fig and the wild

16/08/2024

Been absolutely rubbish at both taking photographs and also posting on the main grid of late (no hours left in the day currently) BUT here are some Sharing Summer Pavvy's that our guests feasted on at our Supperclub last night with and . The event was part of a SL72 shoe launch alongside a flower workshop with Anna and Kate from and natural wines from .liverpool and the pavvy pic is one of about 4 I took all evening...
Massive shout out to my favourite guest last night - the most excellent and resourceful human who took their spanking new and gifted trainers out the box to fill it with leftovers pavlova so they could eat more of it today. I have the utmost respect and admiration for this level of dedication to pavlova and food in general ❤️

17/07/2024

Beachside Supperclub -
One week today we will be back at this magical spot cooking up a beachside feast at and we can't wait. A few seats remain at the table to if you want to join us and be part of this very special evening grab the last tickets now, available via link in our bio.
See you there !

12/07/2024

Supperclub speech in action -
I have been hosting supperclubs for many years - the first being over 12 years ago in Onion, a neighbourhood deli-cafe that I set up back in 2010. Since then we've hosted suppers all over the UK - in railway arches, warehouses, fields, Scottish teepees and kitchen gardens.
Gathering people around tables of food has always been one of my favourite things to do and so it has always felt natural to try and do that in whatever way I can . Although I am a pretty social person I am also naturally quite shy. I spent my teenage years being called Ali baba tomato at school because of my tomato red face from how hard I used to blush if anyone spoke to me. I can also be very awkward at times which means I often say the wrong or inappropriate thing and that, along with major imposter syndrome can make the whole greeting and standing in front of all our guests at our supperclubs quite a scary thing to do which sounds bonkers but is weirdly true.
Instagram is filled with stylish and classy supperclub hosts who seem to breeze in wearing beautiful dresses and chat along with their guests with ease looking like they haven't broken a sweat. That is definitely not me.

The gang over the years have urged me to get out there at at suppers to say hi and to introduce the night which I tend to do now even if it is with my 🍅 red face. caught me doing just that at our last feast and so here it is - up on the grid, as a reminder that it is actually a lovely moment and isn't that scary and also as a reminder that black and white photography is every red faced human's secret weapon.
Next supperclub is down in Wales, beachside at on July 24th and then again on 28th August. Tickets are available via the link in our bio.

11/07/2024

HBD to our Anna!
Another year around the sun for Anna! Belated due to our world being mostly upside down last week but three cheers for this wonderful woman and all she does.
She's a momma to two beautiful wild and brilliant boys as well as being an invaluable long term co-pilot at the stoves here at Fig. She is calm and gentle, never loses her rag or raises her voice unnecessarily and brings a collected air to the sometime chaos of our kitchen. She is one of the best chefs I know and that's a fact. She is stylish and beautiful and is classier than the rest of us of us put together. We have navigated our way (sometimes going the long but extra fun way) through adulthood always side by side in one way or another, in life and in work and I am ever glad to still be side by side. They say never work with friends but 25 years later here we are, not still only co-workers but also still best friends. I love and admire her enormously.
All hail the magical being that is Ms Anna Brown.

08/06/2024

YOU CAN CALL US AL. Food and menu photos incoming but here we are with our shiny red faces on the pass last night serving up a 4 course Spring/ Summer feast at our Supperlcub at . Mega big thanks to all our lovely guests who joined us, we had an absolute delight of a night and hope you did too.

