ALUMNI INTERVIEW: JAMES RAMSDEN
Pippa Cole sits down with Bristol University French and Italian alumnus James Ramsden to discuss being a food writer and newbie restauranteur.
Q: James, thanks for speaking with us. Firstly, can you tell us a little about Pidgin? What drove you to add restauranteur to your ever-expanding skill-set?
A: I had always said – adamantly – that I would never open a restaurant. This was largely because in my head I always imagined that opening a restaurant would entail cooking in it, and I can’t think of anything worse than being a Chef with a capital C. I love to cook, and loved running a supper club (which involved cooking for 20 or so people every week in my flat) but that was as far as I wanted to go with playing restaurant. Until it occurred to me that perhaps I could open a restaurant and NOT be the chef. That sounded rather fun. For the most part it is. Pidgin is tiny and a great starting point for hopefully bigger things. My business partner Sam and I wanted somewhere with the soul of a supper club but the polish of a proper restaurant. So we serve a no-choice 4-course menu and change it every week along with wines and cocktails. It keeps us on our toes.
Q: Are you continuing with the writing work alongside, or is Pidgin taking over all your waking hours?
A: At the moment Pidgin eats up most of my life, with a baby taking up the rest. But I find the odd moment to write a column for Delicious magazine, and there’s another book in the pipeline, I hope.
Q: You have previously written for a number of prominent publications, how did you make the leap into such a competitive industry?
A: I spent a couple of summers working at Sainsbury’s magazine which was a great foundation, and then started a blog, which in 2008 seemed the height of uncool. But it was a good platform for showing what I was about, and a good place to find my own voice. I think I must have sent fifteen emails to the Guardian food editor before I got a reply, let alone a commission.
Q: Did you begin writing professionally whilst at Bristol?
A: Depends how professional you think Epigram is! I did the odd bit for Sainsbury’s magazine back then, and contributed to the Ultimate Student Cookbook as well, but for the most part it was blogging that kept me busy and unpaid.
Q: How did you feel your experience at Bristol prepared you for your current field of work? Be it academic, or extra-curricular.
A: I think academically it was crucial – learning to write properly, to craft a story or an argument or a theory. In terms of Bristol food, I guess as a student you can’t go out and eat all that much, but I cooked for flatmates most nights, which probably got very tedious for them, and enjoyed being in a city that likes its food.
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