Cooking with Angela Hartnett: ‘I love food, but I don’t need to talk about it 24/7’

Angela Hartnett’s east London basement kitchen combines the ease of a lived-in home with the exactitude of a Michelin-starred chef: every utensil where your hand expects it, everything the right size. Today she’s making poached chicken with spring vegetables, a dish that feels simple but leaves no room for slackness.

Hartnett moves with a steady tempo — always busy, never rushed — and says the industry has changed: “People associate Michelin with machismo. It might have been once, but not any more.” Her first instruction is practical: buy a good chicken and joint it properly with a very sharp knife.

That precision makes the bird fit the pan, lets drumsticks cook separately and avoids an amateurish splay. Sturdy aromatics go in with the chicken; the fresher, British-grown vegetables go in their own pan. Salt the poaching water generously — Hartnett suggests multiplying your usual “pinch” several times — and don’t fret about a little froth on the surface when it boils.

United Kingdom, East London

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