'When St John first opened they were good at making sure they got people to come who were like-minded. The owner, Fergus Henderson, had been an architect. And it is quite uncompromising. I love the menu, because it always tells you exactly what you are getting. It's sort of, why not say it's bone marrow or whatever? It's a very rural idea.
The closest I came to working with food was a series of pieces I made with eggs: a joke on art history, because egg tempura was the medium of art. And I liked the philosophical conundrum, chicken and egg. It's a surrealist icon too. A kind of Freudian code. I did a piece once with 1,234 eggs on it - I was just using the shells and eating the eggs. At the moment I am working with tea. I'm using watercolour paper, and putting a tea stain on it.'
St John, 26 St John Street, London EC1 (020 7251 0848)
