Déjà Vu Interviews: Rosie Mackean

Déjà Vu Interviews is a chance for us to platform those chefs, restauranteurs and general people in the world of food that we personally love and think you all will too. This week, we sat down with Rosie Mackean a.k.a The Pasta Queen to talk about how she came to be obsessed with pasta, her love for Bologna and her brilliant Instagram cook-a-longs.

When I sit down to talk to Rosie on the phone, she tells me she’s currently in the process of cooking a turkey for a Christmas shoot. Just a general Monday afternoon in the life of a food stylist and home economist extraordinaire such as Rosie Mackean. Having long been a fan of Rosie’s down-to-earth persona over on her Instagram alongside her effortless way with pasta cooking, I knew that this chat was going to be one filled with laughs, foodie tangents and lots and lots of pasta.

“It’s a question a lot of people often ask,” Rosie mentions as I ask her how exactly she would describe her job role. She speaks me through her love of languages that saw her do Modern Languages as a degree, graduating and then choosing to work in restaurants. She explains how having that love of language, travelling and food already meant that when a friend suggested becoming a chef, she’d seen it as “not such a bad idea”. Her love of food has always been constant; from regular family holidays to Italy and cooking together with her “intuitive cook” of a father, Rosie explains how in many ways, becoming a chef was a natural step for her. Moving into the world of restaurants was also a great way for Rosie to improve her Italian language skills. Now being pretty fluent in speaking and reading Italian, she credits the first all-Italian kitchen she worked in for helping her. “It’s the place I thought I could pick up the best expertise, knowledge and processes from the chefs around me,” she goes onto explain. Her restaurant experience saw her work in a culinary travel company in Italy then at Angela Hartnett’s Café Murano where she discovered just how hard being in a professional kitchen is. “After a good few months training up, I started working in the pasta section there and it was actually the most gruelling section in the kitchen”, she says of her time there. Whilst it helped with discovering her love of fresh pasta creation, Rosie admits that it was “really really tough and I think I just struggled”.

Moving onto work for Angela again at Pastaficio in Covent Garden saw Rosie come into her element working with pasta. Running classes and supper clubs all whilst making fresh pasta for the restaurant and for consumers was a busy old time but was inspiration for travelling back and forth to Italy also. But what is it about the humble pasta in particular for Rosie? She explains how it was a staple meal in her household growing up and is now part of her Sunday dinner routine (great hangover food, of course) but Rosie puts it simply: “I just love it”.

After discovering the world of food styling however, Rosie left the world of the professional kitchen and turned to being a home economist. For a person who’s not in that field of work such as myself, I ask her what the difference between the two is. She explains how food styling primarily is in “still” environments such as photography, advertising and books mainly. As a home economist now, her work involves a lot of video too so cookery shows, recipe writing and development make up most of her days. It’s an exciting career path but is one that isn’t as entirely glamorous as one would expect due to the amount of washing up to be done, Rosie says. Throughout lockdown, Rosie wowed her Instagram following with her lively cook-a-longs and simply delicious recipes such as Salami Ragu and Pasta Al Forno; “I try to show people the more ‘cheffy’ approaches that will get you a better result at the end”. Rosie highlights the importance of instinct when it comes to cooking: “It’s not just about reading a recipe from start to finish, it’s about having a smell, having a look, using all your sense to cook rather than just following it bit by bit”. She explains how in this way, videos are so helpful. Being a chef, Rosie explains that she’s more willing to take a bit more time over something in order for it to have a great end result. “That’s the difference between home cooks and chefs I guess” but we note how Rosie’s relatable videos bridge the gap between home cooking and impressive chef standard culinary delights. “What I always set out to do with them is to create something that’s achievable at home, that people can make at home which is of higher quality than what they would normally get”.

Quickfire Question Round

All time favourite pasta dish?

I get asked this so often and I just don’t know. I think if you held a gun to my head, the shape would be linguine – that’s my favourite pasta of all time. This is really hard but let’s just say because it’s special to me and full of really nice memories, I would probably say Linguine Alle Vongole. So with clams and lots of white wine, parsley, chilli.

When I mention “comfort food”, what dish springs to mind?

Roast Chicken. That’s what my mum used to make for us every Sunday. I try not to buy meat too much or if I’m buying meat, it’s more expensive and from a butchers. But when we were younger, my mum would roast a chicken every weekend and make this crazy delicious red wine gravy with chicken. That’s something that evokes comfort for me and there’s just something about eating food by people you love as well. It’s about the situation and where you ate it, what it meant and who you were with. I love pasta and all the carbs but I feel at home when I eat a roast chicken.

