Ollie is the chef owner of Carousel in London along with his brother and cousins, where he serves his own menu and hosts an ever-changing line-up of guest chefs.
Brought up in Spain, Ollie Templeton moved back to the UK as a teenager to pursue a career as a chef. After cutting his teeth in the kitchen at Moro, he set up Carousel.
Ollie’s journey began in Southern Spain, where he grew up surrounded by quality cooking from a very young age. His early years were spent enjoying family gatherings centred around barbeques, dinner parties and food festivities where cooking always played a central role. He soon began cultivating his own plants at home, growing vegetables and niche herb varieties, with the fruits of his labours providing the playground for his early cooking. His first full time chef job then came at Moro in Exmouth Market, the institution behind his favourite cookbook from a young age.
After two years in the Moro kitchen, Ollie went travelling before returning to London to launch his first pop up venture, Mile High with his brother Ed and cousin Anna. Following the success of this 1950’s themed immersive dining experience, and still hankering after more adventures abroad, the three decided to open Carousel – a creative culinary hub that brings international cuisines to London instead.
Launched in 2014, the residency kitchen now has over 300 guest chef collaborators under its belt, with Ollie setting up a permanent kitchen space to cook his own food influenced by this chef talent Carousel. The food in Ollie’s kitchen cites a matrix of processes, recipes and cooking styles from all corners of the globe, developing and maturing further with each guest chef that cooks in the residency space.
Dressed Romanesco Recipe
Ingredients:
100g parmesan 50g garlic
15g dijon mustard 15g barley miso 60g sherry vinegar 500g rapeseed oil 1kg romanesco 10g mint
10 dill
50g breadcrumbs
Method:
- Roast the garlic in the oven with some E.V.O. or in a pan slowly without burning until golden and totally cooked.
- Grate the parmesan with a microplane and add to a blender with the roasted garlic, parmesan, dijon, miso and vinegar and blend while pouring the oil in slowly to emulsify the dressing.
- Adjust the seasoning with salt and some more vinegar if needed.
- Cut the romanesco into bite-sized pieces and blanch in salted water, then cool down in ice water.
- Make breadcrumbs using old bread: dry it out and blend into a crumb. Fry in some olive oil until golden and season with some salt.
- To assemble the plate, roast or grill the romanesco in a hot pan or over coals until charred and smoky, toss in a nice helping of the dressing and finish with breadcrumbs, herbs and some grated parmesan.