12/05/2024

CHEERS to making it through the week...
Fitted about 17 days of work in to the last 6 bonkers days alone - 4 massive corporate gigs, a lovely wedding and 3 days feeding the .store and tribe breakfast, lunch and dinner at First Camp where we worked (and played, obvs) hard too.
Ever thankful to everyone who keeps us cooking and continues to ask us to feed them. It's genuinely a privilege. A minuscule amount of sleep has been had but absolutely wouldn't want to be doing anything else. Thanks to the gang who kept the stove lit back in Liverpool while we were in Wales and to all the girls who have been putting the hours in the last few crazy weeks, not just this mad last one. Big shout to for being my partner in crime this weekend, for supplying me with new socks when mine were too stinky and for so many laughs. Mega thanks also to our dear Ali at for hosting us so wonderfully well, letting us sleep in her poolhouse and keeping our glasses and hearts full of all the good stuff. Great people are everything. Find them and keep them because lovely people make the hardest days much less so.
Why do my exhausted and emotional instagram posts always sound like an Oscars acceptance speech though?
Right, enough exhausted ramblings, I'm off to lie on the couch and remind my children that they do still have a mum. 😘

29/04/2024

*KLAXON SOUNDS *
What's that klaxon sounding for though ? Is it sounding to announce our WIN 2x SUPPERCLUB TICKETS COMPETITION? Oh yess it is.
Just over a month until our late Spring supperclub at and as with each supper we host we are giving away 2 seats at the table. They can be for you and your ultimate favourite or you can nominate a couple of glorious and great humans to potentially gift these seats to.
Tickets include welcome snacks and a 4 course seasonal Spring feast in our fave studio location on Friday June 7th.
We LOVE hosting these nights so very much and this will be our last Liverpool based supperclub until Winter so we will be bringing ALL that is spring and early summer to that table..
To enter - like the post then comment /tag who you'd bring or the people you are nominating below. Extra points for sharing to your story too. Go spread some supperclub love go go go ...

28/04/2024

May as well get some sunshine from this Panzanella salad today because the weather still isn't being a very good boy is it.
We used focaccia with juicy salted Isle of Wight tomatoes, slinky slivers of red onion, some roast red peps, crunchy cucumber, basil, flat leaf and a punchy , simple vinaigrette made with good olive oil, garlic and red wine vinegar. You can add pretty much anything to it really - we finished this one off with some quick fried crispy zingy capers.

26/04/2024

I have baked not one, not two, not three but FOUR pavlovas in recent days and this is/was The One. I am not a natural baker... the patience and precision required is not how I instinctively cook- I am driven by tasting as I go and being very INVOLVED, stirring, checking, adding and adjusting flavour as I go. Impatiently watching something bake through an oven door without knowing for certain and having to WAIT to find out about flavour or texture semi terrifies me. But scary is good and I was determined to get this right. The beauty of the pavlova is that its strengths lie in being haphazard, semi messy and bold and so it is definitely baking I can get on board with. This tasted MAGiC so all the test pavlovas were definitely worth it to get here ..
An extra egg white for luck (5 not 4) , a VERY patient and slow addition of caster sugar teaspoon by teaspoon, a dash of rosewater mixed with corn flour and white wine vinegar whisked in before baking. A high build structure with a dip in the middle ready to be filled with soft cream and fruit.
It turns out the magic baking temp in our rationale oven is not 120, not 160 but 140 and it's a 50 minute bake not the standard hour. Cooled down in the oven s-l-o-w-l-y with the door open and then filled generously with cardamom scented peaks of whipped cream, some rose water doused soft fruit and fresh mint.
I am very much looking forward to baking MANY more of these in June for one of our most involved, creative and foodie passionate wedding couples to date. We are so excited !

