Feedback with Juliet Sear

Photo by David Loftus

Feedback with Juliet Sear.

This month we are joined by ace baker Juliet Sear who you may recognise from This Morning and her ITV series Beautiful Bakes.

Her showstopping cakes have wowed both viewers and celebrities alike, and now for the first time, she brings her baking skills to the air fryer with her latest book Air Fryer Baking Magic which is out now. You can see some of her recipes in our New Air Fryer Recipe Collection here. Juliet took some time to speak to us about her cooking, food, restaurant likes and dislikes, lets us in to her go-to quick supper, and even admits to being messy in the kitchen!

You can win one of 5 signed copies of Juliet’s book; we also have a Bodum air fryer to be won in our competition.

Do you cook, and if so, what do you like to cook?
Yes, I love too! I started as soon as I could because my mum was a great cook, so I have been cooking from when I was very small. Luckily all my children and my husband are great cooks, so I’m not the only one. I love Italian and cook lots of pasta and a good old roast dinner, if everyone is coming over. My children are all brilliant at cooking from scratch in fact, my middle child Lydia is probably better than me, both my girls and I are always thinking about the next thing we are going to make! Two of them are intuitive cooks, but I know Lydia will follow a recipe, so she always helps me in the kitchen, she’s my tester.

What food always reminds you of your childhood?
Quiche is the one that really sticks out, to me, and there’s a recipe in my book called Mum’s Quiche. We’d have a quiche once a week, and she’d make different ones, Quiche Lorraine, mushroom… I’d get involved in that and I remember the leftover bits of pastry which my sister and I would roll out and cut with cutters and bake. 

Do you have a current favourite restaurant or type of restaurant?
We are very lucky where we live and have quite a few locally we like to go to. Also, The Devonshire in Soho, my friend Ashley Palmer-Watts is the chef there, and I love St John and Angela Hartnett’s Café Murano

What food or ingredient could you not do without?
My heart wants to say crisps because I am a big fan! But I’d probably say flour because I love to use it for all sorts of different things in baking, but more importantly one of my favourite things to eat is bread so it would have to be flour.

What was the most memorable meal you can remember eating?
It was one of those moments when you have food heaven. Stevie Parle used to have a restaurant called Palatino in London and I had Cacio e Pepe, and it was perfection – just incredible. It’s one of those dishes that is quite easy to get wrong, the consistency might not be right, or it’s been sitting too long – but this one was perfect.

Is there something particular you always keep in the fridge?
Cheese! I always have a lovely strong Cheddar in there because it lasts for ages (not that it last long in our fridge!), and Parmesan because you can do so many things with it, I do love blue cheeses and soft cheese. My favourite is Tunworth, and I have a few Babybels in there too!

Are your kitchen cupboards neat and tidy, or do you have to rummage to the back to find your baking ingredients like the rest of us?
My husband will tell you I am very messy!  Because I work freelance, I get lots of last-minute jobs, so I am in and out and when I’m in a rush I just shove things back in the cupboard and then I regret it. We have a big clear-out, and I organise everything and try to keep it that way but then I get busy and it’s a slippery slope, once it’s not looking perfect then it ends up a mess again.

After a day of filming food and baking, what’s your quick go-to supper?
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio, it’s so easy, you don’t even have to cook anything. I always used to fry my garlic and chilli until about 6 months ago and I saw an Italian chef making it, and he literally just stirred everything cold into the spaghetti, the flavour is strong but now I prefer it like that. Obviously, I would be covering it with a big blanket of Parmesan cheese!

What would be your last supper if literally anything was available to you and where would you eat it?
I’d definitely want to be with my family, and I did want to say a roast dinner, but I want to be somewhere hot! So, by a swimming pool in either Cyprus or Greece and I’d be going for a massive bread platter crossed with a cheese board. All the bread would be fresh out of the oven, focaccia, olive oil sea salt and then load of cheeses.

WIN A SIGNED COPY OF JULIET'S NEW BOOK IN OUR BODUM AIR FRYER COMPETITION - CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

CLICK HERE FOR JULIET'S AIR FRYER RECIPES