My favourite vegetable: Tom Conran of The Cow

I love the bitter taste of chicory because it cuts through other salty, sweet, sour, spicy or fatty flavours to balance a meal. It has fallen out of fashion of late, and I like to champion such ingredients.

On a practical level, it is widely available, lasts a long time and is incredibly versatile. It works brilliantly in salads, but takes on a whole new character when baked – it’s sublime.

There are a number of dishes I’d recommend making with chicory that we’ve served at The Cow. A classic way to serve it is in a simple chicory, pear, walnut and blue-cheese salad or one with orange and watercress and a ginger dressing.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The natural spoon shape of its leaves means they work wonderfully as crudités to accompany dips such as one I really like from Piedmont, Italy, that’s made from crushed walnuts, anchovies, garlic and olive oil and served warm. In fact, the shape of chicory is one of the things I like most about it – as a whole or in half, it’s firm and keeps its integrity when cooked, making it the ideal ingredient for lots of different dishes.

If you want a hot dish, chicory is great when cooked in a kind of gratin – stuffed with Emmental or Gruyère, wrapped in ham and baked in a béchamel sauce, then served with a green salad with garlic dressing. And it’s delicious when roasted and served with belly pork – cooking it underneath the meat means it is soft, fatty and luscious.

Chicory also works well with game, especially duck and venison. It’s equally suited to lighter dishes – it could be a fantastic vessel for ceviche or for salmon and pickled ginger.

The whole family of chicory leaves – which also includes the lovely red radicchio – is fantastic. They look good, are incredibly versatile and have a delicate bitterness that brings dishes to life.

Tom Conran trained as a chef in Paris and, in 1995, launched The Cow gastropub. He also owns the Lucky 7 diner and Crazy Homies tequila bar on the same West London street. The Cow is located at 89 Westbourne Park Road, W2; thecowlondon.co.uk