winter: an elegant, fuss-free dinner of roast pumpkin, mozzarella, hazelnuts and sage, and a hearty sausage stew Food has always been a huge part of my family and how we socialise. My granny was such an incredible cook and I have such fond memories of sitting next to her on the aga, her passing me wooden spoons laden in all these different flavours for me to taste." Enjoy the comforts of the English countryside with 100 seasonal recipes to savor throughout the year and thoughtful essays about living farm-to-table—from British chef-turned-farmer Julius Roberts. The joy of cooking is invariably inherited from one's family, as any Italian will be at great pains to tell you, or in my case from one's family's inclination to butcher even the simplest of meals. It's a push-pull thing, with Julius's epicurean passion coming very much from the pull of his grandmother's esteemed culinary repertoire.

Julius Roberts The Farm Table | New Cookbook, 2023

Spring: Spicy Green Salad with Nuts and Pecorino; Barbequed Wild Quail with Garlic Butter and Tahini Sauce After toying around for a year post-graduation with a career as an artist, some words of wisdom from his mum encouraged Julius to pursue a career as a chef: ‘I’d been brought up in a house that loved food. The kitchen was the heart of our home. My parents were very cool about letting me have free reign in the kitchen. I couldn’t see how I could make a career as a sculptor work, and my mum said “you’ve always been into food. Just go and get a job at a restaurant and see what happens.”’ With his goats! Julius tends to the animals. (Image credit: Channel 5) A Taste Of The Country episode guide Former Noble Rot chef turned social media and television personality, Julius Roberts' debut cookbook The Farm Table offers a valuable introduction into the world of seasonal cooking.

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Sure enough, wherever you're standing on the farm you're rarely more than 10 metres away from a stout little goat looking for conversation or somewhere to playfully lodge his horns. I decided to make a crab risotto - it was actually a first time dish so I was very excited to cook it for everyone. I initially wanted to make a squid risotto but couldn’t find any squid in the local fishmonger so crab was a worthy replacement. The local Devon crab around here is amazing. It's a simple dish with some of the last tomatoes I harvested, along with garlic, chilli and saffron, quite a wet, unctuous and rich risotto. Finished with tons of parsley and lemon zest at the end to brighten it up and give it a bit of zing. I thought it was delicious!" We heartily concur. After spending the best part of 24 hours with Julius on his farm, I can see why he made the shift. With a burgeoning social media-fuelled career that he can grow from his kitchen right here in Dorset, he has indeed nurtured an idyllic set-up, one that not only nourishes him but also inspires hundreds of thousands of others to eat and live more sustainably. He was inspired by River Cottage as a child, looking up to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his emphasis on field to plate. His time in restaurant kitchens (having previously studied sculpture in Brighton) nurtured his appreciation for seasonal ingredients.

