are so many issues in the world - the climate crisis is just one. It’s a complicated beast - everyone has their opinion and is ready to force it on you. Everyone wants everyone to make drastic changes overnight regardless of how real they are for peoples situations - lets face it we all face different challenges every day; you never know what someone’s going up against. There are statistics that can back any argument and tweaked, spun to make them sound like whatever you want them to. I am a firm believer that so many of the issues we face would ease if we all just started cooking more and we started sharing more. So this is a big focus for me in 2024 - I am working closely with local food networks and in particular the Shrewsbury Food Hub to develop and deliver a community kitchen project which will be entirely focussed on giving people the skills they need to produce real food at home. Food that is healthy, well balanced, affordable and most importantly delicious! Everyone deserves to eat good food, everyone deserves access to good food - and I am going to work my nuts off to help people achieve that!

I’m still not 100% sure it actually happened but I was nominated as Slow Food UK England Person of The Year for 2023 back in November - no-one was more shocked, honoured and humbled than me to receive such an accolade. Slow Food are so close to my heart - the Moto is ‘Good, clean & fair food for everyone’ - what’s not to love about that. So I will continue to focus on promoting their work, especially in the Ludlow & The Marches area and will keep highlighting the amazing local producers we have in Shropshire - running a small business is hard - so support them, lets start buying local whenever we can, we can literally fund and fuel peoples passion in life and keep them doing what they love. Imagine a world where everyone was just doing what they love? What a place to be?!

I’m also still firing out my private dining events - so get in touch and I will come round to your house and cook you something delicious. I am also offering a service made up of entirely surplus food - its a really affordable way to hire a private chef while also supporting a really important local food charity, The Shrewsbury Food Hub!

A big target of mine is to also host more pop ups in Shrewsbury - so fingers crossed there should be loads of opportunities to try my food!

The best way to keep up with what I am doing is to follow my socials:

Insta: @_thehungryguy

F/Book: @thehungryguyshropshire

PP - And finally, I’ve got ask about music. It plays a huge roll in the cellar during harvest and throughout the year. What are you listening to at the moment? What can I add to the Paso-Pick-Me-Up Playlist?

SG - Music is a huge influence for me. It regulates my mood, it even influences my cooking. I like to try to keep an open mindset when it comes to music. I have seriously eclectic taste and it can be all over the place and as far as what I am listening to, its an ever changing landscape. My kitchen playlist is on A LOT - I struggle to cook without music. It helps focus me. The playlist is actually called ‘Less Thinking, More Cooking’ - designed for those days where times against me in the kitchen and my mind keeps wandering off, thinking about the Roman Empire or something…..I also have a huge number of indulgent, guilty pleasures on there! I definitely pigeon hole some genres (I am looking at you Punk) and write them off before I have tried them - that goes against everything I stand for when it comes to food so I am trying to widen my horizons.

I am actually in the middle of something coined ’THE PROJECT’ - me and 3 of my best friends have embarked on a mission to listen to 1001 albums in 1001 days. We are currently around day 132 or something. Its due for completion in 2026………this is all about broadening those musical horizons. I have learnt loads - including that not all Punk is obnoxious people shouting over great guitars and drums. And that I actually like post punk - which infuriates true Punk fans - so its a win-win for me.

Anyway, in terms of tracks there are 2 and its really hard to pick. ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’ by Jacob Collier - its a cover of the track by The Police. It’s beautiful - Jacob Collier is a freak of nature as far as musical talent goes but this was the song my wife chose (as a surprise) to walk down the aisle to when we got married back in November - its become a bit of a rock for me. When I’m having a tough day, when its all getting a bit much - this is the track that brings me back to a happy place - literal goose bumps!

The other one is a discovery from ’THE PROJECT’ - I had a live album pop up by a band called ‘Big Brother & The Holding Company’ - I didn’t have a clue who they were - but fell in love with it instantly. I later learned that it was Janis Joplin’s band - suddenly Janis Joplin made complete sense to me. It transports you to 1968 (which I have learnt was an unbelievable year for music), into a dingy, smoke filled venue, where you’ve stumbled in and there is just the most amazing band playing that you’ve ever heard. And Joplin’s voice is out of this world! I think my go to off this album has to be the track most people will have heard - its been covered loads!