How chef Johnnie Collins makes the most of his compact kitchen in Dalston
For Johnnie, tending produce is as important as cooking. He has his mother, a landscape designer, to thank for that. As a boy, his garden was full of delicious fresh fruit and veg, which his mum would cultivate and cook for friends and family who would often visit them. Describing his upbringing as “food-centric”, Johnnie quickly became aware of the importance of mealtimes, realising that what’s on our plates can lift our spirits. It’s this that later inspired him to pursue food full-time. From working part-time in kitchens to leading Berlin-based restaurant The Store Kitchen to collaborating with high-profile fashion clients (MatchesFashion, Topshop), Johnnie has made a name for himself as a culinary tastemaker.
When he’s not running food events and consulting on menus for other restaurants, however, you can find the chef cooking up deliciously simple dishes at home. Their kitchen might be small, but that hasn’t stopped Johnnie and Bianca from making it the star of their home. With its Shaker-style cupboards, soft-grey marble splashback and punchy graphic art, the room is a joy to be in. It’s a lesson in how to maximise space too: Bianca selected clever shelving systems that offer plenty of storage, while Johnnie uses handy containers to divide ingredients when prepping. His top tip, however? “Clean down as you go,” he says. “That’s how you bring professional cooking home.”
One of the best things about the kitchen, though, is its relationship with the outdoors. Crittall-style doors open to the back garden, which, naturally, Johnnie’s mother helped him design. Here he sources much of the produce he needs: “We grow stuff we can eat every day,” he says. Fragrant herbs – oregano, chives, herbs, rosemary – and vibrant veg, including lettuces, cabbages, kale and sprouting broccoli, flourish alongside flowers that provide flashes of colour. The garden makes a glorious backdrop for alfresco dining too, which we indulged in when we visited the chef and he made us one of his go-to home meals. Discover the recipe for yourself below…
For the herb aioli
A handful of herbs, ideally from your garden (Johnnie uses chives, fennel fronds, parsley)
250ml neutral oil
4 egg yolks
1 squeeze of half a lemon
1 drop of white-wine vinegar
1tbsp of Dijon mustard
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 pinch of sea salt
For the chips
3kg good roasting potatoes
Oil and salt for cooking
For the chicken
½ chicken, deboned
Oil, butter, garlic and hard herbs, such as rosemary and thyme, for cooking
For the brine
1 litre water
30g salt
30g sugar
100ml olive or caper brine if you have any (optional)
Citrus peel (optional)
Start with the aioli (you can do this a day or two in advance to get ahead if you wish). Chop the herbs as finely as possible and blend with a drizzle of oil. Add the egg yolks, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, garlic and salt and blitz in a blender until smooth. With the motor running, drip in the rest of the oil bit by bit to emulsify and thicken.
Next, make the chips. To make the best oven chips, start a day or two in advance. Boil the roasting potatoes whole with the skin on, until they are soft all the way through but not breaking apart. Then leave them to steam and fully cool before popping them in the fridge overnight. (This a good method for the best roast potatoes too.)
The next day, cut the potatoes into chips. You want them small enough to get crispy but large enough that they retain their shape. Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius, toss the chips in a good amount of oil and a generous amount of salt and then put them on a tray into the hot oven. They should take around 30 minutes to cook. Don’t overcrowd the tray so they have space to crisp up and keep an eye on them – turn them over a few times while cooking so each side gets crispy and turn the oven down a bit if they are going too fast.
There are many ways to cook a chicken, but this is a nice method if you’re cooking for a few friends in a short time. Start by brining the chicken. Get a container with a lid and put your deboned half chicken inside. Weigh out enough cold water to cover the chicken in the container – the weight of the water will give you the amount of salt and sugar for the brine. I usually make a brine of three per cent of each salt and sugar; for one litre of water, you will need 30g of salt and 30g of sugar. Add these to the water and whisk until fully dissolved. If using, add a little glug of olive or caper brine or some leftover citrus peel. You can do this a day in advance and leave the mixture in the fridge overnight.
To ensure the chicken has crispy skin, it needs to be dry at the time of cooking. A few hours ahead of time, take it out the brine, wash and pat dry before placing back in the fridge until you’re ready to go.
To cook the chicken, start with a cold frying pan and a good glug of oil. Season the skin and put the chicken in the pan skin-side down. Place over a medium heat. You want the skin to crisp up but not burn and the chicken to cook through gently. Once the skin is crisp, turn the bird over and add a bit of butter to the pan with some crushed garlic and hard herbs. Baste the skin with the infused butter. If you have a thermometer, you’re looking for the meat to have an internal temperature of 70 degrees Celcius. If it’s looking cooked on the outside before the middle is finished, you can pop it in a low oven to finish it off. You should need around 25 minutes to cook and 20 minutes to rest. The chicken should be lovely and crispy but still tender and juicy once it’s fully rested. Baste it with the pan juices while it’s resting.
Slice the chicken and spoon over any remaining juices and serve with the aioli, chips and a nice green salad.
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