25/04/2024

Butter love ...
I was initially brought up like a lot of 1980's/90's kids on Margarine. Our aerobic crazy, ryvita and cottage cheese munching working mums were mad for convenience food and were ironically also at the beginnings of health consciousness. Margarine was magic - less saturated fats and spreadable straight from the fridge - it ticked all the boxes.
Back then it often came in vast plastic tubs that when empty and washed out were big enough to put your ham sandwiches in when you'd left your Care Bears lunchbox in school by accident (which I did, and often).
Fast forward to the summer of 1995 and entered our lives. I was 15, the 80's were a distant memory, my mum had thrown out her leg warmers, the Ryvita was going stale in the cupboard, my Care Bears lunchbox was replaced with an Army and Navy cloth satchel and instead of margarine in the fridge there was always a pack of Welsh butter on the worktop.
That summer my sister and her friend came back from university to Llanberis where we lived and 15 year old me had the teenage kudos of sometimes being allowed to hang out with them. There were a lot of firsts that summer but one that stands out the most was the ham, cheese and mushroom toastie that in my memory we ate Every Single Day. It was by no means a culinary masterpiece and yet somehow was at the same time. Sliced white bread, packet ham, some cheddar and sliced mushrooms under the grill. The magic of this toastie was that when it came out from under our gas grill we liberally (and I mean really liberally) slathered both of the outside sides of the toastie in .
AN ACTUAL SENSATION.
Creamy, salty, buttery goodness. My hands sometimes smelled like butter for the rest of the day but it really didn't matter. Genuinely I think this is one of my first intense flavour memories and like with anything, the best flavour memories are of good times and that delicious salty toastie will always always be associated with that teenage summer of 1995.
Nearly 30 years later I still make that 1995 toastie and it is still as good. Get some in your lives, it's the finest butter in the land.

20/04/2024

Splendid wedding sharing feast scenes from Louise and Barny's beautiful day captured magically by

19/04/2024

I know it's Spring and we should probably all be be aboard the early British asparagus train shouting about fresh flavours but it was cold and I was tired and it was grim last night and so me and big daughter made a huge Shepherds pie with leftover braised lamb shoulder with leek and vintage cheddar mash and then ate two portions back to back in front of the fire.

18/04/2024

An 'in conversation' dinner..
Totally love when progressive companies think outside the box. Last night we hosted an 'in conversation' dinner for , a commendable company who invest in socially trading organisations to create a kinder and fairer economy in the Liverpool city region. The beauty and power of connecting over a table of food is real, and I am always so pleased when that is recognised and then filters somehow in to the corporate world. Stuffy boardrooms be gone - the future is with relaxed humans connecting and sharing ideas around beautiful tables of gorgeous food.
They gave us full creative control on this from the styling to the menu and drinks and we transformed a corner of an office block in Birkenhead to handsome dining room.
Guests started off with a rhubarb, gin and elderflower cocktail and canapés then headed to our spring table that we adorned with the finest bloomage.
Menus was as follows :
Sweet potato, spinach and cumin fritters w / butterbean hummus + kale and coriander pesto
8 hour Shoulder of lamb w / fenugreek and mint
Roast golden squash w / harissa, za'atar and tahini
Roast red onions, rocket, feta and walnut salsa.
Heritage tomatoes w / shallots, sumac and basil
Baked rice w/ pomegranate, olives and mint
Dessert - Sumac roast strawberries w / sweet and salty cheese + sesame and almond crumb.
Thanks to for asking us to put all this together - we loved being part of your night.

16/04/2024

Can we be back at now please ?
Huge congrats to Izzie and Ed who were wed at this magical 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 spot at the weekend. It was a pleasure to feed you and your guests.
We had ALL the Eryri weather from rain and wind to this eventual beauty.
We have a couple more weddings at this extra special location this year - it's one of our favourite places in the UK and we can highly recommend it for those looking for a wild and nature filled day.

04/04/2024

Plates of ripe and juicy heritage tomatoes with shallots, good salt, toasted pine nuts, basil and a sprinkling of sumac.
Tickets for our late Spring / Early Summer Supperclub at the beautiful on June 7th are still available and we can't wait to bring some big, fresh flavours to the table. Grab your seats via our website - link is in the bio.

02/04/2024

We're not saying that EVERYONE went wild this bank holiday weekend and is therefore in need of fresh and healthy goodness but we fixed up these Tumeric, ginger and garlic chicken , sesame slaw and noodle bowls for our corporate clients this Tuesday lunchtime just in case ...

