I wake up to this month’s interviewee every Sunday morning. He is Simon Rimmer, chef, restaurateur, Sunday Brunch presenter and Cheshire business owner. We first met in the 1990s and this long overdue catch-up was at Greens, his restaurant in Sale.
Tell us about your childhood
I had a lovely childhood growing up in Merseyside in the 1970s. Most of my friends had dads who didn’t show affection or warmth but my dad was the total opposite. He would hug, kiss and cry. He was one-quarter Italian and I grew up in a house full of love. The women in my family were also very strong with my mum’s mum being an ambulance driver in the Second World War while my great-grandma was the first female dentist in the north of England. My dad’s mum, who came over from Italy, was a model, which in those days in England was frowned upon. Even though we weren’t a wealthy family, we weren’t poor and my dad would always encourage us to celebrate the small wins and see the sparkle in daily life.
Where did your love of food come from?
I was always surrounded by great food; both my parents were good cooks and I would help them in the kitchen. In those days fathers didn’t really cook but mine did, so I was very lucky. We would always eat together when Dad came home from work over in Widnes, so wouldn’t sit down until about 7.30 to 8pm, whereas most families ate at around 5 or 6 o’clock. Food was something to be savoured and shared, rather than just fuel.
Did those early years inspire your career in hospitality?
Well, I started in fashion and textile design after graduating from Leicester Polytechnic in 1985, but even as a student I worked in hospitality. When I got my degree I worked for five years as a freelance designer in textiles selling to New York, Japan and Germany. I also hand-decorated tableware, which was sold in various high-end department stores such as Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Liberty. I also lectured students studying degree or foundation courses in textile design. I’ve always been creative.
What made you change your career path?
I always had that little itch for hospitality, even from the days of glass collecting at Leicester Poly. I first met my business partner, Simon Connolly, when we worked together in a restaurant – he was at Manchester University studying French and politics and we started hanging out together. He became a restaurant manager and I was working as a designer but I was getting a bit fed up with what I was doing. One night, Simon and I got drunk and we decided we should open a restaurant. So we did.In 1990, we opened Greens in West Didsbury.
Why a vegetarian restaurant?
I would love to say we were ahead of the curve but the truth is when we bought Greens it was already a veggie café. I fell in love with hospitality, food and cooking; we would go to Smithfield Market every day for our produce and became obsessed with provenance and seasonal ingredients, which is quite normal today. In 1990, English cuisine was a poor relation to France, Spain and Italy, so I got into ingredients and sourcing as local as possible. We wanted to celebrate produce and flavours. Two years in, The Guardian featured us as one of the 10 most exciting restaurants, so we went from busy to crazy busy. People couldn’t get a table for a month.
How did you learn your craft?
I’m very pig-headed and became obsessed with cooking so for a while, I stopped drinking coffee and alcohol as I thought that they interfered with my tastebuds, which of course isn’t true. I was cooking, tasting, cooking, tasting, all the time.
Who was your greatest inspiration at this point?
In the first couple of years, I loved Delia Smith, Madhur Jaffrey and Sri Owen, who all wrote brilliant books that inspired me and helped me learn my craft. We first met back in the late 1990s working on the satellite channel Granada Breeze where we were both guest expert regulars.
Can you remember your first TV show?
A customer at Greens who was a producer at Granada phoned us and said that they were doing a show called Club Vegetarian on Granada Breeze and would I like to go on and cook some food. Michaela Strachan was presenting it, who at the time was doing The Hit Man and Her with Pete Waterman so, of course, I said yes. And they kept asking me back.
Sunday Brunch has been a huge success since it launched in 2012. What do you think is the key to its popularity?
I think the fact it’s on a Sunday helps because the laid-back feel coincides with people relaxing at home on a Sunday. Tim Lovejoy and I are really good friends who don’t take ourselves too seriously but do take our work seriously, which helps the guests on the show to relax and have a good time.It’s great when you see the guests, who may never have met each other before, getting on and even exchanging numbers at the end of the show. We are very lucky.
Has anything ever gone wrong live on air?
