THE GRILL
That wasn’t enough for the ambitious
Turner. He went on to work for Pierre
Koffmann at La Tante Claire in Chelsea and
Harveys, a Wandsworth restaurant then run
by a young Marco Pierre White, with an
even younger Gordon Ramsay on the
kitchen staff.
“A tough start, but not bad as
mentors!” You suspect the shouting and
swearing was water off a duck’s – a whole
poached duck in a light consommé
probably – back for the commis chef who
spent seven years in the Paras.
This soldier son of an Essex banker, who
only joined the army boxing team because
you got steak for breakfast, wasn’t content
with this tuition. He went abroad, working
with legendary French chefs Joël Robuchon
and Alain Ducasse.
Turner, who was born in north-west
London, went on to run The Albion pub in
Islington, but despite his formative years
amid Michelin stars, he quickly cultivated
his own but traditional English style.
Hopes and dreams soon turned to meats
of every cut and part – nose to tail eating.
His book Hog, for example, is the ultimate
homage to the pig.
“My hero is actually Fergus Henderson
(founder of St John restaurant in
Clerkenwell). I tried to be like him. I put a
big charcoal grill in the beer garden and
started learning, but making my own
rules and experiments, realising the
importance of fuel as an ingredient, not
provenance and sustainable
farming and sourcing of meat
are far more important than any
chef, restaurant or recipe
Meatopia
06 | Spring 2020 | BBQ
just to start a fire.”
Turner likens a great barbecue to “a
religious experience”.
“That balance of smoke and fire. The salt
to sear the meat, the charcoal, the aromas –
slow-grown meat, slow cooked, for flavour is
time. Cooking over live fire is primal.”
Hawksmoor was next on Turner’s meat
journey and menu having originally
admired it as a customer. He joined
Hawksmoor when it was just one
restaurant in Spitalfields. It is now
currently eight, including Manchester and
Edinburgh and another steakhouse is set
to open this year in New York.
“One of the first times I ate at Hawksmoor
they messed up my steak twice, so I sent
it back – twice. General manager Nick
Strangeway (who came up with the name
after walking past Christ Church Spitalfields
designed by architect Nicholas Hawksmoor)
arrived with a raw steak, apologised and
asked, as I was a chef, if I wanted to cook it
myself and I gave their chefs a grilling
lesson,” says Turner.
He returned many times with the meat
getting better and better and then heard
the restaurant was looking for a head chef.
The rest is history and the evolution of a
British steak institution.
The Pitt Cue Co, which started as a
barbecue shack, Foxlow and Blacklock are
all in his culinary cannon – temples of fire
with the fingers and tongs of Turner in many
(mostly meat) pies.
But to Turner, provenance and
sustainable farming and sourcing of meat
are far more important than any chef,
restaurant or recipe.
Turner has this covered too, having
founded the London butcher Turner &
George with James George.
”It started as an online business,
delivering to houses,” says Turner, with their
butcher’s shop 373 doors down from St
John restaurant and wholly committed to