Chef of the Month

A previous Manchester Food & Drink Festival ‘Chef of the Year’ Award winner and with Isinglass currently having the Young Chef of the Year 2007 Food & Drink Award winner, Lisa Walker, the Executive Chef at the well renowned Isinglass, has a lot on her plate.

Lisa always had a love of food and grew up surrounded by parents and grandparents with a passion for cooking. Her mother taught her to cook from the tender age of 8 years, “probably so she could have a break!” jokes Lisa. Her dishes were classic Northern Manchester tried and tested recipes from a basic cook book which were cheap but tasty and included such delights as tripe, cow heel and liver. Each day had its own dish and Lisa’s favourite was casserole and dumplings - “the ultimate comfort food that always turned out brilliantly”.

Lisa’s journey to Executive Chef at Isinglass was varied. A fascination with puppets and longings to be a puppeteer, led Lisa to apply to do a degree in London specialising in this art but with only 5 places up for grabs and hundreds of applicants, it proved too difficult to get in so she turned her attention to crime. She trained and then worked as a Criminal Psychologist for 2 years before deciding to have a total career change from reading the criminal psyche to reading and creating her own recipes and she hasn’t looked back since. Lisa’s early cooking days and love of food inspired her to try out different dishes, mixing and matching complementary flavours in new ways with the emphasis on fresh ingredients and local produce. She worked at various city centre Manchester eateries, including Sarasota and Palmiro prior to becoming Executive Chef at Isinglass.

Isinglass now caters for a number of famous and discerning customers who enjoy the relaxed, warm atmosphere and fine dining experience.

Q What did you find the hardest skill to learn?
As an Executive Chef, finding a balance between controlling everything that goes on in the entire commercial kitchen, including budgeting and costs whilst wanting to still cook and create new and exciting menus that people will love.

Q What ingredient couldn’t you live without?
Milk as it is a basic ingredient for a number of dairy products used in cooking - cheese, butter, cream, yoghurt .... the list goes on but I can and do create recipes without milk for people who are lactose intolerant.

Q Who cooks at home?
I still enjoy going home to cook and teaching the kids to cook. Passing on to children a love and understanding of good, healthy and nourishing cooking is so important and was something that my mother and grandparents gave me.

Q Is there any food you won’t eat and why?
I won’t eat shellfish like mussels, whelks and cockles because I find the flavour too strong and salty although I will eat prawns.

Q What is the worst dish you ever cooked?
Sardine Soar - it was an Italian pickled fish dish. I was left to make 350 dishes and they all had to be gutted, boned and fried before marinating! It was a time-consuming job and I smelt of fish for weeks afterwards.

Q What piece of kitchen equipment did you really want then never use once you’d bought it?
Never had anything that I didn’t use once bought. I don’t have a microwave in the restaurant because I believe in cooking food fresh from the order and not reheating. Food can be kept warm in the oven.

Q Is there any food you won’t cook and why?
When I was a junior chef, I was asked to cook a recipe which had chicken with six citrus fruits but I wouldn’t cook it because I felt the citrus fruits would totally overwhelm the entire dish.

Q Favourite School Dinner?
Once the school dinners changed to using pre-packed ingredients like powdered milk, egg and gravy and pellets of mash, Mum refused to let us have them. We would take soup or hot dogs in a flask, together with buns and tomato ketchup. I was very popular when it came to swapping food!

Q Who would you most like to cook a meal for?
I would have liked to cook for Escoffier as the original classic French chef. Today, my choice would have to be the Roux brothers - I would like to have their critical appraisal so that I could learn what to improve.