Owner of Five March in Glasgow Jo Nethery talks her favourite cookbooks, what she eats at home and working on Martha’s Vineyard.
Describe your style of cuisine in ten words:
Mediterranean small plates meets some good old comfort
Best and/or most memorable meal you’ve ever eaten:
Either midnight tortas from a food truck outside the Jardin Allende in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico or the lunch the guides bring you when you’re hiking in the Atlas Mountains. Somehow, way up in the Atlas, being presented with this massive round plate with sections of rices, stews, couscous, herbs, breads and you’re tucked in to a wee abandoned building with a huge cliff drop to one side and the donkeys on the other – surreal
Worst/weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten:
Almuerzos in Ecuador – actually delicious but very much ‘mystery soup’ with random bits of heart and feet regularly popping onto your spoon. It’s 50 cent for soup and a big rice dish, you can’t really complain.
Worst thing you’ve ever cooked:
An attempt at a vegan cashew curry for a friend coming for dinner – clearly went very wrong, just a big old bowl of yellow water
What’s the dish that you’re most proud of having cooked:
I got really good at Pho for a while, when I had too much time on my hands. Days spent simmering stock but my goodness it was worth it.
Favourite ingredient:
I love basil! So basic, so delicious
Your go-to recipe book:
Anna Jones, A Modern Way to Eat for veggie recipes, anything by Ottolenghi for big flavour, Carpathia by Irina Georgescu which is about Romanian food and has some amazing flatbread recipes and so many herbs it’s wild which is right up my street.
What other country’s cuisine really excites and intrigues you?:
I’d love to go to Japan and Romania – just eat all day and wander around food markets.
Most you’ve ever paid for a meal:
A Michelin place in Palermo, Sicily. It’s not my favourite way to eat to be honest, I’m in for casual and relaxed all day.
Your favourite Scottish chef:
I think Craig Grozier is incredible, he needs more recognition.
Who taught you to cook or ignited your passion for food as a youngster:
My mama was a great baker but cooking… maybe not so much. I think travelling really opened my eyes, street food in India, Thailand, Mexico – it’s all cheap cuts and layers of flavour and I couldn’t get enough. I lived on Martha’s Vineyard for a number of years and they catch a lot of the seafood for New England. I have to say eating really fresh lobster sitting on the dock in Menemsha with your toes in the water, the sun on your face and your friends bluegrass band playing behind you has to be one of the most joyous things I’ve ever known.
Most important lesson a young chef can learn:
Taste everything. A good chef is great to have around, a good chef that understands how numbers work is irreplaceable.
Best thing about the industry:
The atmosphere of a busy night when everyone is in full swing – it’s beautiful
Worst thing about the industry:
The lack of government understanding and support. After Covid you’d think they’d understand how many industries this one touches and have some respect for the role it plays in keeping a far larger machine moving. Instead we’re handed every cost of living/tax increase whilst simultaneously people don’t have the money to go out and spend as often and we’re just supposed to magically make ends meet. It’s so short sighted.
What’s the biggest sin a chef can commit:
Not caring or the worst phrase ever – ‘It’ll do’
What do you eat when you’re at home:
My partner and I cook every day, we have a 17 month old so we’re trying to get her to try as many flavours as we can. Sometimes it works, other times she chews once and then hands it right back
Celebrity guest or your perfect dinner party – who would you most like to cook for:
I’d love to get all my friends from around the world to the same place for a really long lazy lunch, loads of wine, and a million stories. Travelling for so long is amazing but my goodness you find yourself with so many people to long for.
Tell me a something about you that virtually no-one knows:
We still have my childhood cat’s ashes in a wee urn and I talk to them when I’m back at Mama’s – I’m sure that’s super creepy but we’re an animal family.
What’s your favourite wine:
Oh, tricky. I’m really enjoying the Guet Apens du vin aux Liens which Made from Grapes/Sevslo Wines are importing. Also Sylvan Wine, Folks Riesling is delicious
Your spirit of choice:
I honestly couldn’t – a little Bruichladdie in winter feels like home but then summertime comes and sneaks in a wee freezer Goose martini or some mezcal margaritas and I’m all confused!
If you weren’t a restaurant owner, what would you be:
I always wanted to work with wood and make furniture, maybe I’d have done that…
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