01/04/2024

EAT YOUR TEA OUTSIDE
When cooking is a passion but also your career it can be difficult to distinguish a clear difference between the work cooking and the leisure cooking. I have met a lot of cheffies and cooks who genuinely no longer enjoy cooking outside of work as it feels still so WORK RELATED.
Whilst understandable, the thought of this happening to me makes my heart heavy. I never want to fall out of love with cooking and eating, not ever ever.
For me, the easiest and best way to distinguish the difference between the two is a change in environment . To quote my fave kitchen table philosopher and deep thinker dad Ken Lockett - ENVIRONMENT IS EVERYTHING.
An escape out of the city and the big kitchen where most of my work is based to a field or campsite or anywhere outdoors where I can get a walk or two in, sit outside, cook outside, eat outside and things can take as long or as little as I please makes me remember that cooking is relaxing and I do it simply because I love to do to it. It's also a good boot in the bum of a reminder that I am absolutely privileged to have a job where I get to do something I enjoy so much.
So, just back from 3 days in Wales that I spent mainly in a field cooking and eating -
1- Adie babe flying the Eat your tea outside tea towel
2- Toulouse sausage and mixed beans brekkie one pot
3- King prawn, garlic, chilli, lemon and rocket linguine
4-Leonard on watch while I have a cup of tea
5- A bit of a walk around some hills
6- Tuna, olive, caper and anchovy pizza cooked in the pizza oven at
7- Beginnings of a salsa verde
8- Tenderstem broccoli (yes I am obsessed ok) on the bbq
9- Easter roast dinner all cooked outside, overnight marinated leg of lamb then slow cooked in a tray inside a bbq with some spuds, broccoli, feta salad, salsa verde and hummus
10- Outdoors Sunday dinner plate and very nice it was too.
Eat your tea outside (and cook it outside too, why not).
Back to the big kitchen and laptop tomorrow so all your messages and emails will be replied to then.

31/03/2024

It's our birthday today so please wish this absolutely wonderful woman a happy birthday!
I was planning on doing some meet the team posts soon so here's our Al.
Al is a caring, no nonsense, no drama, unflappable beauty of a human being. She radiates a calm, kind of got her s**t together confidence which works in perfect harmony with my erratic and all over the place ways. She is kind and gentle, calming and a natural carer. She is also quietly strong, takes no s**t and is as independent as anyone I know. She juggles her rock and roll husband being away on tour a lot, looking after their son and and overseeing all things Fig and the Wild with an ease that's admirable. She's very fu***ng cool (see pics) but also a massive geek, and probably the only person I know whose phone counts her steps to see how long it will take to walk the distance to Mordor (soz al, your secret is out). She's a meme queen, a sharp and witty comic herself and I just absolutely love having her alongside me both as an ops manager of this biz and also as a longtime friend.
Fig wise she's the one who basically keeps me in check, my right hand organisational partner. She knows the details of all our events and is always a point of contact to our clients who all just absolutely adore her. She's getting to be dab hand in the kitchen too. She's integral to what has become and loved it and built it up alongside me in so many ways. I can't imagine it without her.
We love you ! Happy birthday you absolute queen ❤️

30/03/2024

Eat your breakfast outside. Cooking in the wild this weekend...
free range Toulouse sausages browned off in a pan with one rasher of smoked bacon, a red onion and two tins of mixed beans.
Topped with fried eggs and a wild garlic salt (that I bring absolutely everywhere at the moment).

20/03/2024

Sweet and salty whipped cheese with a star anise, orange and black cherry compote, blackberries and hazelnut and sesame crumb.