Cooking for yourself or others?

It’s such a weird one for chefs. I love being cooked for, especially when you’ve been cooking all day, but also I fight with the controlling perfectionist nature that comes with being a chef. That means sometimes it’s hard to let go and let people cook for me.

If you were cooking for yourself, what’s your favourite thing to whip up?

Truthfully, I oscillate between cooking something really special for myself or just not really bothering and eating lettuce with mayonnaise. In lockdown actually, I made a real point of making a brunch for myself on a Sunday and loved it.

Where do you usually grab inspiration from?

Rachel Roddy is a food writer who lives in Rome and writes these beautiful books about Rome and the people who live there and their recipes, she’s just fantastic. Then there’s American Sfoglino by Eric Funke which is like a fresh pasta bible. I like the way he approaches the recipes and is very precise.

If you had a whole day of unlimited funds, where would you go for each meal in London?

I’m a big breakfast girl. I’ve been told off for this before because people always ask why I’d pay money for it but I really love getting the boiled eggs at AllPress in Dalston. Perfectly soft boiled eggs, crunchy toasted focaccia covered in butter as soldiers: the perfect breakfast dish for me.
I think I’d probably do Chinatown for lunch just because it’s probably my second favourite cuisine after Italian food. My friends and I used to have a club called Chinese Food Club where we used to go to a different restaurant each month for a different speciality. E.g Dim Sum or Hot Pot. I think I’d probably go for noodles at Joy Luck for their really great spicy noodles. Then I think I’d have to go to Bocca Di Lupo in Soho for dinner. A really amazing restaurant, all the chefs there are fantastic and a big focus on regional Italian food.

One place you’ve travelled to that you’d recommend as a top foodie destination?

Bologna. It’s so amazing for pasta tradition in particular, it’s the home of egg pasta and is obviously also the capital of Emilia Romagna which is the region where parmesan, balsamic vinegar, prosciutto are all from. It’s a beautiful medieval city with pasta shops everywhere, butchers, bakeries. That’s what I love about Italy; shopping small is so easy and important to the culture of that place.

And in London, where are some of your favourite smaller spots for ingredient shopping?

I’m really lucky that I live in Dalston so I’ve got lots of really nice delis and restaurants that were converted into small grocery shops throughout lockdown. Gallo Nero and Monte’s are some of my favourites. They’re just really perfect old school, Italian family run places that get all their stuff from Italy and are perfect spots for cured meats, cheese, all things you can possibly think of. Throughout lockdown, I was also doing a lot of shopping at the amazing Ombra who were selling flour, oil, wine and were working so hard.

If you had limited funds, what delicious recipe would you recommend?

Pasta of course: it’s very cheap and all you really need is garlic and chilli and you’ve got a pasta dish. But I do make this thing in the winter which my old housemate calls Witches Brew. It’s basically a mix of any spare pulses, tinned/fresh tomatoes, garlic, onion. If I feel like making it Middle Eastern, I’ll make it with those aromatics. If I want it Mexican then I’ll add those spices and make it kind of like a chilli. I basically just chuck anything I can find into a big pot and stew it down. If you have any spare money then add a dollop of yoghurt and some herbs on top or maybe some avocado or chutney and poppadoms.
I think truthfully though, if money’s tight, I do still advocate for buying flavours like herbs and spices. Like if you only had a potato but you’ve got cumin, you can make something really exciting. Equally if you’ve only got pasta but you’ve got basil or parsley, that’ll change your meal. I think as long as you’re thinking about flavour rather than just about bulk cooking, that’s what’s clever and is key.

What’s one thing you’ve learnt this year?

Probably that it’s really good to just stop and take some time. When you’re self-employed, it’s really hard. You don’t get to put an “out of office” on, you have to be responding to emails, creating recipes, getting ingredients all the time. So it was nice to actually just literally have nothing to do for a second. To be fair, I’m proud of the fact that I managed to do my professional website by myself after 4 years talking about doing it. I think the main thing to remember is you’re only one person and not to stress out doing everything because you can’t do it all and you can’t please everyone all the time. But you can say no, sit back and have a drink.

And finally, who do you think everyone should follow?

One of my best friends is Holly (@hollyshootsandchefs), a fellow food economist, stylist and also an amazing baker. She’s a trained pastry chef and has a real scientific way of looking at things. She’s the kind of person that would check the molecule level of things and protein content in flour. I never really know what she’s talking about but it sounds good.

Thanks again to Rosie for taking the time to talk to us! You can also stay updated with her over on her website and Instagram.