Life

Comfort what food is all about for Bake-Off winner John Whaite

Bake-Off winner John Whaite tells Ella Walker that he's found his groove – in the kitchen and in his new book

John Whaite's clementine upside down cake from Comfort
John Whaite's clementine upside down cake from Comfort John Whaite's clementine upside down cake from Comfort

JOHN Whaite doesn't go in for impartiality. Get him started on the likes of 'superfoods' ("It's a marketing ploy"), the demonisation of sugar ("A bit of sugar never killed my 93-year-old grandma, who'd have a slice of cake a day and three whiskies a night"), or celebrity cookbooks ("So many are absolute crap...") and you'll find him both frank and witty.

He saves the bulk of his ire, however, for "the clean-eating brigade, the Lycra-clad clan of self-flagellation", who he says have "taken over" the food world in recent years.

In his fourth cookbook, Comfort, the English food writer, cookery-school owner, TV chef and winner of the third series of Bake-Off, now aged 28, is hoping to provide an alternative to the deprivation of clean eating, which he sees as "a very insidious and stealthy way of making people feel guilty about food".

"I want to get people back on to food that's hearty and wholesome. You don't have to spiralize vegetables – it's nonsense," he says, incensed. "I'd rather die clutching a bag of Haribo and a family-sized Galaxy than a stick of carrot and hummus!"

The key, he says – to eating, cooking and to life – is to find a way to "be happy with who you are, and be comfortable in your own skin.

"You've got to look after your body; I do yoga, I go to the gym, but that's not say I deprive myself of the things I need to eat if I'm feeling sad or ill or just in need of comfort," he explains. "Be careful of junk, but don't feel guilty about good, home-cooked food."

Since winning GBBO in 2012, John has been candid about how he was shoehorned into the Bake Off champion mould. "I don't berate them," he says of his two 'Bake Off' books, "but they weren't me. The recipes were, but the style of them, the feel of them, had no reflection of who I am.

"You win the Bake Off and you get offered a ridiculous six-figure sum to write two books," he explains. "I was just out of university, I wanted to break away from the career I was in, and my family and friends said, 'You have to take the books'."

Despite five years of moving away from Bake Off, career-wise, John is, of course, watching the new series. "I love it – I think Prue Leith is amazing, she's so good, she's so constructive, she knows more about food than anyone I know."

And the ad breaks, he says, are just "a chance to get a cup of tea and a slice of Battenberg." Homemade Battenberg? "Oh God no!"

:: Comfort by John Whaite, photography by Nassima Rothacker, is published by Kyle Books. Below are two recipes from the book for you to try.

FISH PIE POTATO SKINS

(Serves 6)

6 medium baking potatoes

For the filling:

40g unsalted butter

1 leek, very finely sliced

2 anchovies, finely chopped

100g skinless salmon, cut into 1cm cubes

100g skinless pollack, cut into 1cm cubes

100g skinless smoked haddock, cut into 1cm cubes

200g creme fraiche

1tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1tbsp finely chopped fresh chives

1tbsp wholegrain mustard

1tsp fine sea salt

1tsp black pepper

For the topping:

1tsp fine sea salt

50g Gruyere, finely grated

1tbsp creme fraiche

Preheat the oven to 210°C/190°C fan/gas mark 7. Put the potatoes on a baking tray and bake for one to one-and-a-half hours, until the skins are crispy and the insides soft. Remove from the oven and allow to cool until you can handle them. Reduce the temperature to 200°C/180°C fan/gas mark 6. Heat the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Once the butter melts, add the leek and fry until very soft – about 20 minutes – stirring occasionally. Put the leek into a bowl with the remaining filling ingredients and stir to mix well.

Halve the potatoes and scoop most of the flesh into a bowl – leave about 5mm of flesh against the skin. Fill each potato skin with the fish filling and place on a baking tray – or use a 12-hole bun tin so the filled potato halves don't fall over. Add the topping ingredients to the bowl of potato and mix until fairly smooth, then blob it on top of the fish filling in each potato skin. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the potato is slightly coloured.

CLEMENTINE AND CARDAMOM UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

(Serves 10-12)

For the topping:

125g caster sugar

8 clementines

For the cake:

285g unsalted butter

285g light brown muscovado sugar

5 large eggs, beaten

285g self-raising flour

1 1/2tsp ground cardamom

1tsp fine sea salt

For the glaze: (optional)

4tbsp apricot jam

1tbsp water

Preheat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan/gas mark 3. Grease a 23cm round loose-bottomed cake tin and line with baking paper. For the topping, heat a medium saucepan over a medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the sugar and allow it to melt and slowly turn to an amber caramel – the sugar touching the base of the pan will turn first, and slowly but the sugar on top will soon become liquid too. Give the pan a little swirl as the sugar starts to melt. Once you have a dark caramel, pour it into the base of the prepared cake tin.

Keeping them whole, peel the clementines, then cut them in half horizontally to retain that little hole in the top and bottom. Arrange the clementine halves, hump-side down, on the caramel. For the cake, cream together the butter and sugar until really soft - the butter should become very pale and the sugar will more or less dissolve into it. Add the eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition, then add the flour, cardamom and salt and beat in just until incorporated to a smooth batter.

Pour the batter over the clementines and gently level it out, being careful not to displace the fruits. Bake for one hour or, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for five minutes, then invert on to a plate.

For the glaze, combine the jam and water in a small pan and bring to the boil. Paint on to the cake with a pastry brush. The cake will keep for a few days in an airtight tin; it'll actually be that bit better on day two.