Starry starry Skye

LAST year produced a raft of terrific cookbooks but, for me, the most exciting ‘new’ talent to burst onto the culinary scene in the past few years is Skye Gyngell.

Skye is not exactly a teenager but she’s still got that wonderfully endearing hippy-like quality: the infectious enthusiasm of youth. She is passionate about real food, slow food, food fresh from the garden. Skye is seasonal in her approach and adores her vegetable and herb patch, drawing much of her inspiration from it.

Not long before Christmas I went to her restaurant at Petersham Nurseries near Richmond. I can’t remember when I was last so enchanted. It’s a 45-minute taxi ride from central London — you can’t get a tube to Richmond — and when you arrive, you emerge into what is truly a magical enclave of good taste.

Alongside fabulous plants, trees and shrubs, there is antique garden furniture to break your heart and destroy your bank balance, old tools, beautiful containers and a fascinating mix of other enchanting artefacts and accessories sourced by the owners, Gael and Francesco Boglione.

The restaurant is in one of the greenhouses in the nursery — in fact it now spills into several. The eclectic mix of tables and chairs sit on the good earth in the midst of the tumbling plants and beautiful antique objects which are all for sale. It is the perfect setting for the café.

Australian by birth, Skye has worked in a number of Sydney’s culinary hot spots as well as in Paris and London, and is Vogue’s acclaimed food writer. She also writes regularly for The Independent on Sunday. The café at Petersham Nurseries is rapidly acquiring a reputation for superb food in an outstanding setting. In 2005 she gained the restaurant its first award — Time Out’s best al fresco restaurant — and last year it received Tatler magazine’s most original restaurant award.

We started with a glass of fresh raspberry prosecco followed by a variety of delicious dishes with fresh vibrant flavours. A plate of mezze included a roasted tomato and red pepper purée, a tangy beetroot purée and a gorgeous unctuous chick pea purée with a salad of fresh and wild leaves, a few slow roasted tomatoes and a fresh lemony goat’s cheese — delicious original flavours.

* For info, see www.petershamnurseries.com; tel [phone];email café@petershamnurseries.com; tel [phone].

* A Year in my Kitchen, by Skye Gyngell, is published by Quadrille Publishing. See www.quadrille.co.uk.