Chef Stories: James Strawbridge

James Strawbridge is a chef and food photographer based in Cornwall. He produces cookbooks for a living, develops recipes and can be found foraging for wild food with his family.  

We collaborated with James back in the summer and he created a delicious Shakshuka recipe which was hugely popular with our pioneers. After seeing the response from everyone, we wanted to learn more about the way he lives and how he develops his own style, so we met up again to break some bread.

To me, a pioneer is someone who's got an adventurous spirit and loves exploring where they live. 

I absolutely adore cooking in Cornwall and finding great ingredients from around the coast and inside the county. It's not just about finding and discovering new things; it's about celebrating what's on your doorstep. I absolutely love the idea of a pioneer nowadays, being someone who's unafraid of trying things for themselves. 

It's a pretty difficult question to say what three words best describe me, but I would probably go for, passionate, excitable and enthusiastic. I also would probably say, I like being challenged and am a sucker for hard graft. That makes me my own worst enemy sometimes. I think for me there's the combination of being passionate about what I do, being enthusiastic and loving hard work. I do get a buzz out of doing lots of different things. 

My creative process begins very often with pen and paper. Sketching out an idea, thinking of keywords and ingredients. I tend to draw a plate or an idea to create a dish. I then start thinking very much about colours. It's a bit like choosing what clothes to wear. I love a pallet that matches an ingredient, so I'll be looking at the plates. My wife is a ceramicist, so she makes quite a lot of the plates I use. I’ll then write up the recipe and sometimes do videos – it's an organic but well-trodden process now because I can produce a lot of recipes each week. I think I'm very lucky. I'm like one of those chefs who constantly has an evolving specials board. There's always a different menu for the day. 

For inspiration, I paint and I get outside. I love taking an oil canvas or some pen and ink, going to a bit of coastal path and painting the view. Music is also massive for me. I am a passionate banjo player. I've been learning and having lessons and it's my favourite thing to do in my spare time. Very often, stepping away from the kitchen and away from food just fuels my interest in it again, with fresh perspectives. Another thing I love to do is grow and produce and forage for food. I think that then gives me a different angle when I get back into the kitchen and decide what to cook.  

I think that I've gone through many changes in my life growing up, I love my family. There are people out there who have taught me a lot, but I'm very much proud of having taught myself many of the skills through research, through trial and error. I've struggled with a society where our teachers and our leaders aren't the characters I would like to follow. There aren't actually many people who inspire me, which is a really odd answer.  

I love hearing stories from experts, speaking to cheese makers and getting tips about their processes and visiting the butchers. The humble ‘grassroots’ people who do what they do day in, day out. Those are the people that I maybe draw inspiration from. I wouldn't say that I buy into that whole having a favourite chef thing. I think the danger with that is it becomes a bit of that copycat culture around food, and I like trying to be as honest and personal as possible with what I create. So almost deliberately, not being inspired by people is the way I like to go. 

I've been on a long journey with mental health. I used to suffer from depression and damaged myself through too much alcohol and drugs. It’s a harsh perspective but I think it's very easy to feel sorry for yourself when you are feeling sad and I've been there. But when you move on, you realise you get out of life what you put into it.  

If I'm feeling depressed or worried about the state of my mental health then I go out for a long walk or I go and get in a gig boat and row really hard at sea until I feel like I'm fu***ng Viking. I push myself.  

I think it’s also important to not deprive yourself of the good things in life. It's about developing balance. I love a good glass of wine, a nice cider or a beer at the end of a hard week. I try not to punish myself for anything and instead reward myself for hard work and all of the times that I've struggled by acknowledging that at the end of a working day.  

I think mental health is a massive issue. My dad has always been quite a good role model with this sort of thing. He always says, “just fu****g do it. Just get on, find a way out of it.” For me, that is hard work and play and just, enjoying life. 

My wardrobe essential has to be a hat. I wear quite a few different hats for my jobs. Sometimes I'm a food photographer and sometimes I'm a writer. Other times I’m presenting or ‘cheffing’. So, what hat attire I choose to put on massively makes a difference to my mood and my mojo. If I'm playing the banjo, I'll wear a wide-brimmed hat. If I'm cooking in a kitchen, it'll be a baseball cap back backwards.  I love choosing hats to give me that extra little push. 

My favourite is a bit like what hat I choose to put on. It depends on what I'm cooking and the mood I'm in. I'd say at the moment I’m enjoying some Bootleg Rascals. 

I don't really listen to podcasts but if I was suggesting one, I would say "Breakfast and Beyond” by Tia Tamblin. She does a really cool podcast. I appeared on it and had a chat with her about sustainability and life in general. I also produced a podcast called “Greengrass and Hide Tides” which was named after an Outlaws track but I haven't actually listened to anybody else's podcast, so I'm a bit behind the curve with that one. 

Shop James' Looks