Pie master Calum Franklin: ‘This is british food history!’

We chat to ‘London’s king of the pies’ Calum Franklin about British food.

Transcript

00:00Once seen as a bit old-school, the humble British pie has had a bit of an image problem

00:07over recent years. For some, it's the stuff of stodgy pub lunches and school dinners.

00:12Comforting, sure, but hardly cutting-edge cuisine. But that has started to change thanks

00:18to a chef who's made it his mission to bring pies back to top of the table. Enter Callum

00:25Franklin, or as many know him, London's King of Pies. A master of pastry and precision,

00:31Callum earned his reputation while working as executive head chef at Holborn Dining Room

00:37inside the Rosewood London Hotel. It was there in 2017 that he launched the Pie Room, a space

00:44entirely dedicated to the art of making the pie. We're talking intricate, handcrafted creations

00:50that look more like a work of art than something you'd smother in gravy. The Pie Room became

00:56an instant hit, drawing food lovers from all over and shining a spotlight on the craft

01:02and creativity behind traditional British food. Now, recently, I was lucky enough to see him

01:10in full pie-making action. Layers of buttery pastry, perfect crimps, and golden finishes as

01:16we chatted about why the British Pie still means so much to him and why it matters so

01:21much to British food culture.

01:24So, in 2014, I opened a restaurant called Holborn Dining Room, the Rosewood Hotel. And there,

01:33in 2018, I opened another kitchen attached to the restaurant called The Pie Room. That building

01:41was 120 years old. And in the basement, there had been lots of different things over the

01:46years. And one day, I found a pie tin called a corset mold, which is a corset mold. It looks

01:53like a lady's corset, right? It's three pieces with keys. And I knew what it was, but I didn't

02:00know the technique for making it. So, I took it to my sous chef, a very experienced guy, and

02:06I said, David, have you ever used one of those before? He said, I don't know how to use it. So, I asked

02:11the rest of my kitchen, which is about 35 chefs. Has anyone ever done this? And no one had ever done

02:16it. So, for me, I was like, man, this is part of British food history that we are forgetting as a

02:23kitchen. So, just for us, I want to learn it, right? So, we started this little journey. Then, I realised,

02:31actually, if I can train my whole brigade to do these things, they'll go off and they'll train

02:39other people in the future. So, it's maintaining part of our food culture that's potentially being

02:45forgotten. And really, that's where pie making all began. The beef wellington I saw yesterday,

02:52I got emotional. I mean, you look at the detail of this pie. Beautiful layers of potato cooked in cream.