All the time, but that’s the joy of live telly. On one occasion we had Ashley Banjo and we had to make a chilli sauce. If you heat chilli in a very hot pan it’s like cyanide gas. I thought the pan was on a low heat but it was on very high and the whole studio was crying, coughing and couldn’t see. It was terrible
Kitchens seem to be the place where people come together and chat. Is that the case in your household?
A lot of homes now have open kitchens that spill into dining if not living areas. Jamie Oliver was brilliant at getting more men to cook because he is so relatable. The kitchen is where I spend 90 per cent of my time, even if I’m not cooking.
READ MORE: Simon Rimmer on why barbecue isn't just for the summer months
Greens in Didsbury was such a trailblazing restaurant. Earlier this year you had to close after 34 years – that must have been a tough decision
The hospitality industry is in crisis with the increased cost of ingredients, heating and electricity, but the nail in the coffin for us was the landlord wanted to increase our rent when we came to renew, and it was beyond our means to pay that. I’m not criticising him, it’s his business to do that but his bottom line was higher than ours. It was heartbreaking. We opened in 1990 and had nurtured it to a 75-cover restaurant, with a lot of memories. But in times of crisis your head has to rule your heart.
Where are your three favourite food destinations in Cheshire?
1. Sigiriya in Hale.
2. Fox and Barrel, near Tarporley.
3. Altrincham Market.
Cheshire is such a wonderful county for its variety of food and restaurants but why do you think that we haven’t had a Michelin star restaurant recently?
I’m a bit indifferent to the whole Michelin star thing but don’t get me wrong, I like going to them. There are plenty of great places to eat in the county and sometimes not having a Michelin star can make the venue more passionate about their food, especially if they think they deserve one.IfI could grant a Michelin star in Cheshire it would be to Gary Usher with his great Elite Bistros restaurants such as Sticky Walnut at Hoole.
Where do you like spending time in Cheshire?
1. Parkgate on the Wirral is beautiful and has a silted-up estuary that looks out to North Wales. It has the best ice-cream shop in the world as far as I’m concerned, called Nicholls of Parkgate. I still take my mum there and we have a wander around the park, pop into the cafés and there are also a couple of nice pubs too.
2. Tatton Park. No matter what age you are, there’s something there for you, from the stunning hall to the petting farm.
3. The Hollies Farm Shop in Tarporley. The build-up to Christmas is wonderful there.
How do you look after yourself?
I box three times a week at Bells Gym in Altrincham, where I live. It’s owned by Stevie Bell, a former Commonwealth champion. I also do strength and conditioning training. I eat well and have loads of pulses and veg but not a great deal of meat. I don’t drink a lot of alcohol these days and drink lots of water. I love my sleep and try to get nine hours. These days, my perfect night out is lunch.
What do you have planned for the rest of 2024?
I have a new podcast that launches this month called Pod In The Park, which is a celebration of all things food and drink, mainly drink. It’s set in my imagined pub called The Park and we have guests including David Tennant, Philip Glenister, Gordon Brown and Mel C.It’s recorded in front of a live audience and we are hoping eventually to take it on tour around real pubs. The guests share their vision of their perfect bar or pub and even get to choose the jukebox songs, which so far have ranged from classical music to Jump Around, by House of Pain.
There’s a secret snug where they tell us who they would like to be locked in with. They also tell us about their favourite drink and also their worst drink memory from when they were young.
What was your worst drink from your youth?
A Carly Barley – Carlsberg Special Brew with barley wine.
If you could have a dinner party with any six people, who would be on your guest list?
1. Jürgen Klopp. I was devastated when he left Liverpool.
2. Kylie Minogue. We had her on the phone for a chat on Sunday Brunch and she was delightful.
3. Michael Connelly, a crime fiction author I love.
4. James Skelly from The Coral. He used to come to a pub I had in the Wirral but unfortunately, I never spent much time chatting with him, but when I did he was great fun.
5. Johnny Vegas. He’s brilliant, one of my best friends.
6. Matt Damon, the Bourne franchise are my favourite films.
If you could give your younger self any advice, what would it be?
Believe in yourself more. There have been times throughout my life where I have thought I wasn’t good enough and shouldn’t put my head above the parapet. Certainly in the early stages of my career, I held back a little when I shouldn’t have done.
