We’ve got a new chef in the Sussex Innovation café in Falmer, and we’ve been hearing a lot of complimentary buzz from our members about the new menu. Georgia spoke to Oliver Thompsett about his food influences, advice for home cooks, and what goes into the range of dishes he serves up every lunchtime.

What sparked your interest in becoming a chef?

Eating tasty food! I like to eat as much as I like to cook. I originally worked front of house in hotels around Brighton and I was always excited by what was going on in the kitchen, so I did an NVQ and now I’ve been a chef for nearly ten years.

What does good food mean to you?

It’s quite simple for me, actually – it’s all about the taste. I know it seems quite self-explanatory, but you’d be surprised working in the catering industry how much that can be forgotten. Aside from that I focus on  the way it looks and how I can bring lots of colour. I serve lots of whole foods here and try to stay away from frozen as much as I can, roast or grill vegetables to intensify the flavour, rather than boiling them.

What is your biggest culinary influence?

I really like very simple, tasty stuff, home cooking is definitely the best kind of cooking. I’m passionate about salads and sauces. Anything where flavour is the focus. Travelling and experiencing delicious Thai, Indian and Vietnamese food was also a big inspiration; learning to fine-tune recipes so that everything I cook balances the four flavour profiles – salty, sweet, sour and spicy.

Do you have a top tip for people cooking at home?

Whenever you’re using spices or seasoning, use more than you think you should use. Don’t be afraid to use salt during cooking – the home cook’s downfall is often just seasoning things at the end instead of throughout. Try to get lots of colour on the food, that’s where all the flavour is. And most of all, just keep tasting things as you cook them.

How do you incorporate sustainability into your food?

We’ve got two local suppliers who we use regularly – Blake’s the Butcher for our meat and Munnery’s for our fruit and veg. That ensures we get as much of our produce as possible from around Sussex. I’m also conscious of food waste. It’s ingrained in chefs to think clever when it comes to food, how we can use every part of something, or reuse what’s leftover.

How do you innovate and come up with new ideas when you cook?

Food is a mix of creativity and experience – I’ll see something or taste something in a restaurant or a market and that will be enough inspiration to put my own twist on it and give a new recipe a go. Necessity is the mother of invention as well – a lot depends on which ingredients we have and what looks good. I’ll think about how things might go well together, call on my experience to imagine which flavour combinations could work. More often than not, it turns out well!