The Farm Table by Julius Roberts | Waterstones

Julius pulls into the yard in a battered old red Defender not five minutes later with co-pilots Loki and Zephyr, two grey lurchers who look as if they have been preternaturally hewn from storm clouds, wind and earth. Dressed as you would imagine someone who runs a farm dresses (trousers splattered with mud; boots that look like they've been on a chain gang; sensibly warm layers on top), Julius - much like the lurchers - sports a fabulously wild head of hair - dark blonde curls tumbling from his crown like twisted ears of corn. He has a big, friendly smile on his face (which as I discover is a near permanent feature) and a bag of crab meat in his hands which is to form dinner later that evening, once we're done shooting the new winter collection on the poor lad. What’s it about: Julius’ first cookbook is a collection of 100 recipes that capture the essence of British rural life. Written over the course of a year on his smallholding in Dorset, The Farm Table offers a unique insight into farm life and features an array of thoughtful recipes that celebrate the changing seasons. Julius is a firm believer in the importance of seasonality and he showcases how to make the most of each season’s produce with simple, unfussy recipes that allow these hero ingredients to take centre stage. Think stewed plums with whipped yoghurt in autumn, poached quince with ginger cake in winter, asparagus and ricotta tart in spring and courgette frittata in the summertime. With breathtaking photography throughout, this is a cookbook that embodies the essence of home cooking at its finest. Julius Roberts reveals the reality of managing your own smallholding in A Taste Of The Country. He cooks up a storm in the kitchen, cares for his animals, learns new skills and enjoys good times on land and sea with his family and friends. Here, he talks about living his best life… Seasonal eating and cooking are concepts which humankind has lost in the last 150 years or so since the advent of industrial farming practices Broken into sections based on the season, The Farm Table encourages cooking with seasonality in mind through scrumptious recipes to inspire joy and confidence in the kitchen.Also this week, Julius opens the polytunnel and shows us his tomato glut before sharing the secret to making unbelievably easy homemade ketchup. But he’s not stopping there on amazing things you wouldn’t ever have thought of trying to make! He gives us his unbelievable recipe for turning a humble belly of pork into the best home-cured bacon and then churns a batch of his own butter in no time at all. So, with ketchup, bacon and butter, what else is there to do than combine them in a perfect bacon and egg sandwich? Why this life? Well I’m trying to live as sustainably and thoughtfully as I can, very much in tune with nature, trying to live in harmony with the seasons, and making the farm biodiverse and an amazing habitat for all sorts of plants and creatures." Julius is not only making pizza, but he’s building the wood-fired oven as well, with the help of his friend and builder Adam and his son Rowan. Julius’ brothers Jocelyn and Lucian are also pitching in to help with construction.With the oven built, there’s the pizza to make, and Julius is sharing his go-to recipe for pillowy dough. He rustles up a delicious simple tomato sauce to spread on the base and garden pesto to drizzle over. Then, it’s fingers crossed as he fires up the oven and makes an epic duo of ‘nduja, honey and mozzarella pizza, and potato and taleggio pizza for his friends and brothers.

Julius Roberts Hearty Sausage Stew Recipe | The Farm Table Julius Roberts Hearty Sausage Stew Recipe | The Farm Table

With the increasing demand from chefs and consumers on provenance and the accompanying desire to cultivate a kitchen garden, this book could well become a go-to for any chef who wishes to embed greater seasonal practice in their work and cooking. My goats! I mean I love my goats. They are so much fun. They are the most curious and charismatic animals - there’s so much intellect and individuality in them. They’re so naughty and spend a lot of time escaping. They sneak inside and eat all the flowers in the house, strip the paint off the walls, climb my car, eat my shoelaces and generally keep me very busy. I don’t know what I’d do without them." As Julius was a chef, there'll be plenty of cooking in A Taste Of The Country. (Image credit: Channel 5) More from Julius Roberts on A Taste Of The Country Great friendship and support deserve a special treat: Julius makes everyone the legendary Italian pudding tiramisu that he first ate as a child in Florence, which they eat as they relax in the hay meadow with the work done and the sun setting, washed down with chilled local beer.

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I hope to inspire my generation to think about their food and how the decisions we make have a massive effect on an animal's life. I want them to be excited by nature and care about animal welfare. Start by slicing the skin of the sausages so you can remove the meat. Then roughly break into small meatball- size pieces. Finely slice the garlic, celery and onions. Get a large heavy-based pan hot, drizzle in the olive oil and, once warm, add the sausage. Fry for a few minutes to release the fat and get some colour on the meat. Then turn the heat right down and add the garlic, chilli flakes, rosemary, bay leaves and cinnamon. Don’t let the garlic take on any colour – this stage is about slowly infusing flavour into the oil, so you want a low heat and a gentle sizzle. Which leads me nicely on to the meal which Julius cooked for the shoot crew, which was hugely appreciated, as I imagine that after a day of being told "no, don't stand like that," "smile!" "don't smile", "legs together please," you'd be inclined to put a couple of pizzas in the oven and be done with it. Of course, that was never going to happen. Cook and food photographer Julius Roberts left a fast-paced life in London, as a chef at Noble Rot Wine Bar and Restaurant, in 2016 – to set up a smallholding in the Stour Valley with his loyal lurchers, Loki and Zephyr. First-generation farmer and chef Julius Roberts shares honest tales of farming life and easy, thoughtful dishes to reconnect us to nature and the seasons.