Every chef has a handful of dishes that change them. The plates that make you stop and realise “Oh. So this is what food can be.”
They arrive at the right (or wrong) moments in your career: when you think you know something, when you realise you know nothing, when you need reminding why you fell in love with cooking in the first place.
These are the dishes that shaped mine & the chefs who created them.
Pierre Koffmann’s Pig’s Trotter
The dish that teaches you respect.
Pierre Koffmann is one of the most influential chefs ever to work in Britain. At his restaurant La Tante Claire, he combined Gascon heritage with classical French technique, creating food that was rich, honest and deeply rooted in tradition. His cooking wasn’t about perfection on the plate, it was about flavour, craft and confidence. Few dishes represent that better than his pig’s trotter.
Koffmann’s pig’s trotter is legendary for good reason. Ask most chefs who have ever fell in love with French gastronomy and this is usually in their top 3 dishes of all time. So good in fact Marco Pierre white (we will get to him soon) put a version of this dish on his menu and called it “pigs trotter Pierre Koffman” (pictured at the top) what’s the phrase? imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
The Pigs Trotter is humble, unglamorous and yet he turns it into something transcendent. A pigs trotter, the most humble of ingredients, often only used to fortify stocks and add that gelatinous quality you get in a great French jus. Meticulously de boned, braised in stock and then lovingly stuffed with a chicken mousse filled with sweetbreads, then baked until just set, carefully placed on a plate and glazed in the richest of sauces.
The forgotten ingredient centre stage, treated with the care most chefs only give to turbot or beef fillet, nowhere to hide, pure genius!
The lesson is simple and permanent: there are no inferior ingredients, only inferior cooks. A great chef can take the most humble of ingredients, apply the proper technique and make them legendary.
Marco Pierre White’s Leek & Langoustine Terrine
Precision, beauty, brutality.
Marco Pierre White arrived in British kitchens like a storm. Insanely talented, obsessive & relentless. At his restaurant Harvey’s, he redefined what fine dining looked like in the UK, blending classical French foundations with his own raw energy. His leek and langoustine terrine is a snapshot of that era: technical, beautiful and unmistakably Marco.
When I was a young cook, I watched a grainy video of Marco preparing this dish way back in the 80s, meticulously layering leeks & langoustines in a terrine mould. This dish is a study in control. Layered, delicate, absolutely unforgiving. The langoustine sweet and perfect, the leeks acting as structure and subtlety, every line clean, every flavour pure.
Marco’s terrine is a masterclass in restraint. To take something so basic as leeks, something that every cook takes for granted and pair them with one of the most luxurious ingredients. Marco has a special place in my heart, like many cooks (including the late great Anthony Bourdain) I would study Marco’s first iconic cookbook “white heat” and just stare in awe at the beauty of the dishes. The care taken in making everything just perfect. To this day “white heat” is timeless, you may criticise some of the dishes as being old fashioned but for me and many other cooks, this is the holiest of cookbooks.
This dish in particular for me in so special, a study in restraint and clarity. No heavy sauce, no muddling of flavours just the best leeks and the best langoustines, prepared thoughtfully.
It shows that refinement isn’t about decoration, it’s about discipline.
Troisgros Brothers’ Salmon with Sorrel Sauce
The birth of cuisine nouvelle.
There are dishes that roar, and dishes that whisper. The Troisgros salmon whispers but with absolute confidence.
The Troisgros brothers Jean and Pierre were pioneers of modern French cooking. They helped shape what would become nouvelle cuisine: lighter sauces, sharper acidity, an obsession with precision, and a respect for ingredients that felt revolutionary at the time. Their food was elegant without being fussy, disciplined without ego. Few dishes captured that shift more clearly than their salmon with sorrel sauce.
Thin, evenly cut salmon fillet, just barely cooked; a rich and creamy sauce made from sorrel, butter, shallots, reduction… a balance that feels effortless even though it’s anything but. The confidence in your own ability & ingredients to look at a plate which at its core is simply fish & sauce and know that it is enough.
It’s impossibly clean. Bright. Precise.
A plate with no hiding places.
The epitome of simplicity.
This dish teaches that great cooking is clarity, not tricks, not noise, just absolute respect for flavour. It shows that technique should disappear into the background, leaving nothing but purity on the plate. That ultimately, you can have all the technique in the world but the most important thing about food is that it is delicious.
It’s French cuisine at its most intelligent.
Fergus Henderson’s Roast Bone Marrow on Toast
The gospel of British cooking.
Fergus Henderson changed British food by returning to its roots. At St. John, he championed nose-to-tail cooking with a clarity and honesty that felt radically new. His food wasn’t about refinement, it was about respect, thrift and flavour. Bone marrow on toast, arguably his most famous dish, became a symbol of a whole new way of thinking.
This dish is primal.
Bone. Fat. Parsley. Toast.
No apologies, no frills, no unnecessary flourishes.
A plate of roasted bone marrow that again, like the pig trotter, like the leeks, is so often just used to make stocks, is now centre stage. A slice of hot toast, a spattering of parley, caper & shallot salad & a spoonful of coarse sea salt. It’s almost sensual in its simplicity, squeezing out every possible pleasure you could get from eating it. It’s a testament to the great man and for me, this dish is his greatest single contribution to gastronomy.
This dish shaped the way I cook in countless ways. Fergus is a genius and one of the most important British chefs if not THE most important. It teaches that honesty is a culinary value & that flavour doesn’t need dressing up.
It also cemented my personal belief in nose-to-tail eating: use the whole animal, respect the whole animal. I really feel if people took the time to explore and truly understand this idea, not only would we eat better, it would be better for the planet.
The Roux Brothers’ Lemon Tart
The benchmark.
The Roux brothers laid the foundation for modern British fine dining. At Le Gavroche and later the Waterside Inn, Michel and Albert brought true classical French cuisine to 1960s Britain. Technique-driven, disciplined and unapologetically French. Their lemon tart remains one of the clearest expressions of that philosophy.
Every chef has a dessert that haunts them.
This is mine.
The Roux brothers’ lemon tart is the standard against which all others are judged. Crisp, delicate pastry, silky lemon filling, perfect acidity. Not too sweet, not too sharp. Just right.
It teaches that pastry is unforgiving and that balance is everything.
It also reminds us that classics endure for a reason.
It is pure & simple. No fuss, no pomp or ceremony. A perfectly made lemon custard tart, presented as a generous slice, cooked to a perfect wobble and devoured in seconds.
For all the intricate dishes the roux brothers created over the years, and there are countless of these, this is the dish that, for me at least, remains Iconic.
What ties these dishes together?
They span France & Britain.
They range from rustic to refined.
But they share the same DNA:
Respect. Restraint. Honesty. The core values of what we are trying to do at Bohémien.
These plates shaped my cooking life. The way I build menus, the way I write dishes, the way I understand flavour. None of them live on our menus directly, but all of them live in the food.
If you’ve eaten at Bohémien, you’ve tasted every one of these dishes in some way or another. I am indebted to these chefs, these dishes and I can tell you categorically, I am not the only chef in Britain who is.
All we can do is say thankyou & try and carry on this legacy, one dish at a time.
Tom
Chef & Owner, Bohémien