15/03/2024

Friday night tea ~
Spaghetti with zero effort, no cook rose harissa and sunblushed tomato sauce, burrata and basil finished off with a garlic, lemon and basil pangrattato.
I've been a mega busy one in the work kitchen all day today prepping for tomorrow's supperclub so wanted a mega quick, no fuss and comforting tea when I got home this evening.
30 mins later I was tucking in to this little beauty. The sauce is basically a jar of rose harissa blitzed up with a jar of Sunblushed tomatoes. You can do this with a hand blender or food processor in a couple of minutes. See I said it was zero fuss.
The pangrattato (which is basically floured toasted breadcrumbs) can be made whilst the spaghetti is boiling - a couple of handfuls of panko breadcrumbs in a frying pan pan with some good olive oil, a couple of crushed cloves of garlic , lemon zest, sea salt and pepper and basil.
When the pasta is cooked it's just a matter of mixing it up with the blitzed up Sunblushed tomato and harissa, some pasta water to loosen it up, some basil leaves and a torn up ball of Burrata.
If you make this and think that you can't be fussed with making the pangrattato THINK AGAIN ! I promise It'll take you literally 5 minutes and I guarantee the zesty, garlicky crunch elevates this dish to next level. For realzz.
Speaking of realzz/reels I probably should've made one whilst making this but a) my home kitchen is too messy and b) I am rubbish at reels.
Onwards.

01/03/2024

Dydd gwyl dewi hapus! Happy St David's Day 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿~
Dreaming of being back in the homeland cooking Welshcakes in the fresh air this morning.
I'm North Wales born and raised, and spent my childhood and teenage years growing up in the beautiful Llanberis right at the foot of Eryri / Snowdon. It was pretty much a dreamy 80's and 90's childhood, we played in the fields and up in the hills and the quarries and in the mud and spent most of our time in the fresh air. When teenage years hit we drank our illegal booze and drunkenly ate our chicken burgers by the lakeside, and the only 'dates' we ever went on were walks to the quarry, the other side of the lake or up to the tiny castle.
There's a Welsh word "Hiraeth' which doesn't have a direct translation in to English but basically means an intense longing and nostalgia, for a time and landscape, a Welsh homesickness of sorts.... and today the hiraeth is real...

26/02/2024

M o n d a y ~
If you have any leftover roast chicken from yesterday's Sunday roast and want a quick, hearty and mega comforting bowl of food for tea tonight then this one is for you. My measure of comfort food is that it can be spooned in to your mouth with one hand straight from a bowl that's precariously balanced on your knee, and the leftovers can be mopped up with a big chunk of overly buttered bread and this dish ticks all the boxes. I roasted some tenderstem broccoli to go with this as it was in the fridge and needed using up, and although broccoli cooked properly can't be eaten with a spoon it can definitely be picked up and eaten with messy fingers. It's Monday, it's a tricky enough day already to be fannying around with cutlery, yes?
Creamy Butterbeans with roast chicken and bacon. Rough recipe as follows - it was kind of made up on the spot but I will definitely make again and so should you.
Fry off 200g bacon lardons in a pan until the fat is starting to render out, then add 2 finely diced banana shallots and 4 sliced big loves of garlic and cook until soft.
At this stage the pan should be getting a bit sticky with all the golden bacon fat so throw in a big glass of sherry to deglaze the pan. Let that bubble away for a minute then add two tins of butterbeans, one with its juice and the other drained. Add a chicken stock cube or stock pot and whatever roast chicken you have left over - let it all simmer away until the liquid is reduced and slightly thickened. Add a splash of cream or creme fraiche, a handful of chopped flat leaf parsley, and a squeeze of lemon then serve immediately (in to a bowl that can be precariously balanced on your knee with a chunk of bread ready to mop up the last juices, OBVS).

22/02/2024

Life drawing + supperclub ~
Food and art, what a combination. We are so happy to be collaborating with next month - March 16th to offer our very first Life Drawing Supperclub at Liverpool's newest and also very handsome studio space .
We kick off with some lovingly crafted snacks / canapés followed by an hour and.a half guided life drawing session followed by a two course in season supper. Could also double up as a brilliant Mother's Day present for all the food loving and arty mommas out there...
Last few tickets now available from us via our website or website.

