Food For Thought

• The List
• 24 April 2008

Ian Brown

Head chef at The Ubiquitous Chip, Glasgow

I can’t eat breakfast first thing in the morning. I’ll have a milky coffee when I get out of bed, then porridge with Maldon sea salt mid-morning. If I’m in the restaurant, I don’t normally have a sit-down lunch because I end up tasting dishes while I cook. But at home we like making big pots of fresh soup. My wife does a lovely tomato and lentil which I’ll have with bread and Scottish unsalted butter.

I snack on things like grapes in the afternoon – I love the way they taste straight out the fridge. I try to be good but I like to enjoy myself too. I have to put my hands up and admit to nicking the occasional bit of home-made shortbread in the restaurant.

Tea is normally one course followed by a yoghurt. We sit round the table and have something like lasagne or Thai curry. We’re trying to get our kids into cooking, and my 13-year-old son does pretty good meatballs in a tomato sauce. If we have folk round, I’ll do the whole three courses with appetiser and sweet meats as people expect it. For special occasions, I love a bottle of white burgundy, and for the morning after, my favourite hangover cure is having another drink. (interview by Claire Sawers)