The chef and telly presenter recalls the dishes that have made her who she is.
From professional body piercer to cookbook author, restaurateur and TV gal, Gizzi Erskine's career has been rather impressive.
Her latest recipe collection, Slow, is packed with stews and hearty meals worth putting time into, and will fully see you through the colder months.
We caught up with her to grill her on the important things...
Her earliest cooking memory is...
"My earliest is being in Scotland and lying on a tartan rug with my mum gardening and smelling soil. Raw potatoes - just that really earthy vegetable smell. Most people talk about the sweet peas or the smell of cooking toast or crumpets, and mine's the smell of really fresh, fresh, fresh vegetables. I could have only been about 18-months-old."
Her biggest culinary disaster is...
"I had some guests over and I was recipe testing for one of my books. I was cooking slow shoulder of goat, which is actually in Slow. I asked a very good friend of mine who I trust loads, and I asked him, 'How long do I put it in for?' and he said, 'Temp 120 for six hours'. Now, a shoulder of goat has a lot less fat in it than lamb and it's also twice the size, but I trusted him, because he's a genius.
"So, put I it on, had guests coming round and it wasn't actually ready until four in the morning! And we all just stayed up - it was a really fun evening and the food was actually pretty great."
She switched a career as a body piercer to become a chef...
"I love piercing, I really wanted to be a piercer and I was really successful at it. It's the person I am and the people who I hang around with, you know? We're all into rock and I studied really hard for it - I studied for three years.
"I studied the anatomy of the body and took every class that I could, anything that I could do to improve myself within that industry. That's really how I look at everything in my life, but I really enjoyed it and I'm still friends with all the people who I was working with in the shop - they're my mates, my real mates.
"But food is in my blood. I did piercing for eight years almost, and it was time for a change. Food was the thing that I guess, deep down, I was always meant to do."
Her culinary career highlights include...
"I can't pick one, I'm too lucky!
"My top three: The response to Mare Street Market [Erskine's London restaurant, deli and food emporium]; the day we opened Pure Filth (her pop-up restaurant offering 'healthy food for hedonists') at the Tate to queues, like enormous queues around the block. And also when I got the job as the youngest Sunday Times cook and I managed to hold on to that title for three years - I'm very proud of myself for those three things.
"But also there's little things. Every single day, there's something that happens in my life that makes me go, 'God, my life is so mental, what the hell have I done to even deserve this?' Sometimes not in a good way, but mostly in a great way."
Slow by Gizzi Erskine is published by HQ, priced £25. Photography Issy Croker. Available now.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here