18/02/2024

08/02/2024

Mac + Cheese with chorizo, chickpeas and kale ~
It's in youngest small human's top 3 dishes and I do like it for its simple comfort food vibe but it can get so SAMEY texture and taste wise and I get bored quite easily, so I need a little bit more to make mac and cheese a meal rather than a side.
Glorified bits as follows - fry off 3 skinned and chopped soft chorizo sausages until all the oil is released and they're starting to crisp up then throw in a tin of chickpeas along with half their juice and then let simmer away until the chickpeas have soaked up all the chorizo cooking juices.
Add this to your basic cheese sauce made with a roux, plenty of English mustard, milk and as much cheese as you desire - this was a heady mix of vintage cheddar and Parmesan.
Cook a pack of macaroni in salted water, drain then add to the cheesy, chickpea, chorizo mix.
Quickly roast half a bag of kale until slightly crispy and then throw that in the mix too.
Cover with cheese and oven bake until golden baby.

19/01/2024

W e d d i n g s ~
Not just flurries of snow this week here but also a flurry of exciting new wedding enquiries for lovely celebrations all across the UK. We are ploughing through them all, so if you've made an enquiry please rest easy, we will get back to you in the coming days.
We absolutely love working with you all to help create a bespoke day that fully reflects you and your guests. We are seeing a move towards lots more informal, sharing, family style feasts this year which is how we love to cook, serve and eat. We say to all our couples - relaxed guests are happy guests and happy guests always make the best parties.

14/01/2024

Q u i c k d o n b u r i b o w l ~
Oh yeahhhh, a 35 minute dinner of Duck donburi from start to finish.
A crispy aromatic duck from the supermarket straight in to the oven for 35 mins on top of 2 peeled and 2cm ish cubed sweet potatoes so they roast in the duck fat that's melting as the duck cooks.
While that's cooking it's just all just about the accompaniments - I made a quick teriyaki sauce with garlic, ginger, honey and soy sauce, quick pickled some carrot shavings, finely chopped a bunch of spring onions, shaved half a cucumber with a veg peeler, chopped some coriander and got a pan of rice on to simmer.
Once the rice and duck is cooked it's just a matter of assembling it all in a bowl, topping it with a fried egg, black sesame seeds and kimchi.
Gawd I love bowl food.

12/01/2024

Life drawing Supperclub ~
What a collaboration we have for you. We've teamed up with and and come up with an evening packed with all the good stuff for you all on Saturday March 16th.
For experienced and novice food loving artists alike, this relaxed and arty social is a chance to use your chosen medium to capture the ultimate subject: an actual human. Wine in one hand, charcoal in the other, slip away in to this mindful and utterly creative experience.
We start off with some snacks to get your creative juices flowing, followed by the life drawing session led by Lisa from , finishing off with a relaxed two course supper from .
We have chosen as the space to host this evening, Liverpool's newest and most beautiful studio from the team that brought
you .
Tickets are now available through the website - there's a link in the bio. All tickets include welcome snacks, art materials, drawing boards, pencils, charcoal, paper and more, a professional n**e model, guidance from Lisa and a two course seasonal supper from Alison and the gang here
We are expecting this to sell very quickly and we have quite limited capacity - also, it would also make a great alternative and interesting Valentines or Mothers Day gift don't you think?
Can't wait to see you there x
Artwork

08/01/2024

J a n u a r y ~
It can be a pretty gloomy old month can't it? When got in touch with us last year about getting involved with an event she was planning at to banish some January blues we couldn't help but say yes.
Bloom out of the Gloom is designed to enrich attendees with some tools to get 2024 to a blooming good start. A day of full wellbeing activities -yoga, breathwork, meditation and mindfulness, music from Nicola at a women's circle, somatic exercise, sound healing, macrame earring creating, askashic record reading and more, plus a lovingly made and nourishing seasonal soup as well as some ridiculously good focaccia sandwiches by yours truly..
Tickets are £45 and best of all, ALL the proceeds will be going directly to charity to enable them to continue their vital and incredible work supporting Merseyside women with their mental health and wellbeing.
Grab your tickets from or follow the link on her page to the eventbrite page. This promises to be a hugely joyful event and is an absolute steal at that price.
See you there , , , , .johnston111 , , , ☀️