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Ian Dingle When I came to the UK, my first job was working at Pizza Express in Notting Hill. I got a certificate in pizzology.
These are not, perhaps, the words you d expect to hear from someone who has just been awarded an OBE for her services to the culinary arts – someone whose distinctive, produce-led style of cooking has gone on to influence a whole generation of chefs in London and beyond.
That s because these days, Margot Henderson is not known for pizza, but rather as one of London s most enduring and pioneering chefs, both on her own terms and as one half of a London food power couple alongside her husband Fergus (who also received an OBE in the 2020 honours list). The two met working in the kitchen at The Eagle in Clerkenwell, fell in love, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Insulated from the moronic inferno blazing outside, is rochelle canteen. a green idol. the unpretentious brainchild of margot henderson and her business partner, melanie arnold. how long have you been up and running here? margot: ten years. anthony: oh my god. margot: ten years, where have you been? anthony: i can t believe i know, what is wrong with me? you were a chef before fergus, yes? margot: yeah, well i started cooking in restaurants when i was 12. anthony: yeah. margot: but this is fergus, peas in their pods. we met when i was working at the eagle and i said straight away to him we should open a restaurant together and he said, well, that s a good idea, but let s be lovers as well. which i always thought was quite good. and then we had a restaurant. the whole area has changed around here. it s very shoreditch, groovy guys on little motorbikes with the handle bars. anthony: what was the neighborhood like before? margot: quite a large bengali community. befo