Over his 25-year career as a food writer, he’s travelled the world (the Qantas first class lounge in Sydney being his favourite place to rest between flights) and has seen trends come and go. He’s pleased to see the back of 30-course degustation menus. “It was all very thrilling when Heston [Blumenthal] was doing The Fat Duck, Ferran Adria was doing El Bulli,” he says. “It was post-modern, it was important and made us think about food. But that time has passed. I don’t need to know what the cow has eaten for breakfast. I can’t bear the tyranny of being stuck for 30 courses.”
He’d like share plates to die a quick death (“Not everything has to be shared”) and he loathes the term “field to fork”. “I mean everything is field to fork. McDonald’s is field to fork. It’s a completely idiotic expression.”
One trend that delights him is the spotlight on regional cuisine. “There’s been a movement in Britain, which I know you have in Australia, too, towards the regional. So not just Chinese, it’s Sichuan, it’s Hunanese, it’s Cantonese; not just Indian but Keralan, Rajasthani, Goan.”
The cover of the December 2023 issue. Louie Douvis
Parker Bowles grew up surrounded by good food, though his tastes differ to those of his mother, who dislikes garlic and chilli. “When I was growing up, my parents would have people over for the weekend and there was this lovely lady, Bridget, who would come in and make amazing meringues and treacle tart for us all. And I remember being at horse trials and having sausages in a bun. It was comfort food, nothing too exotic; meat and two veg but done properly.”
Visits to Italy from the age of four with his grandparents gave him a taste for fresh simplicity, and it was the work of writers like Calvin Trillin, he says, who inspired him to put pen to paper.
“He was fairly revolutionary in the ’70s, extolling the virtues of clambakes and fish fries and barbecue, when that was seen as something that was not really the pinnacle of haute cuisine, the food you were supposed to aspire to. And that’s the food I love.”
His favourite places to eat in London are ever-changing (though he names St John’s and the River Cafe as stalwarts). Right now, he loves The Devonshire in Piccadilly. “It’s a brilliant new pub, a proper boozer,” he says. “The best Guinness in town. And upstairs is a grill room, an old-fashioned chop house. It’s solid, good food. You can settle in for Friday lunch and battle on through.”
It sounds, I say, very Australian.
“We have a lot in common,” he says. “The only problem I have with Australia is that it’s so far away. Otherwise, honestly, I’d be there all the time.”