Claire Thomson is a chef, food writer and a constant source of cooking inspiration to her three daughters and more than 200,000 Instagram followers. Claire – who lives near St Andrew’s Park – has written a new cookbook called Mushroom, so we caught up with her to find out more about what to expect from her latest round of recipes, and why she chose to focus on fungi…
Your approach to food has been described as ‘no nonsense’ – how does that look and feel in practice?
I’m a chef, so I want people to be able to cook like me. But essentially, not everyone’s a chef. I’m also a mother, so I think that the two dovetail quite nicely together. I want people to be able to cook with that practical mindset, because it’s very difficult juggling motherhood and your career. And now that my daughters are 18, 15, and 13, I think I’ve done a pretty good job. I am definitely a practical person.
You’ve penned cookbooks, written for the likes of the Guardian, Telegraph and BBC Good Food Magazine, maintained a prolific social media output, balanced motherhood with cheffing and presented multiple series of The 5 O’Clock Apron podcast, now in association with Good Food. How have you kept this momentum going and your creative process consistent?
That’s a good question. I always wanted to be a food writer, but I knew I needed to earn my stripes in a restaurant kitchen before I could start writing about food. So really, I always knew I’d end up in cheffing.
Before I had babies, I cooked in lots of different kitchens around the world, but first and foremost here
in Bristol. I’m quite ambitious and competitive, and I didn’t want that to fall by the wayside when I became a mother. So, when I stopped working full-time, I freelanced instead. It is a juggle, but it’s worth it. Ultimately, your kids will leave home one day (my eldest is about to) and you want to make sure you’re still an independent person once you’ve finished being a mother to young children. That’s really important.
And I suppose it’s about practicing what you preach. Social media has been very useful. I actually started tweeting before Instagram even existed, just sharing what I was feeding my kids for dinner. People would always ask, “You’re a chef, so what do you feed your kids?” And honestly, it wasn’t fancy, I wasn’t cooking restaurant food at home. But it kept my hand in as a chef and a cook, and I think it’s made my kids good eaters. They’ve grown up around food and curiosity about ingredients.
Which kitchen was that in Bristol?
It was called Quartier Vert, and it was the first organic, ‘green’ restaurant of its time in the city, and was quite pivotal in the early noughties. It was around 2003 when I worked there, and then I went to London to cook, and then on to lots of places around the world.
Has working on a successful podcast influenced how you approach your recipe development and also your storytelling?
I absolutely love doing the podcast because I feel like everyone can cook something, and I really want to know what. What’s fascinating about being a chef is that people often feel intimidated around food. You’ll go to someone’s house for dinner and they’ll say, “Oh, you’re a chef, I hope this tastes okay.” But food is something we all have to do every single day, no matter our profession, religion, or background. And the amazing thing is, everyone has something they can teach someone else through food. Maybe it’s peeling an egg perfectly, or cooking the perfect dal, or the way your grandma used to make a dish. It’s all fascinating… the history and the narratives of how we learn to cook as people in our home kitchens.
Have you had many guests with a local connection on the podcast?
The England rugby prop, Sarah Bern, she was great. And Amy Mason, the comedian. I also had a respiratory consultant from Southmead, who was a fascinating doctor. I didn’t want it to all be about celebrities, but about people’s interesting professions and how they cook. I also had Charles Dowding, he’s pretty big gardener based just outside Somerset. We’ve had lots of more far flung guests too, of course.
How have you seen the demand for recipe and food content on social media change over the years?
The last, I suppose, 13 years or so of doing this has shown me that it’s really about people. And actually, in the time of AI, what’s quite reassuring is that people still want to identify with a personality. They want authenticity, they want to feel a sense of kinship with the person they’re following.
Ten years ago, it was recipe, recipe, recipe. But now, because there are so many recipes out there, I don’t think that’s what people are really looking for. They don’t just want a recipe, they want to follow a person’s broader doctrine on food. That’s been really useful for me, because people will say, “Oh, I just love 5 O’Clock Apron recipes,” or “I love her reels.” And then they stick around, because they’re interested in the way I cook as a whole, not just the individual recipes. You can’t replace that with AI. Sure, AI can give you the perfect Yorkshire pudding recipe. But what it can’t give you is the authenticity, the character, that comes from a real person.
Let’s talk about Mushroom, which is the new companion to your other ingredient-focused recipe book, Tomato. How did you choose which ingredient to highlight?
It’s very hard to pick an ingredient that is extremely individual, yet very egalitarian and universal. We wanted to choose something that is special in its own right, but is also ‘every day’ and endemic in cookery. Tomatoes are just that, and so are mushrooms.
I don’t want this book to be pigeonholed as a kind of veggie mushroom cookbook though, because it’s more about celebrating mushrooms and their versatility in the kitchen.
What varieties of mushroom feature in the book?
I didn’t want to go too esoteric, because I want people to be able to go to the local Co-Op, for example, and buy the mushrooms. I focused on mushrooms that you can easily find.
I think people still, in the back of their mind, think of mushrooms as a hippie/vegan ingredient. But actually, if you walk into the mini Sainsbury’s on Gloucester Road, they’re in that first bit of the veg display: tomatoes, mushrooms and spring onions. They’re those ingredients that you throw in your basket get home and cook after work – even just button mushrooms. Some of the local supermarkets now sell oyster mushrooms and shiitake. And then there’s also the dried mushroom products that are just really good bang for your buck; if you go to Wai Yee Hong Chinese supermarket – that’s got masses of dried mushrooms. So you’ve got this ingredient that you can rehydrate, plus you get stock.
Can we expect another ingredient-led cookbook from you?
Yes, there will be a third one – but the ingredient hasn’t been decided. I’m really pushing for courgettes, but it’s not been agreed with the publishers yet.
Where are your favourite places to source ingredients from?
I’m very lucky to live near Gloucester Road. So I love Pawson’s veg shop. That’s my favourite place, and I thank them in the book. Having Wai Yee Hong down the hill is a bit of a luxury as well. It’s such a brilliant supermarket. And we’ve got Sweet Mart in Easton. There’s a Korean shop at the bottom of Gloucester Road, I love them. And the Mexican store Otomi in Clifton Village – I thank them in the book as well, because they have beautiful chillies. We’re so lucky when it comes to food shopping in Bristol.
Mushroom: 80 Recipes Celebrating Remarkable Mushrooms, published by Quadrille Publishing, is available to order online and buy in store at all good book shops now. For information about Claire, visit 5oclockapron.com and follow her on Instagram @5oclockapron
