Sunday is my day off, and for this, I’d want a double Sunday! The first would be in Tenerife – my wife and I went there on holiday, and it was superb, eating Canarian potatoes and grilled squid at a bar right on the water, drinking Dorada beer. The spuds are grown in volcanic soil, so the skins are very thick. They are boiled in seawater until it evaporates and the salt crystallises on the skins. It’s served with green mojo sauce. If I’ve had a few too many, I jump off the side of the bar into the sea.
The second Sunday I’d spend at home – I love being there. About six years ago we moved out of the city into a house with an orchard, right next to a river. I have a little treehouse, overlooking both, and I often sit up there, just gathering my thoughts, taking five minutes out of my busy life. So this is where I’d like to be, with my wife and kids. I say my wife, even though technically we’re not married – we’ve been engaged for 18 years. Two restaurants, three kids, a cat and a dog later, I figure you just have to take your time.
I love champagne, so I’d have a glass while prepping the meal, then we’d move on to a nice bottle of Cotes du Rhone or Cote-Rotie – St Joseph is possibly my favourite domaine. I worked in Lyon when I was younger and have loved all those classic French reds ever since.
We’d eat out on the terrace overlooking the orchard – grey stone floor, a big table with sofas on the side. All very casual and rustic in feel, with big earthenware dishes. For me it’s all about the company and the food, and being at home. The house is built on an angle, with the garden going all the way round, surrounded by apple and pear trees. It’s very very green and picturesque. You can hear the river, and at dusk, it is so very quiet. During the day every room gets the sun, and I wake up to birdsong each morning. At Purnell’s I installed birdsong in the corridor leading from the restaurant to the toilets, to remind me of home.
For starters, we’re really big on fresh bread, and as a nod to holidays in Menorca, I’d want a bowlful of Balearic prawns, with garlic and chillies, cooked in clarified butter. You soak the butter up with the bread – it’s delicious.
Then we’d move on to our typical Sunday roast, but lots of it. We usually have rib of beef, pork belly on the bone, chicken or duck – for this, I’d want to have all four, with lots of veg. Perfect roast potatoes – which I cook in oil, then drain and finish with duck fat and beurre noisette. Carrots cooked in salted water, with a pinch of sugar and finished with butter. Fresh corn on the cob. Green beans blanched in salted water and finished with shredded iceberg, baby gem and spinach – the rawness of the leaves and the cooked beans goes well with richness of the meat. In terms of sauces, I’m very classic. I like horseradish with my beef, apple sauce with my pork, and bread sauce with chicken and duck.
I’d serve everything piled up along the centre of the table like an old-fashioned banquet – I love the interaction of “pass me this, carve me some of that”; those connections are special.
We do like a good stinky washed-rind cheese, so there’d be a munster, or a camembert or maybe some brie, with armagnac. And then I’d have a pipe! I basically go to this little tobacconist around the way, get a little packet of a lighter flavour – whichever he recommends – fresh and moist, then sit in my treehouse with the kids – if I’m having my pipe or a cigar I get kicked up there, which is fair enough.
The kids would take over on the music front – it’d vary from Steps to Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene, Otis Redding, and James Brown.
Glynn Purnell is a restaurateur and chef-patron of the Michelin-starred restaurant Purnell’s in Birmingham
