TOMAS LIDAKEVICIUS'S CEPELINAI

The acclaimed chef talks about swapping a career in music for one in food and also shares a recipe from his native Lithuania

- TONY NAYLOR

MY FAVOURITE DISH

At Turnips, chef Tomas Lidakevicius is challenging food's established hierarchy. 'All my life, everyone's gone crazy about meat and fish being the stars,' says the 34-year-old. To be honest, they're not.'

Reflecting this, his Borough Market restaurant which is a collaboration with the specialist grocer and wholesaler whose premises and name it shares celebrates incredible seasonal vegetables using: 'Meat or fish as the garnish'. For example, even in a dish of caviar-topped celeriac: 'Celeriac is the star. Same with the Jerusalem artichoke and buckwheat dish with lamb on the side. The menu is 80% vegetables. I've learned that I and other chefs were wrong.'

Given the meat-heavy diet Tomas grew up on in Lithuania and his 15 years in top London kitchens, this veg-forward conversion is radical. But Tomas has never been afraid to strike out in bold new directions.

Aged 18, the then-named MC Thomukas was both enrolled in chef's school, to placate his worried parents, and a rising star on Lithuania's music scene with the band 8'as Maršrutas (whose members included Lithuania's 2022 Eurovision competitor, Monika Liu). Yet just as the band's debut album, 13, was released, Tomas took the 'spontaneous' decision to ditch music and head to London to cook.

Cepelinai (meat & potato dumplings)

SERVES 4 (makes 8) PREP 40 mins COOK 1 hr MORE EFFORT

3 small white onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1½ tsp olive oil

500g beef or pork mince or 250g of each

1 medium egg

150g smoked pancetta, sliced into strips