He Doesn’t Do Butter Chicken

The ingredients might sound freewaydiner common but Bains elevates them to the uncommon. The pea sorbet is the texture of soft-scoop ice cream. He cooks free-range duck eggs in a rice cooker to keep the whites firm and the yolks runny.

Shelled peas are prepared in chicken stock. The eggs are placed on a bed of peas and finally crowned with wafer-thin airdried ham.

The starter was awarded a 10/10 in the 2007 BBC nationwide contest for the most creative dishes of the Great British Menu and continues to be a restaurant staple today. Considering its fame,does Bains think it’s his best? “It certainly has become really popular since it won on the television programme. But I wouldn’t say it’s my best…just one of many,” he says,“I don’t believe in signature dishes.”

Bains,who The Telegraph called “the most wildly inventive chef to emerge from Britain since Heston Blumenthal”,keeps his dishes very British with his dedicated use of local ingredients. Most recently,he launched a “Unique” menu,whereby customers select 10 ingredients two days in advance from a list of seasonal products,and a bespoke eight-course menu is prepared for them. It grew out of Bains’ elaborate 10-course tasting menu,which proved to be a big success. Feedback highlighted that guests wished to know about the “process of dish development,how it got from paper to plate and the reasons behind the process,” explains the chef. Unique is a way to allow guests to participate in the menu process from its inception. Taking into account the gastronomical labours of a 10-course meal,Sat Bains with Rooms offers the option of sleeping off the meal in one of their boutique rooms.

Even the restaurant’s location helps to keep it grey and British. Under a flyover and adjacent to an industrial estate,diners can enjoy an uninterrupted vista of grimfaced pylons. Diners looking for a Michelin-starred restaurant are often surprised by the cementscape. But Bains feels the location “definitely” works to his advantage.

“If you’ve never been here before you’ll drive down the lane and wonder where on earth you’re going. But once you’re here,the restaurant,the food,the bedrooms and even the gardens are all a great juxtaposition to the strong urban landscape that surrounds us. This,for me,has been one of the crucial keys to our identity,it keeps everything ‘real’”. The realness is maintained in the dish as well. Bains doesn’t opt for exaggerated garnishes and showy flourishes. The focus remains on the different components and colours of the dish. He says,“I’m a very visual person and that’s translated onto how I present the food on the plate. I like abstract and have always tried to keep the presentation simple.” He doesn’t allow too many chefs to touch the food trying to make it “pretty”,believing that too many hands can destroy the delicate balance of tastes. The food must reach the guest soon.

“A chef,standing and admiring his culinary visual masterpiece,that’s just pretentious bullshit,” he says. Food at Bains is not hinged on speed or scale. Instead the focus remains on herbs found in the neighbouring woodlands,a devotion to texture and taste and finally to presentation. With many of the dishes requiring overnight preparation and up to four hours of cooking time,the restaurant seems to be about satisfying the artistic rather than feeding the hungry. Bains says it’s about taking the guest on a journey,“But we must fulfil the human aspect of sating hunger. With tasting menus we can achieve

intense flavouring and textural contrast over a longer period.”

He might not believe in signature dishes but he is known for combining difficult ingredients and for his daring innovations. Monkfish cheeks with belly pork,nuts,seeds and shoots; rump and braised neck of lamb with goat’s cheese and 20 vegetables — are examples of his beyond-thepale permutations. Bains prefers underused cuts of meat,“where the animal has actually worked”,as the fibre and gelatine add flavour. While many chefs might prefer young meat for tenderness,Bains feels it lacks in flavour.

How does he come up with new creations? Is it trial and error? Does he visualise and taste it in his head before he tries them out in the kitchen? Or does he simply experiment with different tastes and textures in the kitchen? “It’s a bit of both. As well as season,we have different produce delivered daily depending on market availability.

Sometimes two or three different ingredients can arrive at the same time and that alone can inspire a whole new dish,that ends up on the menu that day and then it’s gone. Other times we work with combinations of seasonal ingredients on paper and develop cooking methods that may take a dish to another level. That can take days or even weeks. The biggest motivation is maximising flavour and balancing ingredients so one does not overwhelm another. We now have a designated development kitchen where we work on new dishes.”

He knows a dish is right when everyone on the team has tasted it and when the flavours are perfectly balanced. While admitting that Indian cuisine is Britain’s favourite,Bains has strictly stayed away from masala-fying his food. He admits that the Indian influence creeps into his kitchen only in the context of spices enhancing a dish. He cleverly combines a chocolate mousse with a cumin caramel or chorizo eggs with scallops and coriander salt. He prepares pork belly with cinnamon,clove,cardamom and coriander seeds in his raw and cooked scallops,cured pork,seeds,shoots and nuts dish. Never interested in cooking as a child,Bains remembers his Sikh mother cooking Indian and British food at home. More vividly,the “ceremony — the family dinners — the fun and laughter surrounding food,” echo into his adulthood.

He last visited India when he was 12 for six weeks. The first half of the visit proved to be a rude culture shock,but the last three were a “magical time”,he recounts.

He hopes to be back sometime soon. With fine diners descending upon the industrial town of Nottingham in search of 10-course extravaganzas,Bains is considering opening another restaurant in the neighbourhood. But this time it will be more cafe-like,though it will certainly be “very British and relaxed.”