Feedback with Ed Perry

FEEDBACK WITH ED PERRY

What fuels the man behind COOK’s mouth-watering frozen meals? The answer is… not lentil and fennel bake!

We sat down with COOK’s co-founder, Ed Perry, to chat about everything from the shepherd’s pie that started it all, to his personal crusade to save an under-appreciated Laotian dish. Along the way, he shares tales of visiting Japan when he was 16, his mum's epic roasts, and why scaling a recipe for 2,000 portions is trickier than you might think. COOK Serve up Joy, is the first book from the frozen meals brand, and includes 80+ recipes for serving up joy at home, from weeknight suppers to special nights in, feeding a family to cooking for a crowd. For something special, we have chosen recipes from the book for our Menu of the Month and you can win a copy in our competition - click to enter below.

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Do you cook, and if so, what do you like to cook?
I can but my wife is an excellent cook, and I like to eat COOK food regularly as it’s vital to sample full portions so there isn’t much opportunity. 

What food always reminds you of your childhood?
My mum’s cooking was the inspiration for COOK and her Shepherd’s Pie was particularly epic, as were her roasts. She was one of those natural cooks who very rarely used a recipe but had an instinctive understanding of ingredients and flavour. She never made a bad meal. 

Do you have a current favourite restaurant or type of restaurant?
Not really though I eat at one of two local pubs each week with my family. 

What food or ingredients could you not do without?
Waitrose Greek yogurt which is the best on the market in my opinion. I eat it every day for breakfast with blueberries, raspberries and Bio&Me granola. 

At the end of a day testing new products – what is your quick supper?
Scrambled eggs, made with a dash of English mustard and turmeric on sourdough toast. 

For your book COOK Serve up Joy, was it a difficult process to decide which recipes to put in the book, and were there any recipes you really wanted to be added that turned out to be impossible to scale down?
Every product we have ever sold has started life as a 6 portion sample and so scaling down is not a problem ! It’s scaling recipes up that is the really tricky bit. We go from 6 to 12 to 200 portions, each time tasting against the previous batch to ensure they are identical. And then we move up to ‘full batch’ which can be anything from 1500-2000 portions. But nothing goes out to customers unless it tastes the same as the original 6 portion sample. Having created hundreds of recipes over the years, it was certainly tough to whittle it down to 80 but we have tried to keep a blend of old-favourites with some of the recipes we have loved in the past but no longer sell like Huntsman Chicken.

Can you remember what the first frozen meals you ever created were?
Like it was yesterday! The first sample dish I ever tasted was a month before we opened the first shop in Farnham, Surrey in 1997. I was in my little flat in Clapham and my co-founder  Dale, and made a Lentil and Fennel Bake. I still have no idea why he chose to cook that as his first dish but it was disgusting. So bad that it made me cry (the first and last time that has happened…) as it was only at that moment it dawned on me how hard it was going to be to make food that looks and tastes homemade, frozen and at scale. His second effort was a beef bourguignon which was much better ! After that it was a Chicken Alexander, still a favourite today and with a recipe that has barely changed.   

Is there anything in the COOK range that has surprised you with its success?
Having been signing off all the food sold in our shops for 28 years, not much surprises me as you develop a very good instinct for what will sell. One of the lessons is that if the majority of customers have not heard of a dish, it is very unlikely to sell well no matter how good it is. A good example of this is that we launched Turkey Laab recently which is the national dish of Laos. It’s superb but are customers buying it ? Nope…so I am on a crusade to save it as I am sure that when people try it they will come back for it. One example of a product that has surprised me was a few years ago we launched an Apricot and Almond Tart. Good pudding sellers tend to always be chocolate, raspberry, creamy, cheesecake based and so I had no expectations for this. Although it is delicious I have been surprised that it is now one of our best sellers.

Is there a memorable meal you remember eating?
When I was 16 my grandmother took me to Japan. I will never forget visiting a restaurant in Kobe where the chef cooked Kobe beef in front of us and the taste blew me away. The other mind-blowing experience was visiting The Fat Duck shortly after it opened when you could get a set 3 course lunch for £18, snail porridge and all. It was spectacular.

Is there something in particular you always keep in the fridge?
Aye Pickled Kimchi Sauce, an amazing spicy condiment. 

What would be your last supper if anything was available to you and where would you eat it?
A medium spiced chicken curry with all the extras which I would eat with my wife and four children in our kitchen at home in Kent. 

WIN A COPY OF COOK SERVE UP JOY PLUS A COOK DINE AT HOME VOUCHER WORTH £125 IN OUR COMPETITION - CLICK HERE TO ENTER